Sign Up for Calvary’s Six-Month RN-Nurse Residency Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care
Palliative and End-of-Life Care RN Residency
Advance your practice – become an End-of-life care specialist.
Become a CalvaryCare® RN Resident in
Palliative and End-of-Life Care
We are currently accepting applications for Spring and Fall 2024 programs.
Palliative and End-of-Life Care is one of the fastest-growing specialties in nursing!
For recent graduates, early or mid-career nurses, and nurses with little or no hospital experience. You will become a capable, confident, and compassionate palliative and end-of-life care specialist.
Meet the complex physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people who have advanced cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. Program benefits include:
- 6 month program with a competitive, full-time salary plus immediate benefits
- Participants in the RN Residency may acquire certification from ELNEC, the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium
- Develop expertise in hospital and hospice settings
- Designed for recent graduates, early, and mid-career RNs
- Transition to independent specialty practice and leadership roles
The CalvaryCare® RN Residency Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care supports professional practice development, emphasizing:
- Critical thinking
- Leadership
- Communication
- Evidence-Based Practice
- Patient safety
“The CalvaryCare® RN Residency Program is research-driven, evidence-based, and focused on comfort and compassion. The science of care, in addition to our love of care, guides our clinical practice, 24/7 everywhere.”
Betty Nelson, PhD, RN
Administrator, Innovation & Special Projects
The CalvaryCare® RN Residency program is supported by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, which provides grants to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable New Yorkers, bolster the health outcomes of diverse communities, eliminate barriers to care, and bridge gaps in health services.
Program Requirements
To be considered for the CalvaryCare® RN Residency Program, applicants should:
- Hold an associates or bachelors in nursing science from a nationally accredited program
- Hold an unencumbered license as a registered nurse in New York State
- Commit to the one-year residency program + two-years of employment at Calvary
Program Outline
The mission of Calvary Hospital is to care for the medical, emotional and spiritual needs of our adult patients with advanced cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. Our core principles are compassion, non-abandonment, dignity and love.
Creating a culture of excellent care requires making explicit Calvary’s values and performance expectations to which all nurses can subscribe and that influences practice behavior. The RN Residency Program, which features case-study learning, is delivered at Calvary Hospital and within Calvary Hospice.
Your special professional practice will develop as modules of learning are completed, including:
- Functional Psychomotor Skills Development
- Patient Care & Professional Practice
- Symptom Assessment & Management
- Pain Assessment & Management
- Cultural, Spiritual & Psycho-social Care
- Ethics of Excellent Care
- Communications & Technology
- Self-care & Leadership
- Setting Professional Boundaries
- Interdisciplinary Medicine
- Loss, Grief and Bereavement
Program Objective
More CalvaryCare® is needed in the Greater New York area. With an RN Residency Program designed for the increasing needs of our community, Calvary will build capacity to better serve the growing palliative and end-of-life care population.
Our model of education – based on our mission to care for the medical, emotional, and spiritual needs of our patients and their families – provides a truly unique opportunity for recent graduate nurses and early/mid-career nurses to enter directly into CalvaryCare®. Addressing and prioritizing the palliative and end-of-life registered nurse workforce is key to providing optimal, evidence-based care to people with advanced cancer and other life-limiting illnesses.
Why Calvary?
For more than 35 years Calvary has educated thousands of physicians, nurses, social workers, and healthcare professionals from around the world through its acclaimed Palliative Care Institute. In addition, hundreds of nursing and medical students from New York City-area colleges and universities study end-of-life care at Calvary every year, including members of the New York City Fire Department. The CalvaryCare® RN Residency Program is research-driven, evidence-based, and focused on comfort and compassion. The science of care, in addition to our love of care, guides our clinical practice, 24/7, everywhere.
Administrator, Innovation & Special Projects
Betty Nelson, PhD, RN
Dr. Nelson, Administrator, Innovation & Special Projects and adjunct faculty member in the Louise Harrington School of Nursing at Baylor University, has held leadership positions in nursing and hospital administration, academia, research, associations, policy analysis & development, and clinical practice (pediatrics).
Previous positions include Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences as Capella University, Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Phoenix, Vice President for Quality at Regional One Health in Memphis, TN, Chief Nurse and Interim Hospital Administrator for Shriners Hospitals for Children in Philadelphia, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs (founding) Yale University School of Nursing, Director of the Research Center (founding) at the American College of Physicians, Director of Medical Nursing at LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center, Memphis, Tennessee, and Director of Medical-Surgical Nursing, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Nelson has served on various for-profit and non-profit boards, national advisory groups for the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and invitational summits of the Institute of Medicine and the Joint Commission. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow and recipient of the first Dorothy M. Smith Award for Leadership in Education from the University of Florida College of Nursing. She was elected to membership in Sigma Theta Tau International at the University of Delaware and Phi Kappa Phi at the University of Florida. She received her BSN from the University of Delaware, MSN from the University of Florida and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.