Professional Context and Reflective Practice of New Graduate Nurses

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Introduction
The transition of a student from the university level to a new graduate nurse (GN)
practice is instilled with numerous challenges and opportunities. The new GN is a newly
registered nurse (RN) who attains an initial exposure to the clinical practice environment
after accomplishing the formal nursing study. The new GNs require substantial emotional,
social, and clinical support in the context of accomplishing their patient care liabilities and
accountabilities in the hospital setting (Hussein, Everett, Ramjan, Hu, & Salamonson, 2017).
The acquisition of competence and confidence by the new GN requires considerable time,
effort, and dedication during the initial phase of patient care management. The reflective
practice proves highly conducive to the enhancement of new GN’s patient care performance.
Accordingly, the essay critically analyses the relationship between the professional context
and reflective practice of the new GNs.
Critical Analysis
The case study emphasises the state of confusion experienced by the unprepared new
GNs during their initial deployment across the clinical practice environment. Hezaveh, Rafii,
and Seyedfatemi (2014) argue that the absence of comprehensive support measures and
transition-work interventions inside the hospital settings predominantly impact the learning
experiences of the new GNs. Contrarily, Zheng, Lee, and Bloomer, (2016) emphasise several
other attributes that potentially influence the work practice and learning experience of the
newly RNs across the clinical practice environment. These attributes include coping
strategies, professional growth perception, and family support level that determine the new
GNs’ emotional stress level inside the hospital setting (NMBA Standard-1) (Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). For example, emotionally weak nurses experience
psychological stress while witnessing the death experience of terminally ill patients. These

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outcomes reveal that the newly RN requires consistent support from their senior health care
members in the context of improving their coping skills, work action plan, and overall
learning experience.
The case study emphasises the need for improving the newly RNs’ trust in the overall
health care process to effectively enhance the level of their preparedness in the hospital
setting. However, Ebrahimi, Azizi, Gillespie, Negarandeh, and Hassankhani (2016) argue that
this requirement is based on the development of a sense of security and comfort among the
new GNs. The constructive professional relationship between the new GNs with their peers
and mentors also improves their self-confidence and critical thinking ability while
minimising the intensity of anxiety and stress under complex health care circumstances
(Standard-2) (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). Accordingly, they must
develop a robust interpersonal relationship with their peers and senior nurses to accomplish
the entire learning needs and training gaps.
The newly RNs must effectively comply with reflective practice to improve their
procedural knowledge and clinical skills. Koshy, Limb, Jafree, Whitehurst, and Gundogan
(2017) argue that reflective-practice assists the new graduate to nurses to comprehensively
understand and deal with various postoperative complications, missed diagnosis, dissatisfied
patient, and failed medical interventions. Reflective practice also assists the newly RNs to
revisit their successes and failures after encountering each patient care situation. For example,
reflective practice helps them to identify the successful handling of a difficult medical
procedure (based on clinical governance) or evaluate the occurrence of a safety event that
could have occurred under the impact of medical error or negligence (Australian Commission
on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2019). Reflective practice in this manner consistently

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motivates the new GNs to improve their learning experience and quality of health care
services.
The case study emphasises the initiation of supernumerary shifts to facilitate the
acclimatisation of the new GNs inside the health care setting. The initial deployment of the
new GNs inside the hospital setting proves to be their critical career enhancement phase
(Walton, Lindsay, Hales, & Rook, 2018). They need to learn from each clinical practice
experience while understanding medical errors and their associated risks in terms of safety
events, medicolegal issues, and patient dissatisfaction. Sibiya, Ngxongo, and Beepat, (2018)
argue that the integration of peer mentoring and reflective practice substantially improve the
learning outcomes of the new GNs inside the clinical setting. Contrarily, Adams and Gillman,
(2016) emphasise the configuration of an evidence-based transition intervention to effectively
improve the facilitated learning opportunities, socialisation level, psychosocial support, and
reflective practice of the new GNs. The evidence-based recommendations in this manner
emphasise the requirement of undertaking focussed, planned, and comprehensive measures to
improve the reflective practice skills of the newly registered nurses inside the clinical setting.
The case study emphasises the development of confidence, autonomy, and feedback
management skills of the new GNs through the administration of mentor-based support
measures. The case study also motivates the new GNs to seek emotional and psychosocial
support from their mentors for improving their clinical/reflective practice skills. Accordingly,
Lutz, Roling, Berger, Edelhäuser, and Scheffer, (2016) emphasise the need for improving the
clinical communication skills of the new GNs in the context of enhancing their creative
responses against a range of clinical practice situations. Contrarily, Larsen, London, and
Emke (2016) correlate the new GNs’ experience with their reflective practice skills. This
indicates that the new GNs should invest substantial time with patient management services