New Graduate Nurses Experiences During Their Transition from Novice to Competent and How Mentorship Post Residency Affect Their Experiences

Staffing competent nurses in specialized areas poses a unique challenge to hospitals across the country. Competent and experienced RNs are leaving the bedside for a multitude of reasons including dissatisfaction in workplace environment, retirement, and hospitals are facing a shortage of skilled nurses in acute care (Valdez, 2008). To address this growing concern and meet increasingly complex health care demands, hospitals are relying on nursing schools to produce competent graduate nurses (GNs) (Valdez, 2008). Hospitals recruit and hire GNs for highly specialized roles in acute care areas despite the stressors accompanied with these roles. Clinical educators have the opportunity to address feelings of inadequacy, ill support, and disillusionment experienced by GNs by implementing a post-residency mentorship program to support GNs during their transition from novice to competent