Developing the Graduate Nurse Residency: An Oral History With Dr. Colleen Goode and Dr. Mary Krugman.

Health care organizations face the challenge of needing newly licensed nurses to fill positions and facilitate competent care for patients. Wide variation in graduate nurse orientation programs, a growing complexity of care, and high graduate nurse turnover rates led to the development of nurse residency programs. The historical perspectives of two nursing pioneers involved in the development of a national model for nurse residency programs provide context to the importance of creating a vision, providing leadership, and applying an evidence-based rationale to structure a series of learning and work experiences designed to support graduate nurses as they transition into their first professional nursing position. .