MedBridge Partners With VNAHSNNE for an Innovative New Hybrid Nurse Residency Program to Address Industry-Wide Nursing Shortage

MedBridge Partners With VNAHSNNE to Address Industry-Wide Nursing Shortage
MedBridge Partners With VNAHSNNE for an Innovative New Hybrid Nurse Residency Program to Address Industry-Wide Nursing Shortage

MedBridge, the industry-leading online education and patient engagement solution that enables healthcare organizations to improve outcomes and optimize care delivery, announced its new partnership with VNA Health System of Northern New England, Inc. (VNAHSNNE), an alliance of five community-based, not-for-profit home health agencies, to deliver a new nurse residency program by leveraging the MedBridge platform and Nurse Onboarding training to digitally administer the curriculum for their 12-month program.

"Working with MedBridge, we have been able to organize and optimize our full-year VNAHSNNE Nurse Residency Program," said Briana L. White, DNP, RN, CPN, CCRN-K, CNL, Director of the VNAHSNNE Nurse Residency Program. "Their platform has allowed us to combine MedBridge's online educational resources with our existing hands-on curriculum to enhance the learning experience of nurse residents who are coming to home health."

MedBridge's Nursing Onboarding Solution is bolstered by its new Skills and Competency Manager that features a digital skills checklist, online bite-sized skills training courses, and a robust reporting dashboard. This helps healthcare agencies streamline onboarding and train new nurses on clinical and non-clinical skills more effectively so they can start providing patient care faster. Most importantly, MedBridge also documents and reports on training and skill competency so organizations can know every nurse is supported with the right skills, and better track progress and proficiency —  all on a single online platform.

MedBridge's all-in-one solution has already been used to onboard nurses more efficiently at a lower cost. During a pilot program with Interim Healthcare of the Upstate, the home health care provider was able to serve more patients in their community by leveraging the platform to reduce the time needed to onboard new nursing staff in both home health and hospice settings by seven days. This reduced home health and hospice staff onboarding expenses by $7,000 per nurse, resulting in a total projected savings of $600,000 in annual operating costs, with 100 percent of participants surveyed reporting that the quality of education they received during their onboarding was good or excellent.

"When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the ability to conduct in-person hiring and training, it exposed the crucial need for digital support to ensure that home health and hospice agencies can provide uninterrupted care to their patients," said Joseph Brence, PT, DPT, MBA, FAAOMPT, Head of Clinical Strategy at MedBridge. "With their forward-thinking approach to utilizing residency as a vehicle to drive staff attraction and retention, VNAHSNNE is the perfect partner to tackle these industry-wide issues head-on."

About the VNA Health System of Northern New England (VNAHSNNE)

The VNA Health System of Northern New England, Inc. (VNAHSNNE) is an alliance of five community-based, not-for-profit home health agencies. VNAHSNNE was incorporated in New Hampshire in July of 1997 to create a network of home health and hospice providers. The mission of the organization is to promote the charitable nonprofit mission of Visiting Nurse Associations in New Hampshire in providing quality home health, hospice, and other community services and health promotion/wellness activities to all residents.