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The American Nurses Credential Center’s Practice Transition Accreditation Program recognized Memorial Medical Center’s nurse residency program with a reaccreditation recently.
Julie Reyes, Memorial Medical Center’s education director of the LaunchPoint Nurse Residency Program, said that the program was created to assist nursing students to make the transition from academia to residency. Over a 12-month period, the LauchPoint team works to mentor up-and-coming nurses, giving them a chance to gain real world experience. Memorial created the nursing program in April 2021. The program gained reaccreditation in May.
“There’s a really big gap in what academia has to provide to them to get [nurses] through school versus what we need them to know for them to be able to do the necessary things at the bedside,” Reyes said. “And it’s not academia’s fault; it's just a big learning curve between what you learn in school and what you actually do in real life.”
The Practice Transition Accreditation Program is the gold standard for transition-to-practice programs in the United States.
That means the Memorial Medical Center’s program met the nation standard, making it the only program in southern New Mexico and the greater borderland area to achieve this recognition. It also allows the program to join 297 other programs to receive the recognition worldwide.
This is significant in the state of New Mexico, as it is currently experiencing a nursing shortage. In June 2024, New Mexico had over 6,000 residential nurse openings and travel nurses filled over 12% of these roles according to the New Mexico Nurses Association.
“We do have a nursing shortage and need to have more programs like this that focus on helping our new nurses be successful in their new careers, wanting to not only stay in the nursing field, but also to actively encourage others to look into a nursing career as well,” said Troy Clack, president and chief executive officer of the New Mexico Hospital Association.
Correction: This story was updated at 10 a.m. June 25th to reflect that Troy Clark is the president and CEO of the New Mexico Hospital Assocation, not the NM Medical Association.
