Medical Mentoring: Support from WVMC residency program gives nurses a good start

Rachel Thompson/News-Register##New registered nurse Grace Umfleet, center, and her preceptor, Emily Lambert, RN, practice using a scanner to find a patient’s veins. Ashley Garrett, one of Willamette Valley Medical Center’s educators, is standing in as the patient during a practice session for Umfleet’s nurse residency program. A month after graduating from George Fox University in June, Umfleet started the program, designed to give newly graduated nurses extra training and help them settle into their work at WVMC.

Grace Umfleet, RN, grew up hearing her grandmother, nurse Francis Umfleet, and her aunt, Dawn Darling, a case manager. talk about their work in hospitals. She studied nursing herself at George Fox University, from which she graduated in April.

But while she knew a lot about the profession, she’s grateful for Willamette Valley Medical Center’s nurse residency program. One of the first to join the program for new nurses, she said it’s helping her get used to the challenges and stresses of the profession as well as to the particular culture of the McMinnville hospital.

WVMC started the labor board-certified, 12-month nurse residency program in June. It joined numerous other hospitals that offer residencies, although many of those have much shorter programs, often just three months.

Umfleet, for instance, has talked with nursing school classmates who are in residency programs at bigger hospitals. “Mine is more personalized; it’s unique,” she said. “I like the small hospital atmosphere.”

Anna Hilts, who is in charge of the hospital’s education programs, said the company wants to make sure new nursing school graduates become confident in their skills as they settle into their first jobs. It offers a monetary incentive to people who have graduated from nursing school within the year if they take part in the program. So far, 11 have signed up, including four Linfield University graduates and two, Umfleet and a classmate, from George Fox.

[More Below: Health internships offered at hospital]

For most, joining the program is an easy choice, Hilts said.

“It’s best for them and best for patients,” she said.

The hospital also benefits from knowing its staff is training in its procedures, as well as general knowledge and competencies of the profession.

In addition, Hilts said, the program leads graduates to stay in their jobs longer than they might otherwise — 20% to 30% of new nurses leave the profession or change hospitals in their first year.

With a residence program, though, 93% of new nurses are still in their positions after a year, she said.

“It’s so stressful, so hard, if you don’t get the orientation and support,” said Hilts, remembering her own early days as an RN 14 years ago. “Many people don’t feel they can ask questions — but with a preceptor or mentor, they can ask anything.”

Hilts added that she was fortunate to have started at WVMC, even though it didn’t have a residency program at the time. “It was the most welcoming place, where I was able to get support” from coworkers and supervisors, she said. She’s pleased that support now has been formalized.

At WVMC, nurse residency participants work in the med/surg, obstetrics, intensive care, short stay and senior behavioral health areas of the hospital.

Umfleet, for instance, has been in the med/surg unit. She keeps an eye on patients who’ve been treated in the ER or had surgery, and preparing them to be discharged.

Residents start the program as soon as they are hired, rather than waiting for other members of a cohort to join them.

Each resident works with a preceptor, or one-on-one instructor, for the first 12 weeks. Umfleet’s preceptor is Emily Lambert, a visiting nurse from North Carolina who came to the McMinnville hospital in January.

Lambert has been a nurse for seven years. She said she started with a 13-week program similar to the first section of WVMC’s residency program.

“It was helpful, very individualized,” she said. She would have appreciated a longer program, like the one at WVMC.

For the rest of the year, Umfleet, like other nurse residents, will continue to work with a mentor who might have up to three mentees.

In addition, residents must complete 144 online educational modules developed by TruMont, a company known for training health care professionals. as well as 2,000 of work as a nurse.

Each one also attends 10 conferences a year, some of them in-person at WVMC and others online. And each completes a capstone project related to their passion that will improve services at the hospital, Hilts said.

For instance, one resident is working on a project to help nurses keep track of what services they’ve provided in each patient room.

Umfleet, who grew up in Newberg, became interested in nursing after serving as a caregiver for her grandparents. She often took them to the hospital for doctor visits, she said.

“I found I had love and passion for people who are at their worst moment, helping them feel at ease,” she said.

Her aunt, who works at WVMC, suggested she apply at the McMinnville hospital. Staff there suggested she apply for the residency program, which she had heard about during nursing school.

“Starting the job is as overwhelming as doing anything new. It’s so much different from school,” Umfleet said.

The program has helped her gain many skills, she said, and she has felt comfortable asking questions.

“I feel more confident because of the program. Without this support, it would’ve been much harder,” she said.

And after just three months in the position, she said, “I can see myself here for the long term.”

Health internships offered at hospital

In addition to its program for recent nursing school graduates, Willamette Valley Medical Center also has a new internship program available for 18- to 25-year-olds. Interns get paid as they learn, working 15 hours a week for eight weeks in any of 10 areas at the hospital.

The internship program is designed to spark interest in the medical profession and build employability, said Anna Hilts of WVMC. It is a joint project of the hospital and the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership.

“They get to see what a respiratory therapist does, and what happens in radiology and other areas, not just what nurses and doctors do,” Hilts said.

In addition, she said, “they see how awesome our people are here as they see the staff, the culture and how we do things.”

She said the hope is that former interns go on to more health care training, then eventually return to the hospital. Some interns also might have a chance to be hired right away, as well.

Eight interns are currently on the job in the first round of the program. One is in health information management, another organizing supplies in the ICU, another in emergency management, for instance.

Another 10 slots will be open this fall. For more information, call Hilts at the hospital, 503-472-6131.