Professional and Competency in Transition Graduate Practice Research Paper 2022

Running head: TRANSITION GRADUATE PRACTICE
Analysis and Discussion between Professional and Competency in Transition Graduate
Practice
Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:

TRANSITION GRADUATE PRACTICE
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A newly graduated nurse ready to take up new responsibilities is likely to face a lot of
challenges. The challenges are an obstacle to be overcome before successfully transiting to
graduate practice as far as professionalism is concerned. A nursing academic environment is
different from the clinical setting. In a clinical environment, a nurse will have to attend to many
patients. If not accorded required support by the hospital, it may be difficult for the nurse to
adapt and function adequately as the hospital management may require of him. At times support
cannot be adequate because of an institution having fewer nurses who are experienced enough to
be mentors. And if available, they may be held up with other responsibilities, therefore, cannot
be depended upon. This paper analyses the relationship between being competent and transition
in graduate practice. It will further provide an in-depth discussion on competency and
professional shift in graduate practice.
Competency is an essential element to any new nurse or midwife (Standard for practice).
It ensures an individual has a development learning plan for the individuals having a new nursing
role. Competency entails the integration of skills, knowledge, abilities, and judgment (Halcomb
& Stephens, 2016). Competency makes a nurse understand his limits, roles, expectations, and
accountability in his new role. As per the case study's explanation, competency will require a
nurse to put in enough time and determination for an individual to be identified as a competent
nurse or midwife.
As mentioned above, the transition phase has challenges that should be addressed. The
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) (2018) and the International Code of Ethics
for Nurses (2012) have mechanisms in place that can help new graduate nurses to adapt to new
environments. While it is true that challenges such as recording an increase in the number of

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patients, experiencing more complex conditions, and shortage of mentors are still common in the
healthcare sector, one cannot underscore the importance of mentorship programs for tackling
these challenges. A new graduate should ensure to have the right strategies to overcome these
challenges. However, mentorship programs are successful where there is mutual relationship
between a nurse and other workers. The case study denotes the importance of considering
working in collaboration with other healthcare professionals.
A nurse may be posted in a hostile environment. Hostile environment, in this case,
means that other health care professionals may decide to bully new professionals. This can be
quite challenging for new graduate nurses because they may lose satisfaction in their career. The
main reason behind the action is for the bullies to maintain their work environment (Hofler &
Thomas, 2016). At this moment, the mentors become more critical because they have worked in
the profession for more than two years. Through mentorship, an individual knows how to survive
and work in such a situation. Dealing with a large number of patients can easily result in fatigue.
Depending on the healthcare facility or the organization of posting, there may be a shortage in
the number of nurses or midwives per shift. A nurse has to incorporate theoretical knowledge,
and the skills acquired to attend to each patient. It may be an exhaustive and overwhelming task
keeping in mind that in the first few months of working, the nurse has to show her competency
by working with less supervision. It is easy to develop anxiety, which can develop into having
poor relationships with the patients or other professionals. The poor working relationship can
easily translate to poor working performance; this can compromise the quality of care the
patients will receive.