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Abstract
Objectives
To investigate the experience of newly graduated registered nurses [NGRNs] in Singapore following their initial 6–12 months of transition from nursing student to registered nurse.
Methods
This mixed-methods study consisted of two phases. In the first phase, data were collected via the administration of the online survey to 30 NGRNs. The questionnaire contained 42 items of the four-point Likert scale survey. In the second phase, a focus group interview was conducted with 5 NGRNs to gather complementary information regarding the major findings from the first phase.
Results
The survey revealed despite most NGRNs [80%] in this study expressed overall satisfied with their transition, the item score was [2.97±0.61] out of 4, the majority [83.3%] also perceived their transition to professional practice being stressful, the item score was [3.07±0.74] out of 4.Three themes emerged from the interview, ‘personal transition experience’, ‘professional transition experience’, and ‘organizational transition experience’, which are entwined to construct overall NGRNs’ transition experiences.
Conclusions
This study reaffirms the theory-practice gap phenomenon. This signifies the need for closer collaboration between educational, healthcare industry and regulatory stakeholders to examine and address factors that influence their transition experience to better support them for workforce readiness.
Keywords
Hospital nursing staff
Nursing students
Role
Singapore
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Abstract
Background
For many years there has been concern that new graduate nurses may not have been adequately prepared for the workplace, often framed in terms of whether they are work ready or practice ready and able to deal with the ‘reality shock’ of transitioning from student to clinician. This has prompted significant research to investigate the practice readiness of new graduate nurses.
Objectives
Identify what is known about the practice readiness of new graduate nurses upon commencement of employment, how practice readiness changes over their first year of employment and explore the factors which influence practice readiness.
Design
Scoping review of existing reviews guided by the framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley, with search results based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses [PRISMA] Statement.
Methods
MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science were searched to identify literature reviews synthesising evidence about new graduate nurses, work readiness, practice readiness, competency and transition to practice. New graduate nurses were defined as nurses who were working in any clinical setting as a nurse within their first year of employment after graduation. Database searching was supplemented with snowball searching and limited to English language papers published between 2011 and 2020. Full-text copies of included reviews were imported into an NVivo [Version 12] database to facilitate analysis and synthesis of findings.
Results
Forty-five reviews were included. The findings indicate that transition is influenced by a wide range of intrapersonal, interpersonal and organisational factors, many of which are beyond the control of new graduate nurses. The findings also suggest that, overall, there are no major concerns about the practice readiness of new graduate nurses consistently supported by strong evidence. However, there is evidence to suggest that they ‘lack confidence’ during the first few months of employment.
Conclusions
The ‘receptivity’ of the clinical environment to new graduate nurses appears to be a critical influence on their experience of transitioning from student to clinician and can also influence their readiness for the role of a registered nurse. Rather than focusing on the question of whether new graduate nurses are adequately prepared for the workplace, it may be time to shift the question to whether the workplace is ready to support new graduate nurses. The findings suggest two research priorities for advancing our understanding of workplace support for new graduate nurses.
Keywords
Capability
Clinical competence
New graduate nurses
Nurse
Nurse education
Nursing skills
Practice readiness
Reality shock
Transition
Work environment
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