Perception of Senior Nurses regarding the Transition of Newly Graduated Nurses at Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Fiji

Introduction and Background: Registered nurses’ transit to the clinical placement areas after completing a three-year Bachelor of Nursing training. They should be supported by nurse leaders and nurse educators; to gain confidence and the ability to perform critical care nursing, deal with high patient numbers, the ability to work independently and manage relationships with providers, families and the interprofessional team. Methods: A qualitative research design was employed to explore two important aspects of nursing professionalism. Firstly, the sentiments of senior registered nurses about professional mentorship of newly graduated nurses NGNs. Secondly the strategies employed by senior nurses to assist the transition of NGNs to professional nursing. Two nurse unit managers (NUM) participated as key informants. Results: Two themes will be discussed from the pilot study: Responsibilities and challenges faced by senior nurses while they supervise (NGNs) in their wards. Senior nurses’ workload and responsibilities fully occupy them during the days’ work, leaving very little time to spend supervising the NGNs. The challenges faced by senior nurses are those of restricted time, no proper resources, and mentoring manuals to guide the senior nurses. Discussion: The results of the pilot study present the challenges of senior nurses in supervising and training NGNs during transition, as they must complete the administrative tasks, finalizing rosters, and have direct patient contact. They usually face challenges while supervising the NGNs, sometimes leaving them to work on their own where the NGN is prone to make mistakes during patient care. Conclusion: Support and supervision are key to a successful transition, but senior nurses face difficulties, and challenges in many forms, there are no mentors available for the NGNs in any ward at the CWM Hospital while they train and supervise them during transitions. SNs take up a lot of responsibilities and provide support and supervision to NGNs. Some NGNs have undesirable attitudes that hinder the learning and teaching process. They also acknowledge that NGNs also need to play their role in learning to adapt to the new clinical environment with various challenges they face themselves.