Jefferson Health Opens Nurse Emeritus Program to Retired Area RNs
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
A Jefferson Health program that offers retired nurses an opportunity to help new-to-practice nurses hone their skills through in-person mentoring is being expanded to potential hires from outside of the health system.
“We’ve had great success with our Nurse Emeritus program, originally offered to Jefferson Health nursing retirees, and we’re ready to take it to the next level,” said New Jersey Program Coordinator Marilyn Goodman, MSN, RN.
First established during the pandemic in 2022, more than 12 nurses who had retired within the past three years (a requirement of the program), joined the Nurse Emeritus team at Jefferson in New Jersey, working everywhere from med-surg floors to the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in Washington Township, to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The program is a “win-win” for retired nurses and existing RNs alike, Goodman says, offering the retirees an opportunity to re-enter the workforce by providing needed mentoring skills and offering their experience and guidance to new-to-practice and other nurses.
Requirements for current openings in New Jersey include:
§ An active New Jersey nursing license
§ A commitment to work a minimum of eight hours a month
§ Not being out of the workforce for more than three years.
Training is provided to Nurse Emeritus program participants before beginning the role and they can select the floor/unit where their skills will be a strong fit.
Debbi Tropp, a 20-year Jefferson employee in New Jersey who retired in 2022, joined the program at its inception that same year as the first participant. Two years later, this 71-year-old RN – with some 50 years of nursing experience – is “thrilled with the opportunity to give back to my profession.”
“Once a nurse, always a nurse,” Tropp said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for me to both share my knowledge and to also learn new things.” The Nurse Emeritus participants do not perform hands-on clinical care or any medication administration; their role is education-based. To learn more, please write to us at: [email protected].