After graduation, Nicole Weathers (06BSN) did exactly what new nurses are advised not to do; she took a high-stress job far away from home. It didn’t take long before she became the statistic—the one in three new nurses who leave their first job within the first year. Today, as program manager for the Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program (IONRP), Weathers finds this “kind of ironic,” because, “every day I work to help new nurses thrive throughout their first year of practice.”
Growing up in a small town in northwest Iowa, Weathers was confident she would someday be a Hawkeye. What she would study at the University of Iowa was less clear. Initially she wanted to be a science teacher but then decided nursing, with its multitude of opportunities, was the way to go. After graduating and both starting and leaving her first nursing job in a year, Weathers found herself back in northwest Iowa. She took a job at a 25-bed critical access hospital and discovered a passion for rural healthcare. “In rural health care, you have to be the expert in everything,” Weathers said. “You deliver babies, you do end-of-life care, and everything in between, all with fewer resources and people than most organizations. I think it’s that time in the critical access hospital that helped me develop an appreciation for rural health care. It ignited a passion in me for helping nurses and rural facilities be the best that they can be and getting resources out into these rural communities to help them provide better health care to the patients that they serve.”
In 2014, Weathers came across an opportunity that seemed tailor made for her. The University of Iowa College of Nursing was starting a program to help new nurses working in rural facilities transition to practice. “When I was reading that job description, I felt like all of my experience up to this point was just pointing me in the direction of taking this role,” she recalled. Nine years later, Weathers runs the program with a staff of four, and the IONRP serves 54 healthcare organizations across 17 states.
Weathers sees her leadership role primarily as that of a facilitator. “Sometimes when people talk about leadership, they talk about inspiring people or motivating people. But for me, it’s more about facilitating the success of others,” she said. With the IONRP, “it’s ‘How can I help these organizations successfully support their new graduate nurses?’ Then when I think about my team, it’s ‘How can I help them find success in what they do? What are their strengths? How can we use those strengths and passions to fulfill our mission and carry out the work that we do, with the goal that they enjoy their work and feel good about what they do?’”
Two nurses were particularly influential on her path to leadership. The first was Terri Nobles, her nurse manager at the critical access hospital. When Weathers was wavering on whether she needed or wanted to pursue higher education, Nobles said, “‘Nicole, you have 40 more years to work. If you have even the smallest inkling that you maybe want to go back to school, you have to do it. You can’t tell me in those next 40 years that going back to school now isn’t going to be worth it,’” Weathers recalled. “And I remember at the time, all I could think about was, ‘I have to work for 40 more years?!’”
That was the push she needed, and Weathers decided to pursue a master’s in nursing education. “I think doing that opened up so many doors,” she said. “This position, for instance – [a master’s degree] was one of the requirements, and had I not taken that step when I did, when I didn’t think I needed it, I wouldn’t have had it when I did need it.”
The second was Lori Forneris, the chair of the task force that put the IONRP curriculum together. “She was one of those people who always pushed me to think outside of the box, to not be afraid to chase these big, wild ideas,” Weathers said. “You need those people in your corner who continue to push you along, even when you’re unsure if you want to keep going in that direction.”
Recently, Weathers took another step on her leadership path and began a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Health Systems at the UI College of Nursing. “As my position has evolved and the program has evolved, I realized that I also needed to evolve,” she said. She is especially excited about the innovation aspect of the program. “The very first class that I took was on innovation in healthcare. That was really exciting, because I’m always thinking about how we could do things new or different. Before it was a lot of trial and error, and I think the courses that I’ve taken thus far have given me a better framework [for a] structured way in which we can actually bring some of these innovations to light.”
As for the future, Weathers is sure of one thing: it will involve improving the quality of rural health care. “I believe that’s going to be done by ensuring rural clinicians have access to all the things,” she said. “Access to best practices, access to mentoring, access to professional development.” One piece of that is her current work with the IONRP, and she believes another piece could be nurse-led innovation and entrepreneurship. Weathers enjoys encouraging nurses to see value in their experience and run with their ideas. For her, it is all about supporting nurses and getting “resources out there, so those of us that are not working in the large academic medical centers have access to the tools needed to be successful,” she said.
“I have 1,000 other ideas of things that I think should exist and could have real impact in our rural communities,” she added. “I’m not quite sure what the future is going to hold, but I do know I want to focus on what I can do to help nurses improve the quality of health care provided in my own backyard.”
The Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program is an innovative, competency-based, online nurse residency program designed to support recent nurse graduates transition into practice. Developed with small and rural organizations in mind, this curriculum is delivered using a combination of online, evidence-based content, monthly cohort discussions, and engagement in a professional experience.
For more information, visit nursing.uiowa.edu/ionrp