bcla0911

Hi! I have been stationed at Tripler Army Medical Center for the past 2.5 years, as an RN. I can tell you not to sweat the residency program, as it was first implemented here. The residency program is basically just a program for all new ANC nurses in which you are given the opportunity to work for a few weeks on your "home unit" within the hospital, and then you are released to work on other clinical areas and units within the hospital (under the guidance of a preceptor the entire time). Each clinical experience is varied in length, from one to 3-4 weeks at a time. This opportunity affords you a few different benefits: you get the chance to make several networking contacts, you become familliar with the layout of the hospital (it's huge!); you get to experience several types of work environments which may help you decide which specialty to pick, and you are a more well-rounded nurse when the year is over. I will recommend that you select a Nurse Mentor (you will do this during OBLC) at your selected/assigned duty station, and make sure to keep in contact with this Mentor. So, to provide some guidance to your concerns in order: 1. Graduation, then OBLC at FT Sam for ? weeks (they keep changing it....my OBLC was 15 weeks). 2. Residency program (explained above) is done at your first duty assignment, after which you stay on at that duty assignment. 3. After residency program, no "top 5 " is offered (unless they have changed the program)...you simply stay at that duty station.. 4. There is no website that will explain everything. Once you get to OBLC, utilize the Nurse Liason. By the time you get there, it should be MAJ Connor. She is awesome, and will assist however she can.