Self-Development of Newly Graduated Nurses Working in an Intensive Care Unit at a University Hospital

Abstract

               The purpose of this qualitative research was to describe experiences of self-development of newly graduated nurses working in an ICU of a university hospital. Fourteen new nurses working in the ICU for up to 3 years were included and data were collected by using in-depth interviews with audio recordings and field observation. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by using the content analysis method.

                The findings indicated four substantive themes shared from new nurses in terms of:

1) critical nursing care; new nurses improve their knowledge and skills for critical care from the nursing unit, their mentor and self-directed learning.

2) social adjustment; new nurses improve their social skills to work with a new team.  

3) communication with others; new nurses improve their communication skills to report cases to the physician and the operating team and then provide information to patients and family. 

4) acceptance of patient departure; new nurses learn to deal with sadness and grief when patients’ health declines or when they die.

          The findings indicated that newly graduated nurses are required to engage in various types of self-development. To enhance their working competency, nursing executives should develop systemic training program including learning, communication skills, social skills and coping abilities.