The collaborative nursing exchange program between NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the American Hospital of Paris is focused on increasing nursing quality by providing outstanding nurses from the American Hospital of Paris with the opportunity to study advanced practices in nursing.
The American Hospital of Paris selects six nurses per year from different clinical specialties to visit NYP. AHP nurses go through the NYP two week nursing orientation along with other new NYP hires. This helps them to understand the rationale for why we do things in a certain manner. The AHP nurses also share with NYP nurses the differences between how they perform a certain procedure and how it is performed at NYP.
Following the classroom orientation, each of the AHP nurses is assigned a preceptor on a unit of interest to them. They remain on the same unit with the same preceptor throughout the visit.
The role of the preceptor is to be a bedside educator – explaining what is being done and why. The AHP nurses are legally not allowed to perform any hands-on nursing care, so learning is through direct observation.
Each of the nurses from AHP keeps a journal, and they debrief with each other every evening. When they go back to Paris, they give a presentation to senior nursing and hospital leadership about the learning that took place.
To learn more about the Nursing Program, please call Meg Hammer at 212-319-3704.