Supporting graduate nurse transition to practice through a quality assurance feedback loop.

Abstract

This mixed-method study focused on new graduate nurses and their transition to practice. Transition to practice can be a time of heightened stress and anxiety, leaving many new graduates disillusioned and dissatisfied with their work. The study explored how satisfaction levels with transition may improve during their first year, using a unique approach of a continuous quality assurance feedback loop. This assurance framework is utilised in hospitality, automotive and supply chain logistics and in health, primarily to monitor patient outcomes. However, an association with graduate nurse satisfaction has not been previously reported. Graduate nurses from two health services completed a short survey questionnaire every four weeks for 12 months. De-identified aggregated data was sent to health service management, giving them an opportunity to integrate the findings with the objective of potentially increasing graduate satisfaction ratings. Quantitative findings showed no statistical significance of graduate nurse satisfaction scores between health services, however, one health service consistently outperformed the other. Qualitative findings drawn from a seminar and interviews confirmed that one health service took a more proactive stance with the monthly reports, communicating the results to ward managers. Outcomes reflected a greater commitment of support and an overall increase of satisfaction scores.