Life and Health

Statistics from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing suggest more than a half-million nurses may leave the profession by 2027. Currently, national headlines suggest the health care industry may see an exodus of potentially 100,000 registered nurses within just the next two years, due to stress, burnout and retirement.

Always ahead of the trend, Grande Ronde Hospital & Clinics (GRH) has been working here at home to address this challenge before it gained the national spotlight under the COVID-19 pandemic. We have always been a teaching hospital with a robust nursing rotation opportunity. In 2014, GRH featured Wade Twilegar, RN, BSN, a brand-new nurse who had completed his education and come to work here. Today, Twilegar serves as our ICU/CCU Nurse Manager and is the Director of Inpatient Services.

In 2019, we implemented our Nurse Residency Program, working with the OHSU School of Nursing at Eastern Oregon University. Our program includes a unique curriculum that combines classroom instruction with hands-on clinical experience. It is designed to equip newly minted nurses with enhanced clinical judgment, communication skills and evidence-based practices. Furthermore, it boosts job satisfaction, reduces errors and curbs nurse turnover, playing a crucial role in tackling staffing shortages. GRH's Assistant Chief Nursing Officer Nate Wadsworth believes the program is crucial to the hospital's growth and stability for nursing.

"As a leader, I am so grateful for the Nurse Residency Program we established here at GRH," says Wadsworth. "Many amazing GRH nurses have begun their careers here as residents. A tremendous amount of effort and energy has gone into having it be what it is, and we are always changing and tweaking it to fit our needs. I feel that the Nurse Residency Program is vital to our core of nurses' continued growth and stability."

Nurse Residency Educator Chelsea Cassens, RN, stresses the importance of our Nurse Residency Program in building resilience and how these extended skills directly translate to increased value for the local communities we serve.

Cassens explains: "At some point, you will experience burnout. Normalized feedback and open sharing provide the security of a bonded cohort. We work the bedside together. We know the patients they are caring for. We are simultaneously providing mentorship and peer-to-peer support."

Cassens says plans for the Nurse Residency Program participants for the upcoming year are to provide them with broad experience in GRH's Family Birthing Center, Medical-Surgical Unit and Home Health Department—caring for patients of all ages.

Categories: GRH Nurse Program