NC Health Care is an equal opportunity employer. As such, UNC Health Care offers equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or political affiliation.
New Graduate Nurse Residency Program
The UNC Medical Center Nurse Residency Program (NRP) is a yearlong program supporting transition from academia to practice for new graduate nurses. The wrap-around support from all levels of the Nursing Department is designed to assist new nurses develop the competence and confidence as a professional nurse.
The program is layered on top of orientation to provide mentored clinical relationships which support development as a professional nurse. The first component of the Residency involves participation in service line sessions highly focused on clinical skills and issues relevant to the unit and service line of the participant. These sessions run for a period of 2-9 months. Around month 2 or 3, the second component begins, and consists of 12 monthly sessions covering topics relating to professional roles, leadership, and patient outcomes. These monthly session topics are relevant to all service lines and involve interaction with session leaders and peers.
The NRP was developed by the University Health Systems Consortium (UHC) based on AACN standards for Baccalaureate Nursing Education.
Additional purposes and goals of the program are:
Increase proficiency – from advanced beginner to competent professional
Promote evidence based practice at the bedside to ensure good patient outcomes
Improve retention rates of new graduate nurses – both for the hospital and the nursing profession
Develop clinical leader
Nurse applicants are defined as:
Nursing
The UNC Lenoir Health Care Nursing Department fully supports our hospital’s mission to ensure exceptional healthcare for the people we serve, the vision to be an outstanding community hospital, and the values of service, integrity, teamwork, leadership, innovation, and stewardship.
Nursing orientation, professional development, and STEP programs are grounded in Patricia Benner’s Novice to Expert Theory, while Dr. Joanne Duffy’s Quality-Caring Model serves as the foundation for our clinical and administrative nursing practice.
Nursing Values
The UNC Lenoir Health Care nursing team has specific values for patient care:
Commitment – because nursing is so much more than a job or a profession; it is a sacred calling that demands we give the very best of ourselves to our patients and families, each other, and our community.
Compassion – because it is essential to establishing a healing, caring relationship with another human being.
Responsibility – because the word “nurse” is both a noun and a verb, something we are and something we do, we each have a duty to make sure we don’t become so busy doing tasks that we forget to make time for the truly important, to be fully engaged with our patients and families who are undergoing a variety of life/health crises.
Accountability – because our patients and families trust us to care, not only must we answer to them and others, but at the end of the day, we must answer to our conscience.
Relationships – as the foundation for caring, not just with patients and their families, but with other nurses and health-care team members, administrators, students, educators, volunteers, and the communities we serve.
Consistently applying these values to every person, in every situation, every day, will produce the best quality of care for our patients, their families, and our communities.
We believe:
All human beings are worthy of care, and caring relationships are the very essence of nursing.
Caring-based relationships guide nursing interventions, form the basis for actions and decision-making, promote healing, and result in better quality outcomes for patients, families, and communities.
Because all human beings are unique, care must be individualized, culturally appropriate, and holistic to address the physical, psycho-social, intellectual, and spiritual needs of the patient.
Nursing administrators and expert nurses must model caring in their behavior and communication with others to help novice nurses grow in their ability to develop caring relationships with patients and other healthcare team members.
Self-reflection and peer review are essential to our growth as caring professionals and as people.
Nurses have a responsibility to gather, critically evaluate, and use evidence-based best practices in the delivery of nursing care.
The increasing complexity of healthcare demands that nurses be lifelong learners, actively seeking out opportunities to further their education and professional development.
Nurses express caring through many functions: leading, educating, advocating, and innovating
8 Caring Factors
We believe in eight caring factors—human respect, encouraging manner, appreciation of unique meanings, healing environment, affiliation needs, basic human needs, mutual problem solving, and attentive reassurance.
When applied to relationships among nurses and other professionals, these factors result in the mutual respect, true collaboration, interdependence, and greater cohesiveness of healthcare teams that are so essential to the creation of a healing environment for patients and staff, optimizing outcomes
Caring is measurable, and improving the patient/family experience will be reflected by increases in quality measurements.
Patient-Centered Care
Teal green band – honors our volunteers who hold us together
Ceil blue and white – official colors of the nursing department
Royal blue lining the “spokes” – honors our healthcare partners
Heart at the center – because we love our patients, families, and communities, and they are at the center of everything we do
Outer band – hospital mission, vision, and values
Center Band – nursing theory and functions based on Duffy’s philosophy
Cross in the center – nursing values, also a tribute to the old LMH School of Nursing (there was a cross at the center of the school pin), honors those nurses who say nursing is a ministry, vocation, or calling to them
Nursing student in final semester of nursing program or;
Nursing graduate within 12 months of graduation; and
RN who has worked less than 6 months as a registered nurse.
New Graduate Nurse positions will be posted throughout the year based upon unit openings. We are hiring new graduate nurses at our three campuses: UNC Medical Center (Chapel Hill), Hillsborough Campus (Hillsborough) and Wakebrook Campus (Raleigh). New Graduate Nurse positions for the OR Residency are typically posted two-three times a year.
Application Process:
1. Applicants submit an application directly to their strongest unit(s) of interest.
2. Applicants are strongly encouraged to attach a resume and cover letter.
3. Applications will be screened and if selected, applicant will receive a call to discuss unit(s) of interest and possible interviews. For questions about specific clinical areas, please contact:
Children’s Hospital, Neonatal Critical Care: Kelli.Benson@unchealth.unc.edu
Adult Surgery Units:
Margaret.Este@unchealth.unc.edu
Adult Medicine; Adult Oncology/BMT:
Kim.Jacobs@unchealth.unc.edu .
Women’s Hospital, Heart & Vascular Services:
Ann.Hornback@unchealth.unc.edu
Emergency Department; Psychiatry Services:
Stephanie.Henry@unchealth.unc.edu
Peri-operative; Operating Room:
Marsha.Davis@unchealth.unc.edu
Equal Employment Opportunity