Residency Program Increases ThedaCare Emergency Department Nurse Training
A new program initiated with the support of the ThedaCare Family of Foundations aims to improve recruitment and retention of Emergency Department (ED) nurses at seven ThedaCare hospitals.
“Recruiting and retaining nurses for Emergency Departments is a challenge for every hospital,” said Audrey Rosin, RN, manager of Emergency Services at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah. “This new Emergency Nurse Residency Program aims to provide the training and experience nurses need to confidently care for the patients coming to the ED.”
Rosin said there is an opportunity to provide additional training, orientation and onboarding to help nurses be more successful.
The Emergency Nurses Residency Program (ENRP), developed by the national Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), is an 18-week program focused on building decision-making skills, improving clinical judgment, reducing burnout, and assisting in acclimation to the ED. It includes four weeks of classroom instruction interspersed with hands-on simulation during which time the nurses will engage with experienced ED nurses and do on-the-job shadowing.
“When their classroom training is focusing on a specialty area, such as cardiology or neurology, the nurses will spend four hours in the Cath Lab or working on the Neuro unit, for example, as part of job shadowing,” Rosin explained. “After that, they’ll work with clinical preceptors – that is, experienced practitioners who facilitate the application of theory to practice – from week 6 to week 18, after which they will be prepared to manage patients as a new ED nurse.”
Rosin said the journey to implement the program began in early 2022 when ThedaCare leaders began exploring ways to help retain Emergency Department nurses. ThedaCare determined the best approach would be to embrace a new system-wide training program.
The ThedaCare Family of Foundations agreed the program directly aligned with the ThedaCare System goals of hiring and retaining the best talent and increasing patients’ access to expert, local care.
The initial cohort of nurses to be trained will begin studying in early June 2023, with nurses from Appleton, Neenah, Shawano and Waupaca participating.
ThedaCare Community Health Action Teams Address Local Health Concerns
As part of its commitment to improve the health and well-being of the communities served, ThedaCare regularly engages a broad array of community leaders to identify and address local health concerns.
“We recognize the importance of having input from individuals experiencing the health issues their communities are facing, so we organized local Community Health Action Teams (CHAT teams) in each of these markets,” said Paula Morgen, Director of ThedaCare Community Health Improvement (CHI). “These teams are made up of leaders from all sectors of the community, including local government, public health, business, education, health care, philanthropy, non-profit and faith groups. By meeting regularly with people who know their community best, we are able to better understand health issues as well as bring together people who feel ownership in the community to work together on solutions.”
The primary way CHAT teams help the community learn about the effects of a health issue is through an event known as a ‘plunge,’ which is a daylong immersion into the community to learn firsthand about the issue being studied.
Through feedback and discussion, it was determined that the next plunge would focus on youth mental health and social media.
Mental health, particularly coming out of the pandemic, was the number one concern across all markets in our recent Community Health Needs Assessments. In addition, U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning about the effects social media is having on the mental health of teens and pre-teens.
Recognizing they are not experts about how youth use social media, ThedaCare’s CHI team gathered input from area youth to plan this fall’s plunges. On Tuesday, June 20, ThedaCare brought together 25 youth, from middle school ages through young adults in their early 20s, to talk about the impact of social media on mental health and how they would organize a plunge day on this topic.
Morgen noted it was clear the youth were aware of the negatives of social media but seemed to accept those risks as part of the cost of staying connected. She noted the younger youth were more concerned about bullying and fear of missing out, whereas the young adults seemed more focused on social media’s long-term impact on younger kids. The group also commented on ways parenting can have positive and negative effects on kids’ social media behavior.
