Successful Transition of the New Graduate Nurse

Abstract

Reports that new nurse graduates are not sufficiently prepared to enter the workforce are of concern to educators, employers, and other stakeholders. Often, this lack of 'practice readiness' is defined in relation to an inability to 'hit the ground running' and is attributed to a 'gap' between theory and practice and the nature of current work environments. To gain a deeper understanding of the process of making the transition from student to graduate nurse, discussion groups were held across Alberta with 14 new graduates and 133 staff nurses, employers, and educators. Five additional new graduates and 34 staff nurses, employers, and educators provided input by fax or e-mail. The findings of this initiative speak to the need to examine assumptions underlying 'practice readiness' and what constitutes an effective transition to the workplace. The problems to be addressed are complex and a wide range of sustainable, evidence-based approaches are required to resolve them.

Korean nursing students’ experiences of their first clinical practice

“…Nursing students, when they observe nurses being apathetic towards or not supportive of patient or students and not doing proper and accurate work based on their being busy as an excuse, will be impacted negatively on what their future image for an ideal nurse is, along with the doubt about the nursing profession itself. This result is consistent with those of other studies [3,13,14] that reported the clinical practice experience of nursing students as a sense of gap between theories and actual practice, confusion of the identity of nursing, chaos coming from various dynamic models. The clinical practice of nursing students is an unclear learning transition that entails role conflicts and vague boundaries [15] .…”

Perceptions of Professional Practice and Work Environment of New Graduates in a Nurse Residency Program

“…Delivering care in this practice environment is challenging for all providers, but particularly newly graduated nurses entering the workforce. New graduates' struggles are compounded due to the heightened demands for clinical expertise resulting in a steep learning curve and increased expectations for rapid role assimilation (Spector & Li, 2007;Berkow, Virkstis, Stewart, & Conway, 2008;Romyn et al,2009). …”

“…Nurse residency programs (newly licensed nurses' transition to practice programs) are an evolving evidence-based strategy to help new nurses bridge the practice gap, reduce turnover and enhance patient safety and quality of care (Beecroft et al, 2001;Bratt, 2009;Krugman et al, 2006;Romyn et al,2009). Currently the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) is advocating for organizations to adopt a transition to practice regulatory model inclusive of all levels of licensed nurses and recommends that the completion of a transition program become criteria for relicensure after the first year of practice (NCSBN, 2009a).…”

‘Ready to hit the ground running’: Alumni and employer accounts of a unique part-time distance learning pre-registration nurse education programme

“…Pivoting between roles could cause role confusion (Thomas et al, 2012), leading to unrealistic expectations of other colleagues (Wood, 2006) and difficulties in assuming a student identity (Hasson et al, 2013). With respect to the transition to NQN, alumni's experience of preceptorship was variable (Robinson and Griffiths, 2009;Higgins et al, 2010;Currie and Watts, 2012) and some reported taking time to adjust to the role of NQN (Duchscher, 2009;Romyn et al, 2009;Feng and Tsai, 2012).…”

“…The final theme addresses 'practice readiness' and highlights concerns of potential gaps in the readiness of new graduates (Romyn et al, 2009;Wolff et al, 2010). The tension between the urgent needs of service and the time necessary for graduates to make the transition to the role of NQN is widely acknowledged.…”