Amy Nichols is truly a nurse’s nurse. More specifically, Amy has served the nursing profession as a nurse educator for many years, developing a particular gift for nurturing new or inexperienced nurses entering the acute care setting for the first time. As the Nurse Residency Professional Development and Retention Specialist, Amy oversees the Graduate Nurse Residency (GNR) program. The GNR program involves a two-year process of supporting, educating, and professionally developing novice nurses. At any given time, Amy juggles many different cohorts of nurse residents and develops a trusting relationship with each resident. As our facility’s greatest pipeline of nursing recruitment, Amy has single-handedly recruited and retained more new nurses than any other role here at WDMC.

Even before the nurses graduate, Amy is the facility lead for overseeing the Designated Education Units by developing nurse clinical preceptors and facilitating the mentorship process. Amy supports and coordinates nursing students through their clinical practicum experiences and finds opportunities to maximize the students' clinical experiences. Amy is instrumental in onboarding and creating orientation schedules for student nurses who wish to work as Care Partners while they are in school, preparing for their nursing license.

Between the staggered GNR cohort schedules and the clinical rotation of nursing students, Amy demonstrates exceptional organization skills and efficiency. As an excellent communicator and collaborator, Amy keeps the precepting nurse, nurse mentors, small group facilitators, unit managers, and leaders abreast of each GNR’s progress. Likewise, Amy coordinates feedback to novice nurses through regular meetings with preceptors and unit managers.

Amy models and teaches new nurses to uphold Wellstar’s values of serving with compassion, pursuing excellence, and honoring every voice. One way Amy models honoring every voice is by listening carefully to new nurses for any clues or evidence that their preceptors might not be the best fit. Amy ensures that the GNRs and nursing students have the best clinical learning experience possible. She strives diligently to ensure that novice nurses feel free to question anything they do not understand. Amy has a gift for breaking down nursing processes and care patterns for those who have not grasped a particular concept, skill, or process.

GNR participants are exposed to resources that promote nursing scholarship, authorship, research, and innovation in healthcare delivery. By leading new nurses in case study exercises and evidence-based practice (EBP) research, Amy teaches and demonstrates critical thinking skills and sound, practiced judgment.

Amy celebrates each nurse as they complete their individual orientation with a certificate of achievement, a goody bag, and balloons. When the GNR nurses complete the residency program, Amy organizes a graduation breakfast with a ceremony celebrating the achievements of the graduates as “Rising Stars “ with certificates, a new stethoscope, and individual videos prepared by the home unit team members of each graduate. The celebration also includes presentations of the Evidence-Based Practice research projects completed by the residents.

Amy remains a trusted resource for the nurses long after their completion of the GNR program. The nurse retention rates are evidence of Amy’s commitment to professional development and continual pursuit of excellence.