Oswego Health offers RN tuition-assistance program, emergency-services residency

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Oswego Health is offering its employees some perks to provide incentive to keep workers offering health care locally.

They include an RN (registered nurse) tuition-assistance program and an emergency-services residency.

RN tuition-assistance program

Oswego Health is offering its employees an RN tuition-assistance program if they’re “looking to advance their training as a registered nurse.”

The program will reimburse employees up to $10,000 per year as they pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing or a master’s degree in nursing, per a May 3 announcement from the health system.

“We know firsthand that a highly-educated nursing workforce strengthens the quality of care provided to patients,” Marquand Brown, VP of human resources at Oswego Health, said. “Since launching this program at the start of 2020 we’ve already had [19] employees receive tuition assistance, totaling over $75,000 in funding towards their education.”

Oswego Health cites information from the Washington, D.C.–based American Association of Colleges of Nursing as a reason for this program. 

The organization has said that “the U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of RNs that is expected to intensify as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows. Compounding the problem is the fact that nursing schools across the country are struggling to expand capacity to meet the rising demand for care given the national move toward health-care reform.”

Oswego Health also sees the tuition-assistance program as a “unique” perk to “entice” health-care workers to provide care locally.

Stacy Stevens is among those who recently graduated after participating in the program. “When the RN tuition-assistance program became available, I was already halfway through receiving my [associate degree] in nursing,” Stevens said. “Honestly, I was just going to power through, but this program gave me much-needed financial relief. I saved so much money and headache by not having to take out a personal loan. This program is such a benefit for anyone who wants to grow in their career while working.”

Emergency-services residency

Oswego Health also recently launched another new program, which it calls an emergency-services residency. 

This program offers on-the-job training for graduate nurses through a 12-month residency with a three-month critical care rotation. Throughout the “fully compensated” residency, candidates will have more than 150 hours of classroom education including pharmacology, IV therapy, telemetry, critical care, a trauma-nursing core course (TNCC), and emergency nursing pediatric course (ENPC), “all with structured clinical orientation with experienced preceptors.” 

The program offers the opportunity to advance from a graduate nurse (GN) to RN2 at the completion of residency.

“As a small community health-care system, our employees have opportunities for advancement across varying divisions, however, we knew we needed to identify programs that would personally benefit employees,” Melissa Purtell, director of nursing, said. “Whether that be helping to support their continuing education through tuition assistance or the experience of a residency program right out of college.” 

Oswego Health has so far had five employees complete the residency program.