TRANSITION: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MOVING FROM STUDENT TO PRACTICING REGISTERED NURSE (NURSING STUDENTS).
Contributors: Peabody College For Teachers Of Vanderbilt University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 116
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Education, Higher.
Description: This longitudinal phenomenological study, framed by and extending the works of Benner (1984) and Kramer (1974), explores the lived experience of 15 nursing graduates during their first year of practice. Participants, graduates of two baccalaureate and three associate degree nursing programs, responded to the research question, "Tell me what's been significant to your transition into nursing" during taped, open-ended interviews at five periods of time. Using Lincoln and Guba's (1985) method for data collection and analysis, significant events, experiences, and perceptions were compared across time and across individuals.

This study elaborates and illustrates the process of transition into practice. Major themes identified at each point in time indicate the events and experiences new participants perceive as influential to their growth and facilitative of their adaptation to the nursing role. By synthesizing these major themes, three stages (acclimation, becoming an RN, and individualizing self in nursing) and three turning points (state board results, disillusionment, and looking forward) emerge and provide framework for understanding the transition into practice.

The findings in this study hold significance for nursing and for other disciplines whose new practitioners may face common tasks and challenges during their initiation into the discipline. The first year of practice, filled with a multitude of challenges, precipitates a kaleidoscope of feelings and reactions. Seeing the first year through the eyes of those who have gone before allows new graduates, the educators who teach them, and the service providers who hire them, to anticipate and give structure to their feelings and reactions and to anticipate common events and experiences which impact, positively and negatively, on the transition into practice. The final interview identifies that the process of transition is by no means over in 1 year. More study is needed to confirm and test the ability to generalize these findings and to extend the understanding of the changes and experiences which occur during this transition throughout and beyond the first year.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-05, Section: B, page: 2290.

Thesis (ED.D.)--PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0074.