Student Nurse Registered Nurse Case Study

Student Nurse to Registered Nurse

Introduction

After the arduous task of completing nursing school, and passing the necessary state boards, newly licensed registered nurses (NLRN’s) eagerly enter the field with visions of caring for people for many years. Making the transition from student nurse (SN) to registered nurse (RN) is a difficult and multidimensional exercise, studies show that the first one to two years of practice is instrumental in the general success and retention of NLRN (Clark & Springer, 2012). There are countless roadblocks that the NLRN encounters that can cause frustration and a feeling of being inadequate (Pellico, Brewer & Kovner, 2009). The implications of the NLRN not having a smooth start to their career are as obvious

It is also essential that one utilizes their particularly strong attributes to cope, be it humor, organization capabilities, remaining calm under duress; whatever their strength may be (Riley & Beal, 2013). Perhaps the most important trait the NLRN should possess is a sense of humbleness, realize that nursing is a very fluid profession, and to distinguish one’s own learning needs (Riley & Beal, 2013). The ability to learn from one’s mistakes, or near mistakes, and make the correct adjustments when presented a similar situation is tantamount to evolve into a better

According to Hoffart, Waddel and Young (2011), 6 and 12 month residencies enabled more nursing peer relationships and increased the new RN’s onus to the profession. Despite these findings, there is not unequivocal evidence that professional patient care is improved by these residencies (Hoffart, Waddell & Young, 2011). Research also implicates that extended orientations, with expert preceptors, help ease the transition but there has to be educational adjustments as well (Pellico, Brewer & Kovner, 2009). One effective approach that has been initiated by schools and partnering hospitals is a co-op education program where paid experience is incorporated into the curriculum; other school-hospital partnerships offer similar SN residency and mentorship programs (Hoffart, Waddell & Young, 2011). Participants of such programs expressed greater self-assurance and comfort in practice; additionally, hospitals reported both reduced orientation cost and less RN turnover on those who were hired out of the program (Hoffart, Waddell & Young, 2011). Of course, a lack of paid experience opportunities that exist, for SN’s, is a limitation to such research, the competitiveness to entering such a program may create a bias in results based on the cream of the student crop being selected (Hoffart, Waddell & Young, 2011). As with the past three decades, the evolution of SN to RN continues to be