A Qualitative Assessment of New Graduate Nurse Practitioners First Year of Practice

This project serves as a Capstone and final requirement for the Master of Public Health Degree at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School for Public Service. The project is a qualitative inquiry into the experience of new graduate nurse practitioners’ in their first year of practice, and their transition from the registered nurse (RN) into the nurse practitioner (NP) role. Using the theoretical constructs of Benner’s “From Novice to Expert” and the Burch’s “Conscious Competence model” new graduate nurse practitioners’ experiences will be analyzed. Risk and protective factors for role confidence will be identified through the use of qualitative data obtained via phone interviews with participants. The result of this project is a summary of findings relating to new graduate nurse practitioners and their experience of role transition, workplace dynamics, interprofessional communication, mentorship relationships, and confidence in practice that can be utilized by new graduate nurse practitioners entering practice. My interest in the project stems from my recent completion of the family nurse practitioner track within the Masters of Science in Nursing degree at the University of Southern Maine, School of Nursing