The Bridge Nurse Residency Program

The Bridge Transition to Practice Program is a 12-month training program that orients graduate nurses and nurses with less than one year of nursing experience to various specialty tracks within the organization.

Parkland's Nurse Residency program provides the education, clinical experiences, and professional development necessary for the expansion of knowledge and skills required in the development of safe, competent, professional nursing care. We want graduates to build a meaningful and successful career in nursing. The Bridge Program helps nurses achieve two important milestones along their journey:

Develop their skills in their chosen area of clinical specialty
Guide their transition from the academic setting to professional practice

Our nurse residency program offers true comprehensive support as the graduate nurse builds a career devoted to caring for others. They will get more advanced clinical skills and get the support they need as they gain real-world nursing experience in one of the largest public health care systems in the country.

Specialty Orientation

During the residency program, participants are engaged in professional practice courses that are necessary for their transition. These important courses to your growth in nursing include:

Peer support
Time management strategies
Communication skills
Critical thinking
Ethical decision making
Working on a team
Professional development
Bullying and incivility
Evidenced-based practice

Transition Focus

After completion of their Specialty Orientation, the graduate nurse will:

Participate in a mentoring program that facilitates the transition from academics to professional practice.
Attend professional development courses, such as financial planning, participation in the profession, sociocultural assimilation, and leadership to aide in their transition to professional practice.
Peer support is facilitated with a dedicated Facebook group for residents, enhancing your independent practice by increasing job satisfaction and job performance.

Specialty Focus Areas:

Critical Care Nursing

Seventeen-week course of study and clinical orientation.
Conducted two times per year.
The Intensive Care Nurse Residency Specialty Track orientation begins with a concentrated schedule of eLearning modules, lectures, and technical skill demonstrations and simulation.
Lecture content addresses cardiac infusions, dosage calculations, hemodynamics, mechanical ventilation, ABG analysis, ECG interpretation, and 12 Lead EKG.
Program includes a 2 Day Burn Class and a Pediatric Burn Class are included for nurses hired specifically for the Burn Intensive Care Unit. Fundamental technical skills utilized in adult intensive and progressive care units are reviewed and practiced.
Clinical rotations in the ICUs during the residency are selected to provide experiences consistent with course objectives.
The clinical experiences provide the nurse with an opportunity to incorporate advanced theoretical knowledge into clinical practice. Shift rotations and weekend assignments are included in the clinical portion and are determined by the nurse educator and individual preceptor’s schedule.

Correctional Health Nursing

Fourteen-week course of study and clinical orientation.
Conducted two times per year.
Involves both classroom instruction, eLearning modules, and a clinical preceptorship.
Core content of the course covers the safety and the legal/ethic aspects of correctional health nursing, pathophysiology, diagnostic tests, medical and nursing management of acute, chronic, and mental illnesses, with a focus on clinical application and technical skills common to the correctional health areas, including supervised clinical labs and hands-on breakout sessions to reinforce learning.
The participants will rotate through the various clinical settings to allow for multiple learning opportunities. Populations include juveniles, psychiatric, and medical patients.
Successful completion of the Correctional Health Nursing Residency includes satisfactory performance in the classroom, eLearning, and clinical portion.

Emergency Nursing

Twenty-week course of study and clinical orientation
Conducted two times a year
Residents rotate through the various areas within the Main Emergency Department to gain exposure to all levels of patient care.
Clinical rotations in the Emergency Department Orientation include a minimum of 336 hours with a preceptor to provide experiences consistent with course objectives.
The clinical experiences provide the nurse with an opportunity to incorporate advanced theoretical knowledge into clinical practice.  Clinical hours may be completed through night and/or day shift and weekend rotations. Assigned clinical time is determined by the nurse educator and preceptor schedule.
Successful completion of the Emergency Department Track orientation includes:
o Emergency Nursing Association module completion and post-test scores greater than 80%
o Participation/completion of a department specific evidence-based practice project
o Successful completion of scheduled simulation sessions
o Participation in class and skills sessions of Critical Care and Triage bootcamps
o Successful completion of Advanced Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support and/or Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course, Trauma Nursing Core Course – both didactic and skills components of all courses
o Successful completion of all clinical skills competency checklists o Successful completion of clinical shift phase evaluations and all required evaluation criteria ratings

Emergency Specialty Nursing

Fourteen-week course of study and clinical orientation.
Conducted two times per year.
The Emergency Specialty Track orientation begins with a concentrated schedule of lectures and technical skill demonstrations. Lecture content addresses physiology, emergency scenarios and emergent conditions involving pediatrics, adults and women’s health Also included are principles of quality measures and patient education and pharmacology as well as in-depth discussions of the pathological conditions common in emergency situations. Fundamental technical skills are reviewed, and complex care entities utilized in the ED Observation, Urgent Care and OGES unit are presented.
Clinical rotations in the Urgent Care Emergency Center (UCEC), ED Observation Unit & Obstetrics and Gynecological Emergency Services (OGES) during the residency are selected to provide experiences consistent with course objectives. The clinical experiences provide the nurse with an opportunity to incorporate advanced theoretical knowledge into clinical practice. Shift rotations and weekend assignments are included in the clinical portion and are determined by the nurse educator and individual preceptor’s schedule .

Labor and Delivery Nursing

Twenty-two-week course of study and clinical orientation.
Conducted two times per year.
The Labor and Delivery (L&D) Nurse Residency Specialty Track orientation begins with a concentrated schedule of lectures and technical skill demonstrations. Lecture content addresses fetal physiology, maternal risk factors associated with delivery of critically ill patients’ maternal anatomy and physiology and neonatal resuscitation. Also included are principles of nutrition and pharmacology as well as in-depth discussions of the pathological conditions common in critically ill patients.
Clinical rotations in L&D during the residency are selected to provide experiences consistent with course objectives.
The clinical experiences provide the nurse with an opportunity to incorporate advanced theoretical knowledge into clinical practice.
Residents rotate through labor and delivery, recovery, newborn assessment team, and the operating room.

Acute Care Nursing

Twelve-week course of study and clinical orientation.
Conducted three times per year.

Meet the immediate needs of initial orientation and integration into the Medical/Surgical patient care team through General Nursing Orientation and Clinical Orientation aspects.
To develop a tailored orientation process based on standardized content for Med/Surg nurses.
Refine the Clinical Orientation to focus on the workflow process and hospital policies of the major aspects of Med/Surg Nursing at PHHS. Ensure each resident and his /her clinical preceptors are supported with appropriate resources.
Provide the opportunity for career development throughout the first two years of experience culminating in successful completion of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) Certification Examination.

The program utilizes a combination of learning activities including didactic instruction by clinical content experts, structured unit-specific clinical immersion experiences, competency skills validation, and Mosby’s Medical- Surgical Nursing eLearning curriculum. The primary goal of the program is to enhance communication, organization, and critical thinking skills, develop skills competency and self-confidence, and promote the delivery of safe and effective patient care. 
Parkland has over a dozen Medical-Surgical specialty units. These units include Gynecology Oncology, Oncology, Hospitalist and Generalist Units, Observation, Cardiology, Neurology, Epilepsy Monitoring, Burn Acute Care, Plastic Surgery, General Surgery/ Trauma Department, Orthopedics, and Inpatient Rehab.

 Mother-Baby Nursing

Seventeen-week course of study and clinical orientation.
Conducted two times per year.
The MBR Program uses a combination of learning activities including didactic instruction by clinical content experts, eLearning, skills/simulation labs and structured precepted unit-specific clinical experiences.
 The Mother Baby Residency is designed to meet the immediate needs of initial orientation and integration into the mother baby patient care area through general nursing orientation and four clinical on-boarding phases.
Clinical orientation includes rotations in our antepartum, postpartum, maternal fetal medicine, and newborn care nursery.
The clinical experiences provide the nurse with an opportunity to incorporate advanced theoretical knowledge into clinical practice. Shift rotations and weekend assignments are included in the clinical portion and are determined by the nurse educator and individual preceptor’s schedule.

Neonatal Nursing

The NICU specialty orientation is conducted two times per year.
The Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse Residency Specialty Track Orientation includes eLearning, lectures, skill demonstrations, high fidelity simulation, and clinical shifts with a preceptor.
At the completion of the orientation the student will be able to:
- Utilize theoretical knowledge base in assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of nursing care for the critically ill neonate.
- Collaborate with other health professionals to identify health needs of patients and to provide appropriate interventions.
- Identify psychosocial needs of parents and families and incorporate into plan of care.
- Perform complex technical skills and operate biomedical equipment when caring for the critically ill neonate.

Perioperative Nursing

Six-month course of study and unit orientation.
Conducted one time per year.
At the completion of the course the student will be able to:
- Compare the roles and responsibilities of multidisciplinary surgical team members in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative areas.
- Understand the specific role of the perioperative registered nurse in conceptualizing and controlling the perioperative environment through skills labs, case studies and patient care assignments.
- Apply the nursing process to identify and address the needs of the perioperative patient and family or support persons in order to provide a safe environment.
- Apply principles of aseptic and sterile technique in the perioperative environment including the processes involved in creating and maintaining a sterile field.
- Apply knowledge of safe patient care in the perioperative setting through case studies and patient care assignments.
- Discuss the processes of cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of instrumentation and equipment.
- Apply safe medication administration practices based on knowledge of interventions and pharmacologic indications for drugs commonly utilized in the perioperative setting.
- Identify the ethical, moral, and legal responsibilities of the surgical team.
- Demonstrate ability to appropriately prioritize perioperative nursing activities relevant to the surgical setting through case studies, and/or patient care assignments.
- Identify the opportunities and responsibilities for professional growth as a perioperative nurse.

Behavioral Health Residency

2-3 times per year | 14 weeks

Ambulatory Oncology Residency

2-3 times per year | 14 weeks

For more information and to apply:

Go to www.ParklandCareers.com. Internal candidates go to SharePoint>Pathways>Careers.