Nursing Experience In Nursing

With the increasing demands in Health Care needs, newly licensed competent nurses are a commodity that simply do not exist. Every year there are new nurses graduating from Associates and Bachelor’s degree programs that enter the workforce. Nursing students that complete their respective degree program- whether it be an Associates or Bachelors degree- sit to take the exact same state sanctioned nursing licensure exam. Upon successful completion of this exam a student quickly transitions from student to professional (sometimes in as little as two days) and is now deemed competent to practice safely and effectively. Unfortunately for these new nurses entering the workforce, they are subjected to an environment that nursing schools simply cannot

Critical thinking, communication, and handling times of stress are just a few competencies that new nurses will not possess by practicing in a simulated safe environment. Stress during emergency situations in a simulated lab various greatly compared to a hospital emergency. The “newly graduated nurse” is a concept that is foreign to patients when in need of emergency care, to the patient the nurse before them has all the answers. Therefore a call to action for a new nurse with limited experience can either negatively or positively impact their career depending on the outcome. “They feel a heightened sense of vulnerability and potential for burnout” (Bull, R., Shearer, T., Phillips, M., & Fallon, A. 2015. p 410). New nurses, until now, have only practiced under the license of their professor giving them a sense of safety. However new graduates have to face the harsh reality that the safety net is no longer there and be aware that the consequences of their actions, good or bad, rests solely on

Although newly graduated nurses have a vast wealth of information ingrained in them through their education, there are many competencies that cannot be taught through traditional lecture/lab based schooling. The ability to handle stressful situations in a real world setting is a trait that can only be measured accurately through real world experience. Unfortunately nursing schools are not able to measure or offer those experiences with the limited clinical time a student nurse recieves. The issues with those experiences is how they come about and the support- or lack thereof- the newly hired nurse has. Whether it be a preceptors or a rigorous training period that goes beyond the traditional orientation, something should be implemented in order to assure that nurses are confident and competent. Burn out and lack of retention is an issues that can be addressed with these methods. A new nurse should not have to carry all these insecurities and self-doubt with them. Instead a program that builds and empowers nurses has been shown to transition novice nurse to competent