What is the Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program?

The Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program — one of the first of its kind — helps transition new nurse residents into their clinical roles and build their confidence.

This program includes an evidence-based curriculum and final project, as well as interactive exercises. It is designed to help decrease the nurse turnover rate, improve decision-making skills, enhance clinical nursing leadership practices and promote the incorporation of research-based evidence into practice.

Participants benefit from access to benchmarking data, an up-to-date curriculum and the opportunity to network with peers across the country.

20 years Vizient AACN Nurse Residency Program

Improve retention of new nurses

Leslie Norman, chief nursing officer at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, discusses how the Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program™ gave new nurse graduates a better transition into the hospital environment, led to a higher nurse retention rate and sparked an evidence-based practice movement within the health care organization.

About the Nurse Residency Program 

Nurses comprise the largest percentage of the nation’s health care workforce. Nurses have a unique scope of practice and greatly impact patients by promoting healthy living, preventing disease and helping them cope with illnesses. The demand for nurses is greater than ever. This is mainly due to a lack of professional nursing development programs available to support them when they transition from academia to a clinical setting. In fact, in the Institute of Medicine’s “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” report, nursing residency programs are specifically recommended because they improve new nurses’ abilities and increase confidence.

The Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program™ (NRP), developed by Vizient® and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, supports new graduate nurses as they successfully transition to competent professionals by helping them learn how to:

  • Use effective decision-making skills
  • Provide clinical nursing leadership when administering care
  • Incorporate research-based evidence into practice
  • Strengthen their professional commitment to nursing
  • Formulate an individual development plan

The NRP helps participating organizations focus on retaining new nurses by offering a widely accepted curriculum, the ability to benchmark performance against those of select peers and opportunities to network with other NRP participants.

The NRP developed and regularly updates an evidence-based curriculum that helps organizations meet national standards for accreditation. The curriculum includes sections on leadership, professional roles and quality outcomes, as well as a chapter specifically focused on nursing in ambulatory care environments. The residents study and learn the curriculum through monthly seminars and group discussions.

An integral component of the NRP is the evidence-based practice project (EBPP). All residents are required to complete an EBPP, which supports the development of critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. The projects are presented at the end of the residency and can be submitted as poster or podium presentations at the NRP Annual Meeting.

Participating organizations receive an annual outcomes report and benchmarking reports. The outcomes report examines the impact of the program on its graduates and, to some extent, the impact of the program on the institution. Benchmarking reports enable NRP sites to compare their results to other participants in the program.

Clinical Workforce Conference 2023 recap

View the presentations from this year covering clinical workforce challenges and how organizations are preserving with innovating approaches. Conversations focused on issues affecting clinicians, shared leading practices and discussions on the path forward for clinical teams to adapt and thrive as the new normal continues to evolve.

Additional solutions to support your clinical workforce

APP Advisory Services

An exclusive annual membership designed to empower healthcare organizations and leaders in optimizing their Advanced Practice Provider (APP) workforce.

Workforce Optimization

Maximize operational efficiencies with a full suite of workforce solutions that drive recruiting and staff engagement, improve productivity and reduce labor costs, all powered by performance data, survey engagement results and organizational culture development.

Nursing leadership program

Support nurse residents (NR) and promote engagement and satisfaction in their careers. Engage and monitor NRs at the unit level to address decreasing engagement.

Connect with us to learn more about the Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program.