Enhancing Transition to Workplace

Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education: Nursing managers and policy makers must adopt holistic approaches and refocus on efforts on all factors that hinder effective coping with transition to the working environment. Researches have demonstrated that new graduates encounter a degree of ''emotional hardness'' and cynicism during clinical placements, which can influence the quality of their provided care (1). Meleis (2010) defined transition as " a passage from one fairly stable state to another fairly stable one, which is a process triggered by a change " (2). Accordingly, experiencing transition seems to be inevitable for graduated nurses starting to work as a professional nurse and when they do and try to socialize effectively, they may feel uncomfortable and inadequate due to perceived lack of knowledge, skills, and support. Transition is a confusing and overwhelming incident causing stress, anxiety, fear and uncertainty (3). During transitions, nurses frequently encounter role conflict, marginalization and burnout. Inability to cope with transition may lead to job dissatisfaction , intention to leave their job and also may interfere with quality of care they provide (1, 4). Therefore, it is essential to recognize factors inhibiting successful transition. Pre-registration education is a major issue in the transition period from student to staff nurse. Despite the purpose of nursing educational systems to prepare nurses to provide the quality nursing care, in most countries including Iran, it seems that graduates of nursing programs were not well prepared for working independently (3). Similarly, employers and nursing managers believe the present educational systems are not able to train skillful nurses. It has been shown that approaches to preparing nursing students to make a successful transition into the workplace have not been effective enough. Developing dependent work behaviors rather than problem-solving skills in students by most faculties have affected students' self-concept and self-confidence negatively, and decreased their self-esteem (5). At present, the baccalaureate program is the basic nursing program at the academic level and the only way leading to registration as a professional nurse in Iran (6). Our nursing education system has imposed several changes in nursing curriculum in the recent years like inclusion of internships to respond such criticisms. In addition, some nursing schools have implemented preceptorship and other programs as pilot projects in undergraduate nursing curriculum. The realities of nursing work environment are the other aspects strongly associated with successful transition from student to a professional nurse. Iranian nurses suffer from poor …