URGENT CARE CENTER: ORIENTATION EXPERIENCES OF NURSES.
Contributors: University of Wisconsin--Madison.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 234
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Adult and Continuing.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: Research into nursing practice is essential for the identification of knowledge needed for particular practice settings. Limited research on the role of the nurse in urgent care settings may be due to the relatively recent emergence of the urgent care concept in the healthcare environment. The purpose of this study was to characterize and explain the unique features relating to the orientation of newly hired nurses in an urgent care setting and to learning as it relates to continuing professional education.

Research questions were (1) How do nurses see prior experiences as useful within urgent care settings? (2) What do nurses feel they need to know in order to be successful in urgent care settings? (3) How do nurses go about learning additional knowledge when they recognize gaps between what they know and what they need to know? (4) What do newly hired nurses desire from organizations?.

The selected research methodology for this study was exploratory, using descriptive and evaluative case studies. The interviews of ten registered nurses were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed. Themes emerged that may be considered and presented as a first-step to promote further research into nursing and continuing education issues. The orientation of urgent care nurses consists of three sources: (1) Self directed by the nurse. (2) Informally developed by peers. (3) Structurally developed and carried out at the direction of the organization.

The diversity among urgent care nurses is impressive. Not only do the nurses have varied educational backgrounds, but their experiences vary in areas of profession, career, life, and transition. A four point construct was developed relating to these role experiences as variables: Professional, Career, Personal, and Transition.

From a user-defined perspective, urgent care nurses have arranged their own orientations based upon individual learning styles and needs. "Initiations" by peers and staff within the urgent care setting are discussed. Peers usually accept the nurse as no longer new between six months and one year.

The essence of the orientation experiences described by newly hired urgent care nurses reveal that these nurses have learning needs that may be met by organizations offering a self-initiated, self-directed, mentor orientation program.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: B, page: 3687.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON, 1995.

School code: 0262.