RN Residency Program
The Bakersfield Memorial Hospital RN Residency Program enhances the skills and confidence of new nursing graduates, which leads to improved patient care and outcomes. Hospitals that employ RN Residency Programs have shown extraordinary results—including financial and clinical quality—and benefit through significant reduction in first and second-year new graduate turnover.
Nationally Accredited
Bakersfield Memorial Hospital Transition to Practice Program is accredited with distinction as a Practice Transition Program by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation in Practice Transition Programs.
Why the RN Residency Program?
The New Graduate RN Residency program assists registered nurse graduates in transitioning from nursing school students to professional practitioners. Bakersfield Memorial Hospital's evidence-based curriculum offers nurse residents at BMH a collaborative learning environment to successfully transition into clinical practice. Residents are given the opportunity to work alongside experienced clinicians and learn in a real-life setting to be better prepared and more confident as they enter the workforce.
This highly successful one-year program includes:
One-to-One Preceptors
RN Residents will be assigned unit-based instructional RNs to help develop clinical knowledge and experience. When 100% of assigned competencies have been validated successfully, the individual is considered to be included in productive staffing.
Caring, Committed Mentors
Each RN resident will be assigned an experienced RN to support and guide them during the residency period. This RN professional is not a preceptor or evaluator, simply a mentor who provides guidance, nurtures professional development, and encourages the learning process by enhancing the resident’s communication skills, confidence, and independence.
Classroom and Skills Lab Education
RN Residents will benefit from several hours of required lab and classroom education.
Self-Care Support Groups
RN Residents will participate in debriefing groups. Within these groups, RN residents learn self-care strategies designed to help them develop the necessary tools needed to deal with the stress of becoming a new RN.
Looping Rotation
During the RN Residency, residents become familiar with other units and areas related to their home unit for which they were hired.
Making Your Professional Goals Happen
This paid residency allows RN residents to learn in both classroom and clinical settings, working directly with experienced nurse preceptors in a hospital environment.
Our nurses are a dedicated group of professionals who possess a personal sense of commitment and responsibility to providing care that facilitates health and healing. We embrace the concept that each patient and his or her family have a unique background and individual needs.
Upcoming Opportunities
We host a cohort of the RN Residency in March and August each year. Applications for the March cohort are available in September. Applications for the August cohort are available in early April.
Please carefully read the list of requirements that you will need to include with your online application. You will need to create an online application to apply to the RN Residency Program.
To learn more about nursing opportunities at Memorial Hospital and to apply, visit the Dignity Health / CommonSpirit Health Nursing page.