Conflict in the Workplace for New Nursing Graduates

McKenna, L., & Newton, J. M. (2009). After the graduate year: a phenomenological exploration of how new nurses develop their knowledge and skill over the first 18 months following graduation. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxymu.wrlc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=57a243af-c0d3-4f81-addf-041456493db3%40sessionmgr4005&vid=1&hid=4206

Nursing is a predominately caring and compassionate field. Nurses care for their patients and the patients family day in and day out. Yet nursing is not immune to hostile behavior towards their fellow nurses. Lateral violence is the politically correct term for addressing “bullying” in the workplace (Hippeli, 2009). In nursing, the phrase: “Nurses eat their young”, can be commonly heard to describe bully-type behavior. Beacher & Visovsly (2012) describe horizontal or lateral violence done by nurses to nurses as hostile, aggressive, and harmful behavior by a nurse or group of nurses towards a coworker or group of nurses via attitudes, actions, words, and/or behaviors

In Australia Registered nurses are primarily obtained from recently graduated university who has successfully finished a three years of education in the bachelor of nursing. New graduates student nurse are very significant to the healthcare sector. The transition from new graduate to registered nurse is challenging which requires support from the entire medical team. The aim of this paper is to explore the transition from student nurse to registered nurse. The paper will focus on the theme skills transition into practice and other issues during the transition.

Staff nurses have great responsibilities in caring for patients. Often, these nurses experience heavy workload. Heavy patient load and stress contributes to burnout. Why is burnout important to discuss in relation to nurses? Burnout affects the performance of the nurse and the quality of care he or she provides to the patient. Therefore, it is imperative that staff nurses decrease the possibility of burnout and increase or maintain excitement and enjoyment in the field of nursing. If nurses do so, they will find joy in their work and quality of patient care will be increased. Contributors to burnout and

When most experienced registered nurses hear the word shock, they begin to use their critical thinking skills to determine the patient’s immediate need. However, new graduate nurses in the career field are faced with a different type of shock; they are faced with transitional shock. Transitional shock is a theory created by Judy Duchscher. Her theory is based on reality shock which is a term coined by Marlene Kramer. Reality shock is when new nurses recognize clinical practice and the classroom setting are two different worlds (Hentz and Gilmore, 2011, p.134). When new graduates transition to a registered nurse position, it does not happen with ease. Over the years, there has been a rise in concern with this transition. As new graduates move in the career field, they may feel anxious and uncertain about their new responsibilities. Unfortunately, when there is a high demand of nurses, new graduate nurses are expected to begin a new job at full speed, but they are not able to handle the fast pace position they are placed in. When new graduates are expected to accomplish task they are unprepared for, it sets them up for transitional shock. To minimize transition shock for new graduates, finding a mentor, preceptor, seeking an internship or residency program may help ease the transition.

Workload was described to be heavy, stressful, increase in intensity and overtime hours. As a result 25.8% consider resigning, 20.2% consider retiring and 25.6% consider leaving profession. Another problem that was observed at individual level was poor commitment to care. One of the factors that often limited nurses to provide therapeutic care was the change in nurse to patient ratio. As nurses assignments increase with the increase in the number of patients (i.e. 1 nurse to 6-8 patients) the quality of care provided decreases. Nurses’ ability to maintain safe environment became challenging. As part of caring, nurses also showed decreased amount of time spent with their patient. This eventually led to nurses being less satisfied with their current job. Self – efficacy was often low. Nurses felt that they did not have enough knowledge and skills required for professional practice (Newhouse, Hoffman, & Hairston, 2007). This often led into stressful transition and the ability to care for a patient even harder. New graduate nurses often had difficulty maintaining leadership role. They often felt that they did not have the ability to self advocate and raise their voice to be heard by others. They often feared that they would be over heard and that no one would listen to them (Mooney, 2007).

The Nursing Profession has been experiencing shortages for many years. The pattern seems to be repetitive, high demand for nurses followed by phases of downsizing with a surplus of nurses. The earlier years of the nursing shortage was short compared to today’s current nursing shortage. The nursing shortage exist globally and in all nursing areas. There are several factors that are the cause of the nursing shortage of today as well in years past.

It is imperative that the new graduate nurse cohort be given a full immersion into the organizational culture, a quality orientation program, and to feel welcomed into their departments to foster embeddedness early in the program (Reitz, 2014). To facilitate this, the program will begin with a welcoming gathering for their inauguration. This gathering will be designed to introduce the new graduates to organizational leaders, former graduates, and new graduates within their cohort in order to begin the building of relationships. Specific department leaders, supervisors, and team leaders will be invited to attend to support and welcome the new graduates, and to foster buy-in by department leaders.

The article involved in this research critique focuses on the "stresses and challenges experienced by graduate nurses in clinical practice during their initial orientation period and examines the relationship of social support to these stresses" (Oermann, 1997). The critiquing of this article will address the purpose of the article, the design of the research, the presentation of the findings in the study and the significance of this research to the nursing profession. Also, the researcher's approach to the study and the potential benefits of this study to nursing will be focused on as well.

After reviewing various literature regarding nursing shortages, there is a national problem. Huber speaks about the nursing shortages and discusses various contributors and strategies to fix the issues (2014). The various contributors would be nursing graduate numbers, aging nurses, and nursing recruitment/retention (Huber D. , 2014). There are currently not enough students graduating nursing school, this is due to limited faculty restricting enrollments, more push for bachelor prepared nurses, and minimal school budgets (Huber D. , 2014). For nurse’s demographics, Huber describes it as an aging population with more retiring and the median nursing age increasing (2014). This is described as the graying factor (Huber D. , 2014). Recruitment

Nursing retention is a major issue within the healthcare organization and has been acknowledged internationally. With nurses comprising the largest healthcare professional group, hospital organizations depend on a viable nursing workforce to provide high quality care. According to World Health Organization statistics (2006), there is a shortage of 4.3 million healthcare workers including doctors, midwives, nurses and ancillary staff worldwide (Twigg & McCullough, 2014). This number is expected to increase by 20 percent in the next two decades with projected shortages of 285,000 nurses by 2020 and 500,000 nurses by 2025 (Spence Laschinger et al., 2009; Twigg & McCullough, 2014). As a result of the

There are many significant reason why there have been numerous issues or complaints in the field of nursing over the past several years. The issue that has been more common over the years is what I would considered to be the most important issue that nurses have to put up with on a regular bases is what effects does the working environment have on nurses that work in the environment they either have to conform to or find a way to put a stop to the issues the working environment has caused. There are positive and negative aspects that effect the working environment in the nursing field, because of the many things that coincide with what goes on in the working environment that is not seen by non-staff members. Among these complaints have been

Amidst the declination of the economy those abundant job vacancies in the acute settings were being suffused with not only new graduates but also with those experienced Registered Nurses currently being relieved of positions that with the declining economy have eradicated. In addition, to the declining economy, those empty job vacancies have been fulfilled and with the increasing multifaceted diseased patients being admitted to these acute and long term facilities the necessity for Registered Nurses is more advantageous now than in the past. New challenges exist with the increasing admittance of ailing patients. Which type of Registered Nurse will be hired for the job vacancies. The new nurse grad or the seasoned nurse. Registered Nurses with experience feasible have a shorter orientation time verses a new grad that will need at least a six-week orientation time. According to Benson (2012), the nursing shortage has abated due to a concurrent trend of increased supply caused by a rapidly growing number of educated nurses, along with the slowing demand for new nurses (Stone & Feeg, September/October 2013, p. 1). As more students enter the educational pool for a nursing degree, upon graduating, how many nursing positions will be provided for the new grad compared to the more experienced skillful nurse.

With the ongoing changes in the healthcare field, nursing workforce retention presents itself as one of the greatest challenges facing healthcare systems today. According to the American Nursing Association, nursing turnover is a multi-faceted issue which impacts the financial stability of the facility, the quality of patient care and has a direct affect on the other members of the nursing staff (ANA, 2014). The cost to replace a nurse in a healthcare facility ranges between $62,100 to $67,100 (ANA, 2014). The rising problem with nursing retention will intensify the nursing shortage, which has been projected to affect the entire nation, not just isolated areas of the country, gradually increasing in its scope from 2009 to 2030 (Rosseter,

According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse's turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United