NURSING GRADUATES’ PREPARATION TO PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Keywords:
Nursing education, health science education, nursing graduates, transition to practice programs, first-year nurses, prelicensure nursing educationAbstract
The shortage of nurses to provide safe patient care in the future is a looming reality for healthcare systems in the United States. Healthcare faces an aging population, retiring experienced nurses, and higher acuity of patients seeking treatment. The first year of professional nursing is a period of acclimation and adjustment for new nursing graduates, often experiencing feelings of inadequacy, decreased self-efficacy, and incompetence leading to discontentment. Healthcare institutions have implemented various strategies such as transition to practice programs to help decrease challenges encountered and decrease turnover of new nurses entering the workforce while ensuring the safety of patients. The problem is there may be a disconnect between the skills learned in prelicensure nursing education, the transition to practice program, and the actual realities of the skills necessary to perform in the professional nursing role. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of new nursing graduates on their transition to practice program and the actual realities of professional nursing. Guided by a qualitative phenomenological design and linked to Benner’s novice to expert theory, 12 new nursing graduates’ experiences were captured through semi-structured face-to-face interviews to better understand the skills necessary for professional nursing practice and the barriers encountered entering the workforce. Three emergent themes were identified as communication, nursing foundation, and confidence, as expressed in interviews that gave voice to the participants regarding their experiences. This study has revealed that new nursing graduates found their experiences challenging but persevered because of their commitment to the nursing profession.
References
World Health Organization (2021). Aging and health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health
Institute of Medicine. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. National Academies Press.
United States Census Bureau. (2020, June 25). 65 and older population grows rapidly as baby boomers age. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/65-older-population-grows.html
Goode, C. J., Glassman, K. S., Ponte, P. R., Krugman, M., & Peterman, T. (2018). Requiring a nurse residency for newly licensed registered nurses. Nursing Outlook, 66(3), 329-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2018.04.004
Letourneau, R. M., & McCurry, M. K. (2019). The effect of transition to practice programs on the self-assessment of newly licensed registered nurses’ confidence in quality and safety competency attainment. Nursing Education Perspectives, 40(3), 151-156. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000438
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2020). Nursing shortage. https://www.aacnnursing.org/news-information/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage
Eckerson, C. M. (2018). The impact of nurse residency programs in the United States on improving retention and satisfaction of new nurse hires: An evidence-based literature review. Nurse Education Today, 71, 84-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.09.003
Bennett, L. L., Grimsley, A., Grimsley, L., & Rodd, J. (2017). The gap between nursing education and clinical skills. ABNF Journal, 28(4), 96-102.
Herleth, A., Virkstis, K., Renfroe, J., & Rewers, L. (2020). The challenging road to clinical competence for new graduate RNs. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 50(4), 185-186. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000864
Labrague, L. J., & De Los Santos, J. A. (2020). Transition shock and newly graduated nurses’ job outcomes and select patient outcomes: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(5), 1070-1079. https://doi.org/10.1111.jonm.13033
Rush, K. L., Janke, R., Duchscher, J. E., Phillips, R., & Kaur, S. (2019). Best practices of formal new graduate transition programs: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 94, 139-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.02.010
Van Patten, R. R., & Bartone, A. S. (2019). The impact of mentorship, preceptors, and debriefing on the quality of program experiences. Nurse Education in Practice, 35, 63-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2019.01.007
Merrian, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Benner, P. (1982). From novice to expert. The American Journal of Nursing, 82(3), 402-407.
Benner, P. (2001). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice (Commemorative ed.). Prentice Hall Health.
Camveren, H., Yurumezoglu, H. A., & Kocaman, G. (2020). Why do young nurses leave their organization? A qualitative descriptive study. International Nursing Review, 67(4), 519-528. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12633
Djukic, M., Stimpfel, A. W., & Kovner, C. (2019). Bachelor's degree nurse graduates report better quality and safety educational preparedness than associate degree graduates. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 45, 180-186. https://doi.org/10.1016.j.jcjq.2018.08.008
Hyun, A., Tower, M., & Turner, C. (2020). Exploration of the expected and achieved competency levels of new graduate nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(6), 1418-1431. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13105
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 International Education and Research Journal (IERJ)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.