If you talk to almost any nurse manager around the country, chances are they’re looking for a nurse or two to hire. Probably more.

But not Tracy Sprague, RN, a nurse manager in the emergency department at University of Vermont Health Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital. Her nursing roster is full thanks to a homegrown professional development initiative she helped to start just over a year ago.

“For much of my career, it’s always been difficult to hire and retain the nurses we need,” says Sprague, a resident of Moriah, New York.

This was the genesis of Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s new nurse residency program, which over the course of the past year has provided a home for a new generation of emergency department nurses. A place to elevate their clinical practice and hone their skills in the tight-knit setting of a rural community hospital.

“This has been a fantastic opportunity to build up my skills and knowledge close to home,” says Marissa St. Pierre, one of the first nurse residents with the hospital’s emergency department. “I think it offers opportunities that you simply don’t get at larger hospitals – a chance to offer such a diversity of care and really get to know my patients in the process.”

From School Project to Clinical Reality

When Sprague first became a nurse manager in May 2022, she signed up for a leadership certification course at Cornell University. To complete the program, Sprague was required to develop a capstone project, something that would be relevant to her hospital and feasible for development.

“I felt a nurse residency program was exactly what we needed and something we could implement without much trouble,” says Sprague, who returned to the hospital to find leaders receptive and enthusiastic about the idea. “While I was working on the project, I spoke with a lot of nursing students who were going on to work at other hospitals in the region because those places had residency programs to give them the training and skills they were looking for as aspiring nurses. I think all of us realized that we could do the same.”

The new residency program started small, with one nurse residency up for grabs in each of the hospital’s emergency departments – one in Elizabethtown and in the other in Ticonderoga. After interviewing, St. Pierre joined the nursing team in Elizabethtown, becoming the program’s first resident in August of last year. Since then, a team of nurses and nurse educators have worked with St. Pierre to build up her clinical knowledge and skills through a combination of classroom sessions, mentorship and independent clinical practice. She was also assigned two preceptors – nurse mentors to guide her along the way.

“My preceptors have really helped me to put in practice all of the things I learned in nursing school, and much, much more,” says St. Pierre, who went to nursing school at North Country Community College after a career in social work.

Nurturing Homegrown Talent

Across UVM Health Network, a diversity of professional development, education and training programs are paying dividends as the health system looks to attract and retain much-needed clinical staff. Local initiatives like the new nurse residency program at Elizabethtown Community Hospital have proven particularly effective, creating new opportunities for community members to study, train and practice close to home. For example, the health system partners with several local colleges and universities throughout Vermont and northern New York to train community members for in-demand clinical positions, like registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, licensed nursing assistants, medical assistants, phlebotomists and surgical technologists. The same programs are available to current employees too, enabling them to pursue further education while maintaining full-time salary and benefits.

Our progress:

UVM Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital:

• 27 nurses recently completed a New Nurse Residency Program
• 29 people are enrolled in the upcoming year

UVM Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center career development programs produced:

• 33 licensed practical nurses
• 14 registered nurses

Programs like these across the health system:

• resulted in overall savings of approximately $2.1 million in temporary, traveling nursing costs
• reduced reliance on more costly temporary workers caused by a national workforce shortage
• allowed more than 170 registered nurses to be hired, including 13 who were previously traveling nurses

Meanwhile, Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s nurse residency program is growing. After a successful first year in the emergency department, a new residency position is opening up this summer in the hospital’s inpatient unit in Elizabethtown.

For her part, St. Pierre says we can’t underestimate the allure of local opportunities.

“This is my community, its where I grew up and where I’m raising my family,” says St. Pierre, a mother of three, including 9-month-old twins.