Cost of Nurse Residency Program

ShaeMarie · Jan 20, 2015

This is news to me, I've never heard of a residency quite like this one. It seems scammy to me and I agree that mass participation will set a bad precedent. BLS costs all of $50 and those other certs are either not real (glucometer, SERIOUSLY?) or may not be much more information than NS, and therefore, useless. But if you have $650 to blow as an unemployed new nurse, by all means, let us now how it works for you.

Ozzy84 · Jan 20, 2015

I think this place sell this program so students can put their resume as they done a residency program.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jan 20, 2015

Trinitas also offers an Emergency Nurse Residency for $3,700.

This is preying upon new grads unable to obtain positions due to oversupply RN's from Philadelphia to Boston. Taking this class would be minimally beneficial with no guarantee landing hospital position.

IMHO, money would be better spent on moving to location where jobs more plentiful.

Gooselady, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2015

I know you are desperate for work but this isn't even promising you a position.

I've never heard of such a thing. Who would have thought to make money off of unemployed new grad nurses? I'm insulted FOR you!

dcwang · Jan 20, 2015

@ Butterfly922. may i ask, which school did you graduate from?

mursinary · Jan 20, 2015

I agree with what everyone else is saying... it sounds a bit fishy to me. I understand that in some parts of the US, jobs for new grads are very hard to come by. I suppose that something like this could help, but.... there's something unsettling about it. My "residency" was 6 months, on the job, intensive training with a preceptor. And I was paid a wage.

If you can move, I'd recommend checking out the midwest/south for jobs. There are many hospitals that will gladly hire a new grad and train them properly while paying a real wage. Get a year or two of experience and you should be hireable at any hospital in the country.

flyersfan88 · Jan 20, 2015

I get paid in my residency program full salary/benefits....and I am an actual employee. Run.

most & big red · Jan 20, 2015

My concern here is that it does not state you are guaranteed a job afterwards. Most residency programs that I have known are on the job training with a preceptor (including classes on what you just described) and then you would "graduate" the residency program and work on the unit as a nurse. The only time that I was told I would need to pay something for my residency program is IF I quit before I hit the 1 year mark, and then I would have to pay 1,000$ to the hospital for their training.

I would continue to apply for jobs outside of the nurse residency. You can get great opportunities in clinics. A friend of mine worked in an allergy clinic and for a private surgeon in his clinic, then was accepted to a surgical residency in one of the biggest hospitals in our area. Do not take for granted the opportunities you can get outside of a hospital. Sometimes they put you in a better candidate spot for those residency positions.

xoemmylouox, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2015

My hospital started a Nurse Residency a few years ago that doesn't have a price tag to it! The proposed benefits are that the nurse educators follow your progress for the first year, during your three month orientation (for Med-Surg areas) you go to a weekly class for added nursing education like studying/taking the tele test, and while in residency you are placed on different floors for different lengths of time trying to find your "fit". The best for the floors has got to be not having to absorb the cost of orientation for a new nurse in their budgets (which can run in upwards of $70,000 per new grad - which is pretty much a loss to the floor and facility if the nurse leaves within the first year). For floors with a lot of turn over, this has been a blessing, especially the harder floors that are considered stepping stones to places such as the ICU's or the float pool. I've never heard of having to pay for residency and a new nurse should already have their BLS from doing nursing school clinicals right?

This is so smart. I wish more employers ran similar programs.. I hope that your retention rates are better than most.

AJJKRN · Jan 20, 2015

This is so smart. I wish more employers ran similar programs.. I hope that your retention rates are better than most.

It has been helping with retention but one of our problems that we may never be able to resolve has to do with getting burned by new grad BSN's coming from the larger more popular metropolitan city (that is REALLY saturated) up north from us. They come down, get hired and trained, and then leave as soon as they can get a job back in the metropolis. I say just don't hire anyone coming from that area but I'm just a peon in the grand scheme of things and HR is a whole other issue! We also just recently started hiring new nurse graduates that work as health care techs (with HCT pay) who get introduced to the realistic hospital 12 hour shifts and giving hands on patient care. Once they pass their boards they then get a slot in our residency and start pay as a new grad. This has proved to have many positives along with weeding out the outliers early before starting as nurses!

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2015

I don't have any real issue with the fact that the hospital wants to offer a class like this. I just don't think it should be billed as a "residency" as it's really not.

OBigdog26, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 20, 2015

Only RN residency programs that I know of are new graduate RNs training for 6-8 weeks with a preceptor. These new grad RNs have been hired by the hospital or unit and are paid to complete the program. Any other programs where you have to pay to function as a new graduate nurse is a waste of money and time!