Innovative Strategies to Facilitate Newly Licensed Nurse Transition to Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Quality Improvement Project.

As healthcare facilities transition from initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to consider innovative strategies to overcome instructional challenges presented to nursing schools in order to maintain a competent workforce amidst nursing shortages and increasing patient volumes and complexity. Nursing professional development practitioners will play a pivotal role in revitalizing transition-to-practice programs to meet the demands of the new workforce. This article details an academia-practice initiative for newly licensed nurses who enter practice during the pandemic.

Bridging the Gap: Implementation of Skills Review Days for New Graduate Nurses.

This article will inform the reader about challenges of onboarding new graduate nurses during COVID-19 and discuss how to combat those challenges. New graduate nurses attended a skills day and completed pre- and postsurveys, rating their level of confidence in the same identified skills. Each participant showed improved confidence ( p < .001). Offering skills days to bridge the gap to clinical practice is shown to be beneficial.

Faculty perceptions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new graduate nurses' transition to practice: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nursing education worldwide. Most studies have focused on how the pandemic affected students. With an alarming workforce shortage, a better understanding of the pandemic's impact on new nurses is vital to proactively develop strategies to promote success of the profession's newest members. PURPOSE: This study explored faculty perceptions of the pandemic's impact on new nurses' practice preparedness and recommendations for promoting effective transition to practice. METHODS: Using an exploratory-descriptive qualitative approach and convenience sampling, 116 nurse faculty from across North Carolina, United States responded to open-ended questions within an electronic survey. Data were analyzed with thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four themes emerged: 1) Less Hands-On, 2) Transition-to-Practice Opportunities, 3) Key Role of Preceptors, and 4) Provide Additional Support. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide strategies clinical nurses and leaders can implement to meet the needs of new nurses entering professional practice during the ongoing pandemic. Due to less hands-on learning, pandemic graduates may benefit from extended time with a trained preceptor and opportunities to focus on clinical reasoning, managing multiple patients, effective communication, and safe skill performance. Upon entering the clinical environment, pandemic graduates' inexperience may increase the likelihood of transition shock, requiring multi-faceted approaches for providing support.

Nurse faculty perceptions of readiness for practice among new nurses graduating during the pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major changes in nursing education, namely a shift to remote learning and significant reduction of clinical practice experience. It is not known how these changes will affect new graduate nurses transitioning to practice. PURPOSE: To provide guidance to transition-to-practice programs, this study quantitatively described and compared nurse faculty perceptions of readiness for practice among students who graduated pre-pandemic and those who will graduate during the pandemic. METHODS: A convenience sample of 116 nurse faculty across North Carolina completed surveys online. Surveys collected information on demographics, professional experience, and teaching changes experienced during the pandemic. The Nursing Practice Readiness Tool was used to measure perceptions of readiness for practice. RESULTS: Nurse faculty reported a wide range of changes due to the pandemic, with limitations in clinical learning prevalent. There was a statistically significant decrease in practice readiness scores for the total scale, six subscales, and all tool items at p < 0.001 for all paired comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: While there was an overall significant decrease in scores for all competency areas, further analysis of the tool subscales and items can provide guidance for clinical nurses working with new graduates and nurse faculty working with continuing students.

Nurse Preceptor Role in New Graduate Nurses' Transition to Practice.

The transition to practice period is a challenging and demanding time for new graduate nurses. Leaving the structured environment of nursing school and entering professional practice can cause reality and transition shock for the new nurse resulting in unsafe patient care, as well as intention to leave their position or the profession. Successful transition to practice depends on the new nurse building confidence and gaining essential clinical reasoning abilities while orienting to their role. In critical care settings, patient care is more complex and fast-paced, which adds another dimension of overall stress to the new graduate. Structured orientation programs with trained preceptors have been found to be the most successful means of preparing new graduate nurses for clinical practice. Ensuring preceptors are provided with education related to the development of clinical reasoning is essential to successfully assist new nurses in their transition to practice. Safe and effective patient care, especially in the critical care unit, is dependent upon having nurses who are well prepared for their role through being provided guidance and support from trained preceptors.