Let’s Support our New Nurses
“Nurses are the heart of healthcare.”
The annual transformation of healthcare starts in June, July, and August (north American perspective). Healthcare professionals include recently graduated physicians, nurses, and other allied health professionals. Those of us who have been practicing for a while can be anxious when we consider these months. Once more, we thought, “Here we go.” Because the individuals working beside us are less seasoned and don’t yet “know the ropes,” as we like to say, this period is always more complicated.
A few recently graduated medical professionals may be bashful and hesitant to inquire. Some people will push forward like a bull in an antique shop, letting their egos get in the way and refusing to ask questions.
Others will be eager and driven to absorb everything that seasoned medical professionals say, do, and are aware of like a sponge. Experienced readers will recognize that I express the truth. If you’re new, you might identify with one of these groups.
It’s time to alter the story.
Let’s welcome these months rather than approaching them with fear. The need for more seasoned medical professionals at the bedside is a challenge facing the healthcare industry today. New healthcare workers, including nurses, eagerly anticipate learning how to be competent and self-assured at the bedside.
Under the direction of skilled clinicians, they are eager and driven to observe, listen, learn, and put their newly acquired abilities into practice. They wish to use what we do in our practice and have a deeper understanding of its how and why.
They want to sharpen their critical thinking abilities and use those abilities, together with information and evaluation, to improve their clinical judgment. They aspire to be seasoned clinicians like many of us.
What do healthcare organizations do when new nurses should be welcomed and supported? They frequently fail to provide new nurses with sufficient onboarding help and put them in circumstances in which they are unlikely to succeed.
What is the issue with this image? Although we can’t expect new nurses to be specialists, we do tell them as much — “You should know this already.” Recalling our initial months in clinical work, we were indistinguishable from novice nurses in the present day.
Let’s help aspiring nurses.
Through the establishment of nurse residency and fellowship programs, healthcare companies should be doing more to assist newly licensed nurses. Through these programs, novice physicians can progressively and with sufficient assistance hone their clinical judgment.
For experienced clinicians who agree to serve as preceptors, healthcare institutions must provide them with training, support, and incentives. Although being a preceptor shouldn’t be seen as a hardship, preceptors frequently feel just that. Precepting new nurses comes with an added duty, but it’s also an honor to be able to influence the nurses of the future.
It should be a priority to provide experienced nurses with adequate salaries and recognition for mentoring new nurses, teaching them new skills, and assisting them in making career decisions.
Healthcare companies must show that they are prepared to make personnel investments if they hope to retain their people. Providing self-paced continuing education and professional development opportunities for nurses is an excellent way to support the nursing workforce. It’s a means of communicating to nurses the importance of lifelong learning and the organization’s concern for their future.
Let’s get over our fear of June, July, and August. Instead, let’s see it for what it is: a chance for seasoned nurses to impart their wisdom and assist novice nurses in achieving the status of competent and self-assured clinicians.
Now is the moment for healthcare organizations to show the nurses in your employ that you are concerned about their happiness, safety, and well-being. Let’s reframe the story to emphasize that “We care about the nurses of tomorrow!”
Thanks for reading my story.
