Being a Professional Nurse: Challenges and Strategies for Transitioning from Graduate Nurse to Registered Nurse

Running head: BEING A PROFESSIONAL NURSE
BEING A PROFESSIONAL NURSE
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1BEING A PROFESSIONAL NURSE
Introduction
There is a lot of challenges that a new graduate nurse had to face while going through the
transition from graduates to a registered nurse. This change is personal and professional that
changes the complete aspect of practice (Johnson, Cowin, Wilson& Young, 2012). Therefore, it
is the responsibility of healthcare facilities to determine that this transition is smooth and
synchronized. This is because, the modern healthcare system requires healthcare professionals
who are able to think critically in every situation and apply their best knowledge to save every
life (Wu, Fox, Stokes& Adam, 2012). Further, these expectations are increasing due to advanced
technological changes, increased consumerism and shrinking reimbursements. This leads to an
advanced level of challenges such as increased number of patients, different critical patient
situations due to which nurses might feel stressed and burnout during such transition (Parker,
Giles, Lantry& McMillan, 2014, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). As a
registered nurse, who is facing such transition from graduate nurse to a working facility, I will be
reflecting upon the needs and challenges of this transition by reflecting upon my strengths and
weaknesses I discovered during this phase. Further, the type of resources I used, the strategies
and factors that influence such transition and the resources available that facilitated the transition
will be demonstrated in this assignment.
Critical analysis
Starting professional life as a registered nurse is much stressful and hectic as fresh
graduates are not able to believe in themselves and require support and help in every step of their
professional life. Many researchers conducted research studies to understand the need and
requirement of such fresh graduate nurses who are going through such a transition in their

2BEING A PROFESSIONAL NURSE
professional life. As per the systematic review conducted by Rush et al. (2013), the aim of the
research was to identify the best practice, need and requirements of new graduate nurses,
working in healthcare facilities so that their support and development could be addressed. This
integrative review study conducted a review based on four aspects such as competency, critical
thinking, education and support and found that in the first few months of the practice these fresh
graduates require an internship, mentorship of educational sessions regarding the practices
conducted in the healthcare facility (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). I also
witnessed the similar thing while joining healthcare facility as I was unable to understand the
functions and procedures that were being conducted in the healthcare facility. This situation
invoked several feelings which affected my practice and efficiency of work. As per Thomas,
Bertramand Allen (2012), the feelings are associated with the frustration of being overwhelmed
with the pressure, fear of insufficient knowledge, orientation process and preceptors. These
feelings can affect the nurses by making hem quit their professional life therefore, it is important
for the healthcare facilities to conduct different retention strategies so that such fresh and skilful
registered nurses could be employed in the healthcare facility (Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia, 2018).
Van den Heide et al. (2013) mentions the need for retention of fresh graduate nurses in
the healthcare facility and provides several strategies which could be used in the practical
scenario. As per the researchers Phillips, Kenny, Esterman and Smith (2014), analyzing the
hospital environment is the first strategy for nursing retention as during the first few months of
nursing transition it is important to provide them appropriate nursing education and orientation
so that they can understand the best practices of the healthcare facility. Further, the second
strategy was associated with the assistance of experienced nurses as they will be able to provide