What educational and other experiences assist recently qualified nurses to understand and deal with clinical risk and patient safety?

This research was undertaken to investigate how newly graduated nurses recognise and develop skills relating to clinical risk and patient safety. I set out to understand how and where new graduates learn those skills and what would help future undergraduate nurses better prepare for the complexities of the clinical setting. A qualitative research study using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was the chosen methodology. This was selected for its aspirational outlook, which allows positive conclusions to be drawn from the study’s findings. Nine nurses in their first year of clinical practice participated in the study and they were interviewed on a one-to-one basis. The key findings demonstrated that the approaches to teaching clinical risk and safe patient care and experiences of these in the undergraduate setting were variable, with many participants describing that they were ill prepared for the rigours of the clinical environment. They identified workplace culture, clinical role models, exposure to the clinical environment; experiential learning, narrative story sharing, debriefing and simulation as contributing factors to their ability to learn and understand clinical risk and safe patient care. Despite their initial uncertainty, the participants were able to describe safe patient care and clinical risk. They identified cultures of safe patient care, safe teaching and safe learning. The participants further identified their preferred learning styles and recommended strategies that educationalists and clinical stakeholders employ to facilitate their professional development and understanding of clinical risk and patient safety. The participants identified a more thoughtful, structured and overt approach to teaching the subject of clinical risk and patient safety to prepare for the clinical environment. They desired more experiential exposure, either clinical or simulated. They highlighted the need for effective preceptors and role models, alongside opportunities for sharing their clinical experiences and debriefing critical incidents. Furthermore, they recognised aspects of workplace cultures that facilitated or hindered effective clinical practice and safe patient care.