Asante New Grad RN Residency

gere7404, BSN, RN · Apr 29, 2022

New grad residency has two cohorts, one starts in august, one starts in October.

Residency is about three months long, you work normal shifts with a preceptor and have required education classes you have to attend, some units have more classes you have to go to than others (ie ICU, ER, cardiac center have more in depth telemetry classes).

asante rogue regional medical center is a ~380 bed level II trauma center that services are large geographical area; because southern Oregon is rural, it gets a lot of the sicker patients from all over southern Oregon and Northern California. The weather is very moderate and it’s a beautiful area geographically, so there’s a very high population of elderly retirees… as is such, the hospital sees a lot of patients daily and is frequently full.

They are currently expanding with another tower that is supposed to address bed shortages, but it won’t be finished for another couple years. The hospital is union and patient ratios are pretty good depending on the unit and shift; day shift typically has better ratios on the med surg floor but the ER and critical care units are generally capped regardless of shift.

the hospital has several med surg floors of various specialties, each with about 40 beds, and a couple different critical care units that have about 20 beds

6 tower - gen med….. sees a wide variety of patients, but lots of demented and altered patients. Some of the nurses get dialysis trained — generally has the worst patient ratios, up to 6:1 on nights

5Tower - neuro/ortho — post stroke or post hip replacements. Also gets trauma patients after they stabilize enough to TRF from the ICU. Usually 4-5:1 ratios

4T - post surgical — pretty self explanatory, you get patients who just had surgery. A lot of GI stuff. Pushing lots of fluids and pain meds and emptying drains. 4-5:1 ratios

3T - heart center — it’s more of a progressive care unit than a cardiac med surg, you get a lot of afibbers, CHFers and post cardio-thoracic surgery patients. 10 beds are designated the “cardiac step down” unit, where they have better monitoring for the more acute patients. Ratios are a little better but they run more drips than the other floors and have to be ACLS qualified. 3-4:1 ratio

3W medical oncology — cancer patients, end of life patients, and general med overflow. It’s in an old part of the hospital so they layout is weird compared to the bigger tower units. You can get chemo certified and run chemo meds, patients die a lot here though so it’s kind of depressing. Similar ratios to the other med surg floors.

2N — psych unit, don’t know the beds or ratios there

inpatient rehab — it’s like a skilled nursing facility for people to do rehabilitation after strokes or surgeries if they’ve got good insurance. Not sure of the ratios or bed count

peds - really sick kids get flown to Portland by mercy or panda team, but there’s a small pediatric unit for less sick kids. Not sure of the ratio or bed count but it never seemed to be that busy.

maternal child/NICU — only NICU in the area and there’s a lot of moms on drugs so it’s pretty busy. Not sure on the ratios or how many babies they can care for.

OR - they have an amazing soda fountain in their break room, OR nurses usually have decent hours and the ability to take call. SSU (short stay unit) preps people for surgery, starts IVs. At night, sometimes the SSU is used to board inpatients without beds upstairs. Med surg nurses and float pool nurses usually get stuck doing this.

IMCU — intermediate care unit, it’s like the critical care version of 6T… a lot of withdrawing, combative and altered patients only they can bomb them out with precedex. 16 beds, Generally 3:1 ratios

ICU — its a 20 bed medical and surgical ICU, really sick people go there. 2:1 ratios

CCU — coronary care unit, 20 bed cardiac focused critical care unit that gets really sick hearts, and post cardiovascular thoracic surgery patients. Asante has won awards for their cardiac care, but they had to reduce the volume of open heart surgeries as one of the surgeons went mental and quit. 2:1 ratios

ER: 37 beds, level II trauma center so it sees the sickest patients in the area. The red side has two trauma resuscitation bays and 12 bays and is supposed to be for higher acuity patients. The yellow side is set up for less acute, more urgent care type visits, but because the hospital has such a high volume of pts a day you might see some really sick people in the cramped yellow side rooms. The hospital usually runs out of inpatient beds, and the ER is stuck boarding admitted patients by the end of the night. 3:1 ratio, have to get ACLS, PALS, and tncc.

CDU - clinical decision unit — fancy word for observation unit. It’s attached to the ER, but staffed by inpatient nurses. Not really used as an obs unit, it’s pretty much a dumping ground for ER boarding patients. Very new, nice rooms and the ratio is supposed to be 3:1. I think they also have to be ACLS and PALS certified, too.

Medford is a decent sized town, has lots of chain big box stores and restaurants, but isn’t the greatest for food if you consider yourself a foodie…. Ashland is about 20 minutes away and has a better selection of restaurants. The weather is very mild, it gets hot during the summertime, rainy in the Winter and rarely snows on the valley floor. One thing that sucks is the last couple years there have been horrible forest fires around the area, so it can get pretty Smokey for weeks at a time. A couple of towns nearby burned down in the fires two years ago and they’re slowly rebuilding, but housing can be rough to find anywhere in the rogue valley, and be expensive at that.

Drugs and crime can also be a problem in some areas, fentanyl is super popular all along the i5 and Oregon has decriminalized drug use, so you see a lot of property crime and theft related to addiction.

what unit are you applying to?

Yumi2019 · Apr 29, 2022

Thank you so much for the detailed information! This was extremely helpful!

I accepted a position with the OR and and am excited yet nervous at the same time.

As you mentioned, housing has been difficult to find. Do you have any recommendations on safe areas to live in?

gere7404, BSN, RN · Apr 29, 2022

Right on, OR residency is longer than all the others, it’s almost a year long if I remember right.

stay away from downtown and near the i5. There’s a bunch of smaller towns around Medford you might be able to find housing in as well. Charles point is a large apartment complex near Asante, there’s a couple other ones run by the same company that has a lot of turnover you can look into.

Yumi2019 · May 31, 2022

Would you happen to know if its easier to apply to Oregon for the NCLEX vs. endorsement? I can't seem to get a hold of anyone at the Oregon BON. I just graduated nursing school in another state and didn't realize I needed to submit an application in Oregon for NCLEX. I submitted to my home state by mistake. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm also reading that Oregon requires CEUs?

gere7404, BSN, RN · May 31, 2022

Osbn takes a long time for both endorsement and approval to test. No ceus are required but I think you need to take a diversity course for endorsement

RNzippidity · Nov 20, 2022

On 4/21/2022 at 10:30 AM, Yumi2019 said:

Hello,

I am curious if anyone here has applied or experienced Asante’s new grad residency program in Medford, Oregon.
I am not from Oregon and would like a bit more insight on the hospital or program.

Thank you.

Hey ! Wanted to check in with you to see how the new grad program is going at Asante ? I was accepted into the March Cohort for OB !

What state are you coming from ? I’ll be coming from California !

mountainbikernurse · Jan 29

gere7404 said:

New grad residency has two cohorts, one starts in august, one starts in October.

Residency is about three months long, you work normal shifts with a preceptor and have required education classes you have to attend, some units have more classes you have to go to than others (ie ICU, ER, cardiac center have more in depth telemetry classes).

asante rogue regional medical center is a ~380 bed level II trauma center that services are large geographical area; because southern Oregon is rural, it gets a lot of the sicker patients from all over southern Oregon and Northern California. The weather is very moderate and it's a beautiful area geographically, so there's a very high population of elderly retirees... as is such, the hospital sees a lot of patients daily and is frequently full.

They are currently expanding with another tower that is supposed to address bed shortages, but it won't be finished for another couple years. The hospital is union and patient ratios are pretty good depending on the unit and shift; day shift typically has better ratios on the med surg floor but the ER and critical care units are generally capped regardless of shift.

the hospital has several med surg floors of various specialties, each with about 40 beds, and a couple different critical care units that have about 20 beds

6 tower - gen med..... sees a wide variety of patients, but lots of demented and altered patients. Some of the nurses get dialysis trained — generally has the worst patient ratios, up to 6:1 on nights

5Tower - neuro/ortho — post stroke or post hip replacements. Also gets trauma patients after they stabilize enough to TRF from the ICU. Usually 4-5:1 ratios

4T - post surgical — pretty self explanatory, you get patients who just had surgery. A lot of GI stuff. Pushing lots of fluids and pain meds and emptying drains. 4-5:1 ratios

3T - heart center — it's more of a progressive care unit than a cardiac med surg, you get a lot of afibbers, CHFers and post cardio-thoracic surgery patients. 10 beds are designated the "cardiac step down" unit, where they have better monitoring for the more acute patients. Ratios are a little better but they run more drips than the other floors and have to be ACLS qualified. 3-4:1 ratio

3W medical oncology — cancer patients, end of life patients, and general med overflow. It's in an old part of the hospital so they layout is weird compared to the bigger tower units. You can get chemo certified and run chemo meds, patients die a lot here though so it's kind of depressing. Similar ratios to the other med surg floors.

2N — psych unit, don't know the beds or ratios there

inpatient rehab — it's like a skilled nursing facility for people to do rehabilitation after strokes or surgeries if they've got good insurance. Not sure of the ratios or bed count

peds - really sick kids get flown to Portland by mercy or panda team, but there's a small pediatric unit for less sick kids. Not sure of the ratio or bed count but it never seemed to be that busy.

maternal child/NICU — only NICU in the area and there's a lot of moms on drugs so it's pretty busy. Not sure on the ratios or how many babies they can care for.

OR - they have an amazing soda fountain in their break room, OR nurses usually have decent hours and the ability to take call. SSU (short stay unit) preps people for surgery, starts IVs. At night, sometimes the SSU is used to board inpatients without beds upstairs. Med surg nurses and float pool nurses usually get stuck doing this.

IMCU — intermediate care unit, it's like the critical care version of 6T... a lot of withdrawing, combative and altered patients only they can bomb them out with precedex. 16 beds, Generally 3:1 ratios

ICU — its a 20 bed medical and surgical ICU, really sick people go there. 2:1 ratios

CCU — coronary care unit, 20 bed cardiac focused critical care unit that gets really sick hearts, and post cardiovascular thoracic surgery patients. Asante has won awards for their cardiac care, but they had to reduce the volume of open heart surgeries as one of the surgeons went mental and quit. 2:1 ratios

ER: 37 beds, level II trauma center so it sees the sickest patients in the area. The red side has two trauma resuscitation bays and 12 bays and is supposed to be for higher acuity patients. The yellow side is set up for less acute, more urgent care type visits, but because the hospital has such a high volume of pts a day you might see some really sick people in the cramped yellow side rooms. The hospital usually runs out of inpatient beds, and the ER is stuck boarding admitted patients by the end of the night. 3:1 ratio, have to get ACLS, PALS, and tncc.

CDU - clinical decision unit — fancy word for observation unit. It's attached to the ER, but staffed by inpatient nurses. Not really used as an obs unit, it's pretty much a dumping ground for ER boarding patients. Very new, nice rooms and the ratio is supposed to be 3:1. I think they also have to be ACLS and PALS certified, too.

Medford is a decent sized town, has lots of chain big box stores and restaurants, but isn't the greatest for food if you consider yourself a foodie.... Ashland is about 20 minutes away and has a better selection of restaurants. The weather is very mild, it gets hot during the summertime, rainy in the Winter and rarely snows on the valley floor. One thing that sucks is the last couple years there have been horrible forest fires around the area, so it can get pretty Smokey for weeks at a time. A couple of towns nearby burned down in the fires two years ago and they're slowly rebuilding, but housing can be rough to find anywhere in the rogue valley, and be expensive at that.

Drugs and crime can also be a problem in some areas, fentanyl is super popular all along the i5 and Oregon has decriminalized drug use, so you see a lot of property crime and theft related to addiction.

what unit are you applying to?

Hi!

I just got a job offer for their new graduate float position. Have you known anyone to do this? I am excited to potentially give it a shot, however nervous as I am a new grad. Any insight on float would be great!

gere7404, BSN, RN · Mar 13

Float pool gets training on all of the med surg floors but seems to spend a lot of their time boarding patients in the ER....

they get a $6 differential to be flexible and I think the new grads who start float pool do a lot better than the floor nurses who pick up less flexible habits and don't like change — float pool nurses can get shuffled around a lot depending on staffing needs

Yumi2019 · Mar 13

gere7404 said:

Float pool gets training on all of the med surg floors but seems to spend a lot of their time boarding patients in the ER....

they get a $6 differential to be flexible and I think the new grads who start float pool do a lot better than the floor nurses who pick up less flexible habits and don't like change — float pool nurses can get shuffled around a lot depending on staffing needs

I noticed that you are from the ED. Do you guys take new grads or train current nurses who are interested in ED?

gere7404, BSN, RN · Mar 13

We take new grads that did their practicum in the ER or critical care

We take nurses with previous experience on a case basis, with a preference for nurses with critical care experience

Yumi2019 · Mar 13

gere7404 said:

We take new grads that did their practicum in the ER or critical care

We take nurses with previous experience on a case basis, with a preference for nurses with critical care experience

Thanks for the info!