Graduate Nurse Program Coordinators’ perspectives on graduate nurse programs in Victoria, Australia: A descriptive qualitative approach
Section snippets
Introduction and background
In Australia, nursing students undertake a three-year full-time tertiary nursing program and register to practise as Registered Nurses (RN) with the national regulatory body on successful completion of this program. Internationally, within the literature new nursing graduates have reported struggling with the transition from academia to the health care setting, where they experience a variety of challenges, stressors and more significantly, a high attrition rate (Cubit and Ryan, 2011, Phillips
Methods
The purpose of this study was to describe formal preparation in terms of study days, theoretical content and supernumerary strategies nursing graduates are provided with throughout their first year of nursing, whilst employed in work based year-long graduate nurse programs. The participants were GNPCs who were purposefully chosen as they were deemed ‘information rich’ (Borbasi, Jackson, & Langford, 2008) and able to provide in-depth knowledge on graduate nurse programs due to their supervisory
Demographics
The majority (80%) of participants were female with approximately two thirds (63%) employed for periods of between five to twenty-six years as graduate nurse program coordinators with direct involvement of nursing graduates. Just over half (53%) of the participants worked in metropolitan based health services, with the remaining 46% located regionally or rurally. Close to three quarters (73%) of these participants were from public health services and the remaining 26% were from the private
Discussion
This study sought to examine views of GNPCs in order to extend what is already known and better understand the various models of graduate nurse programs in Victoria. In our interviews, GNPCs discussed strategies they perceived were beneficial to nursing graduates to enhance their transition from nursing student to registered nurse in their first year of practice. Experiential research investigating the factors that underpin a successful graduate nurse program has been limited. Most research and
Conclusions
This research sought to explore viewpoints of graduate nurse program coordinators (GNPCs) on the education model underpinning individual graduate nurse programs and the strategies in place to ensure newly qualified registered nurses are supported throughout their first year of practice. Findings indicate that there is variation in programs across Victoria, including numbers of rotations and study days, and educational content. Due to the diversity of health care settings in Victoria, one
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the graduate nurse program coordinators who shared their time and thoughts in the interviews.
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