You're allowed to ask. How many weeks. Who precepts. Whether they can float you before you're off orientation. Get those answers before you sign, and ask again if the first ones were soft.
Nurses compare weeks, not logos. Six weeks in ICU, then a full assignment: that's the story that makes people tell each other to run.
What a named program tells you
244 postings on the board name a residency, a fellowship, or some other structured cohort. A name usually means a curriculum and someone paid to run it.
Named programs on the board
Where they state a length, 52 weeks comes up most. That's the seminar year. Not 52 weeks with a preceptor at your elbow.
A lot of hospitals run Vizient/AACN: monthly cohort days for about a year, stacked on ordinary unit orientation. Two different things. Ask which you're getting.
The training year and your rate
Named-program postings that list pay start a little higher, not lower. Median floor $80,766 on 55 priced program postings. $78,000 on 294 that only say new grads welcome. Nobody's taking the training year out of the rate.
Part 5 is the wider picture.
The questions that separate a program from a sentence:
Length, in writing.
Weeks on orientation, and what ends it: a date, or a competency sign-off?
The preceptor.
One consistent preceptor, or whoever is on? How many other orientees?
Float during orientation.
Can you be pulled before you're off orientation?
The check-ins.
Who reviews progress, how often, and what happens if you aren't ready?
The commitment.
Some programs carry a service commitment or repayment clause. Know the number before you sign.
Residency Reality turns this list into a worksheet you can carry into the interview.
If the answers are vague
"It depends on the unit" for length, and "we'll figure out preceptors when you start," is what an unstructured orientation sounds like from the inside. It doesn't have to be disqualifying. It does move the burden to you. Ask for the strongest preceptor they have.
Build your first 90 days. Nurses in this stretch are in The first year. The week-six threads are worth the visit.
Next: the new-grad rate is at the floor.
Notes
- Count of active postings naming a structured new-grad program, the most common stated program length, and median floors for program versus explicit-welcome postings: Nursing Mastery job corpus, read 14 August 2026. Active nursing postings, n=14,094; priced program postings n=55, priced explicit-welcome postings n=294. Few postings state a length. The 52-week figure is the most common stated value, not an average.
- Vizient/AACN program shape is Vizient's own published model.
- Live openings appear in the open-roles module below, drawn from the same corpus.
