GN Internships VS Residency Programs?

[elb252]

Quick question: Is there a difference between a graduate nurse internship and graduate nurse residency program? Are they essentially the same? If there are differences, would anyone be willing to point out to me what they are? I'm asking because I still have 1 year left of nursing school but I'm trying to get an early start on looking ahead...seeing what I want to do after graduation in May 2010...

Thank you so much,

Erika

[elkpark]

My experience and understanding is that all of these programs are basically the same idea, but different organizations use different names for them (and also set up the programs slightly differently -- length of time, etc.)