Abstract
New graduate nurses and new hires with limited critical care experience in a hospital need additional education. In the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at the University of California Davis Medical Center there was no model to provide relevant ongoing learning opportunities to meet the individual needs of the staff. The focus of this project was to develop a residency program to meet the educational needs of new staff that included graduate nurses, experienced non-critical care nurses and experienced critical care nurses. Sources of Data The source of data was a Likert Scale survey distributed to the nursing staff in the MICU before and after implementation of the unit based residency program. Turnover statistics were provided by the patient care services department. Conclusions Reached A unit based residency program may increase staff satisfaction and comfort levels related to clinical judgment. Statistical significance was not achieved on the majority of items on v the questionnaire. Turnover rate did decrease however this may be for reasons unrelated to the residency program.