Registered nurses soon to start their careers at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System recently gained hands-on training at the TJC's Robert M. Rogers Nursing & Health Sciences Center.
The one-day training at TJC was the culmination of a week-long clinical program for newly licensed nurses. All 30 participants were recent graduates of local nursing schools, including TJC.
According to Gary Miller, certified registered nurse with Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System, “They are here as part of their nurse residency, completing a week-long clinical intensive to really hone their skills as they’re transitioning from the student side to the clinical practice setting. We’ve had them all week teaching them things about being a nurse at Christus Trinity Mother Frances, and so this day specifically is coming here to TJC and validating the skills that they'll be doing on their clinical units.”
Miller explained that the TJC Nursing Center was selected due to the partnership already established as well as the facility.
“We wanted to really be able to provide those skills for our nurse residents and help them,” he said. “It’s just down the street from us, so that also made it quite convenient, but really it’s the space that we have to be able to work on these skills and really help build their confidence level as they're transitioning to practice.”
Some of the clinical setting skills included catheters, central line dressings, nasal gastric tubes and chest tubes, which are used to help a patient breathe if they have fluid on the lung. According to Miller, the training focused on key skills that are high priority in the clinical setting. The new nurses also practiced their resuscitation skills as they were introduced to multiple emergency situations and code scenarios in the TJC simulation center.
TJC Dean of Nursing and Health Sciences Dr. Elizabeth Olivier said, “We are excited about partnering with Christus to train the medical professionals who serve our community. We are looking to continue and expand the training options we can provide to the medical community.”
For information on the TJC nursing and health sciences programs, visit TJC.edu/NHS.