Description
The transition of the new graduate nurse (NGN) from an educational focus to professional practitioner has long been acknowledged as a conflicted time of critical personal and professional adjustment and staggering reality shock. Up to 66% of NGNs experience severe burnout, with a reported turnover rate of 30% within the first year of professional practice, and 57% within the first two years of professional practice. NGN turnover is attributed to stressors such as workplace incivility, marginalization, lack of unit socialization and integration, work environment frustrations, and inconsistent support from preceptors, coworkers, and management. Particularly pivotal in the NGN's transition is the phenomenon of role stress and conflict, which is based in the desire to be independent while still uncomfortable and uncertain of critical thinking and clinical skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the sources of subjective stress experienced by NGNs within the first two years of their professional practice. NGN stressors were divided into two categories: personal and organizational. Personal stressors include lack of social support and work-family conflict, and organizational stressors include role overload, role conflict, and workplace incivility. Resiliency was examined as a moderating factor to these stressors. Results of this pilot study (n = 36) showed subjective stress as significantly positively related to the personal stressor of work-family conflict (r = .70, p ≤ 0.00), as well as significantly positively correlated to the organizational stressor of role conflict (r = .59, p ≤ 0.00). Subjective stress was also positively correlated with both role overload scales (r = .40 to .60, p < .02), but negatively correlated with organizational support (r = -.36, p < .04). Resiliency was not a significant moderator in any of the models except for the regression model with work family conflict (F = 15.246, df = 2,31, p = .000) and then with resiliency added as a moderator (F = 10.124, df = 3, 30, p = .000). The experience of stressors for the NGN has resonant implications throughout nursing practice, particularly considering the NGN is the foundation of the future of professional nursing. To that end, it is pivotal to understand these stressors, as well as to explore ways of amelioration. With all of the pressures on healthcare organizations regarding health care reform and promotion of nursing, it is imperative that healthcare leaders examine what structures and processes facilitate a smooth transition for the NGN.
