May 30, 2014

NJAC Long-Term Care Residency Program Featured on Advance Health

The New Jersey Action Coalition’s (NJAC) co-lead Edna Cadmus, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, and the co-chair of the education pillar for NJAC, Susan Salmond, EdD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, recently wrote an article for Advance Healthcare Network about the development of the first long-term care (LTC) residency program of its kind. NJAC received permission by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to use $1.6 million from the state’s Civil Monetary Penalty Fund to prepare new registered nurses (RNs) for practice at New Jersey long-term care (LTC) facilities.

The residency program was developed by Cadmus and Salmond, as well as the Healthcare Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Health, Nurses Improving Care of Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) of New York University, Heldrich Center at Rutgers University, and volunteers from the Action Coalition’s education pillar. It will be funded for three years.

The first 25 nurse residents started the program in May 2014, and the second group of residents will begin in January 2015.  The residency program will last a year as the nurse residents work in New Jersey LTC facilities. The project is intended to improve care for residents in nursing homes and help stabilize the state’s RN workforce.

Read the full story.