by Matt Batcheldor
Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Nurse Residency Program has been awarded its second Accreditation with Distinction as a Practice Transition Program (PTAP) by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Commission on Accreditation in Practice Transition Programs.
The program was originally accredited in 2019. The new accreditation comprises Vanderbilt University Hospital (newly including adult perioperative services), Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and (newly included) Vanderbilt Adult Ambulatory Clinics.
VUMC’s 12-month Nurse Residency Program supports newly licensed RNs as they transition from student to professional nurse. The program, which began in 2008, supports the development of 500 to 700 effective, competent and committed nurses each year through multiple practice settings, both inpatient and outpatient.
In the program, nurse residents receive specific education and skills training to assist them in developing effective decision-making, sound clinical judgement and professional performance. The program’s professional development opportunities incorporate evidence-based practice to strengthen the nurse resident’s commitment to professional nursing as a career choice and target specific transitions in the first year of practice as a nurse.
“The ANCC’s accreditation acknowledges the Nurse Residency Program’s high standards for training a new generation of nurses in the latest, evidence-based practice,” said Marilyn Dubree, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Executive Chief Nursing Officer. “I couldn’t be more pleased. Congratulations to all who made this achievement possible.”
The 2022 reaccreditation affirms the dedicated work and commitment of the VUMC team in the support of transition to practice. VUMC’s Nurse Residency Program remains the only such program in Nashville to achieve this accreditation and attributes its programmatic success to an organizational commitment to support nurse residents as they deliver safe, effective, quality patient care.
The accreditation involved a lengthy self-study, more than 400 pages, that included information on the history of the program, how it has evolved over the years, successes and challenges, quality outcome data and stories from nurse residents. The self-study was further affirmed through a survey of more than 1,200 nurse residents and a virtual site visit involving more than 75 nurses and interdisciplinary team members.
The AANC PTAP team highlighted multiple strengths in Vanderbilt’s Nurse Residency Program, including strong executive support, clear quality outcome measurement and visualization through dashboards and involvement from multiple key stakeholders through the Residency Oversight Committee. The organization noted close relationships between residency sites and tracks, interprofessional collaboration and education and peer support among nurse residents.
