Challenges Faced By Graduate Nurses During Transition To Practice

Assimilation and Challenges Faced by Graduate Nurses during Transition to Practice

Question:

Discuss about the Challenge Of Assimilation and Possible Strategies.

As a graduate nurse (GN), there are a couple of challenges that affect the successful transition to practice. Therefore, healthcare institution should understand how shifts or changes in the healthcare environment affect new GNs who are transitioning their knowledge into the real-life practice (Cho et al.2012). This excerpt discusses the challenge of assimilation and also analyses the possible strategies to assist one development needs as well as ways to work with others. It also explores governance plus regulatory frameworks in discussing factors such as responsibility, autonomy as well as practice as a GN.

In the healthcare sector, one topic that keeps being debated on is the demand for new nurses which is more significant now than ever before. On the other hand, clinicians are always under pressure to work in lean plus efficient manner because of the heightened regulatory oversight plus consumerism. With this kind of pressure, it calls for sensitization to produce GNs who are prepared to work immediately they transit from school into the practicing field. In 2012 alone, Health Resources and Service Administration reported that a state in America, California, would experience the most significant shortfall of registered nurses by 2030, with a deficit of almost 15,000 RNs (Gordon et al. 2014). However, leaders across the nation have put forward solutions or strategies to address some of the challenges employers go through when it comes to the successful transition of a GN into the real world practice. Henceforth, this write-up will discuss the challenge of assimilation that is the aspect of fitting in or being accepted and acknowledged by the team.

Assimilation or interaction with other members of the healthcare sector in this context refers to new GNs communication and acceptance by the team (the rest of health care teams such as the registered nurses and doctors) in the healthcare units plus its effects on the graduated nurses. For example, during my first placement, I noticed that inter professional relationships between nurses the plus the medical staff in the ward I was working on was more equitable that I had experience on the general ward before. For example, coming from the ward was much dissimilar regarding the surgeon’s state. This is because it is much easier to converse with the doctor especially when doing an operation since I work in a relationship, I must communicate properly with the doctors in the operation room. However, in the ward, things were much different since no one spoke to the doctors. 

The Importance of Sensitization in Producing Prepared Graduate Nurses

According to my fellow GNs, they acknowledged that interacting and being accepted by the doctors and the rest of the team brings the aspect of support during health care delivery and successful transition of knowledge into practice. For my case, doctor’s communication was critical among other healthcare professionals since the moment they realized that I was a new GN, they would enlighten different health matters and how to fit into the medical sector. For some of my GN colleagues, they noticed that different personalities among doctors have a ramification on how approachable and sociable they were, particularly at the start of their placement period. Most of the times, they found interaction with the rest of the team challenging as well as intimidating. For example, during my first time I was intimidated by the medical team to the point that I did not know how to approach them especially when seeking for clarifications.  On the contrary, if I were the senior level I would know how to communicate to them, express myself or even get things done faster.

Personally, a key factor that I believe affected my relationship and the aspect of being accepted by the rest of the medical team was transiency in the hospital. The new GRN transition plan in Canada is a one year contract (Trepanier et al. 2012). However, at times I thought that because of the non-permanent aspect of such employment, those fully employed workers did not see us as part of their crew. Luckily, a sign if relief came in when my GNs colleagues were there to discuss the experiences they go through with their team in the medical sector.  One of my GN colleagues noted that when you are a new GN, the rest of your team do not expect you to be in the unit for so long plus at times they do not get to know you. As for my case, the rest of my medical team did not know my level of knowledge plus my skills therefore at times they would explain some of the significant clinical nursing skills. During such instances, I felt the need to prove the team that I am a competent nurse and should be part of the team as well as accepted by every other.  This made it hard for me to interact with the rest of the team because they do not know you neither do they know how much you know.

The Significance of Assimilation with the Rest of the Medical Team

As a new graduate, I identified one of the most approachable people for support as well as guidance. In most instances, this individual proved to be one of the closest people in the nursing hierarchy. For instance, when I sought help on technical issues regarding nursing, I could go to him since he was so close to being a CNS.

According to literature, some techniques can put a new graduate to success. Programs like nurse mentoring program heighten GN intent to stay as well as retention rates (Feng and Tsai, 2012). However, for the new GNs to achieve competency autonomy, confidence plus organization, there needs to be a structured way on how to develop mentors. This led to the introduction of three levels of mentorship. The first level is the initiation where skills help in establishing an interpersonal relationship. Next is a collaboration where the graduate nurse and a member of teamwork as a team. The last phase is the autonomous level where a graduate nurse is given more independence (Hatler et al. 2011). Ideally, the experience of a GN develops following the execution of the program hence making him/her be accepted by the rest of the medical team. According to (Laschinger et al. 2010), the time a GN starts his/her residency at a medical center he is supposed to be given a  person who best matches his personality for support and consultation as well. Through such practices, the relationship between a GN and the mentor has helped to integrate the NGN into the health practice hence making him/her be accepted in the team of other professionals (Wieck et al. 2010).

Moreover, a 2011 report on the Future of Nurses commended a program for nurse’s shift of knowledge into the real-life practice.  On the other hand, residency programs are of the great essence since the GN turnover can shoot up to 40% (Parker et al. 2014). Also, due to health care reforms initiatives as well as increased complexities within clients demographics, new graduate nurses need to synthesize information with critical thinking skills.

Apart from supporting academic progression, including graduate nurses in decisions affecting their practice provides them with ways to better manage the problems of the current healthcare environment as well as to cope with stressors in the nursing field. Moreover, shared governance provides healthcare experts with a platform to discuss some of the problems that affect their nursing practice (Phillips et al. 2014). However, nurses with an active role in decision making usually feel empowered thus leading to increased workers engagement as well as productivity. On the other hand, inter professional decision making also provides a conducive atmosphere that calls for respect as well as enhances confidence.

The Need for the Structured Development of Mentorship Programs

Conclusion

The new graduate nurses who were involved in this essay including I have provided an excellent description of good and bad experiences with nurses and other medical colleagues as well as clients during their transition from knowledge to practice.   This essay has provided a great insight into the new graduate nurse’s perceptions of interaction with the member of the medical team. Although there can be some variations in response from the new graduate nurses that can be associated with individual personalities, it can be concluded that the more outspoken a GN is, the more likely the experience will be. The experiences described in this paper by different graduate nurses show that whilst providing positive feedback rarely happened, putting the necessary confidence to practice nursing might have impacted on the retention or acceptance of graduate nurses by the medical team. More studies in the cross clinical setting can also be helpful in determining the occurrence of the experiences of new GN in the clinical setup.

Ultimately, to support GN in the health sector and make them be accepted the rest of the medical team, institutions should understand that autonomous practice, as well as highly functioning skills, should develop from time to time but with excellent backing. Besides, people in the healthcare sector should conform or make changes to ensure that there is enough supply of registered and skilful nurses to meet the desires of the patients as well as those of graduate nurses.

References

Cho, S.H., Lee, J.Y., Mark, B.A. and Yun, S.C., 2012. Turnover of new graduate nurses in their first job using survival analysis. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(1), pp.63-70.

Feng, R.F. and Tsai, Y.F., 2012. Socialisation of new graduate nurses to practising nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(13-14), pp.2064-2071.

Friedman, M.I., Cooper, A.H., Click, E. and Fitzpatrick, J.J., 2011. Specialized new graduate RN critical care orientation: retention and financial impact. Nursing Economics, 29(1), p.7.

Gordon, C.J., Aggar, C., Williams, A.M., Walker, L., Willcock, S.M. and Bloomfield, J., 2014. A transition program to primary health care for new graduate nurses: a strategy towards building a sustainable primary health care nurse workforce?. BMC nursing, 13(1), p.34.

Hatler, C., Stoffers, P., Kelly, L., Redding, K. and Carr, L.L., 2011. Work unit transformation to welcome new graduate nurses: Using nurses’ wisdom. Nursing Economics, 29(2), p.88.

Laschinger, H.K.S., Grau, A.L., Finegan, J. and Wilk, P., 2010. New graduate nurses’ experiences of bullying and burnout in hospital settings. Journal of advanced nursing, 66(12), pp.2732-2742.

Parker, V., Giles, M., Lantry, G. and McMillan, M., 2014. New graduate nurses’ experiences in their first year of practice. Nurse Education Today, 34(1), pp.150-156.

Phillips, C., Kenny, A., Esterman, A. and Smith, C., 2014. A secondary data analysis examining the needs of graduate nurses in their transition to a new role. Nurse Education in Practice, 14(2), pp.106-111.

Read, E. and Laschinger, H.K., 2013. Correlates of new graduate nurses’ experiences of workplace mistreatment. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(4), pp.221-228.

Trepanier, S., Early, S., Ulrich, B. and Cherry, B., 2012. New graduate nurse residency program: A cost-benefit analysis based on turnover and contract labor usage. Nursing Economics, 30(4), p.207.

Wieck, K.L., Dols, J. and Landrum, P., 2010, January. Retention priorities for the intergenerational nurse workforce. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 7-17). Blackwell Publishing Inc.

Wolff, A.C., Pesut, B. and Regan, S., 2010. New graduate nurse practice readiness: Perspectives on the context shaping our understanding and expectations. Nurse Education Today, 30(2), pp.187-191.