Socialization of new graduate nurses experiencing reality shock in critical care

Socialization begins during formal education and continues as the nursing student transitions into the role of new graduate in the hospital setting. New graduate nurses also experience reality shock as they encounter a system of values that are not the same as learned during nursing school. Few studies have been done on the socialization of thenew graduate nurse experiencing reality shock in critical care. Consequently, critical care orientation programs may not incorporate the most effective socialization strategies to successfully transition the new graduate through reality shock. The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions of the new graduate nurse in critical care to socialization and to identify aspects of socialization during orientation that were helpful or detrimental as they transitioned through reality shock. Kramer's (1974) Theory of Reality Shock guides the exploratory longitudinal descriptive study. The purposive sample consists of 40 new graduate registered nurses from 22 hospitals within the Intermountain Health Care (IHC) corporation. All data will be confidential and human rights will be protected. Participation is voluntary and participants can withdraw at any time. The Corwin Role Orientation Scale will be used to measure the socialization of the new graduate nurse. Semi-structured interviews will also be conducted over a 6-month period. Qualitative research methods will be used to analyze the data. Findings of this study will identify socialization strategies in orientation to successfully transition the new graduate nurse through reality shock in critical care.School of NursingThesis (M.S.