Abstract
The Alfred Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre is a tertiary referral centre which sees 46,000 patient presentations per annum and includes specialty areas such as burns, trauma, transplantation and infectious diseases. The graduate nurse program in the Emergency and Trauma Centre commenced in 2002 with the introduction of four graduate nurses. This initiative was prompted by several factors, including emergency staff shortages, budget deficits and a lack of staff retention particularly of specialised emergency nurses.
The role of the graduate nurse in the Emergency and Trauma Centre has been formally evaluated through staff satisfaction surveys. All disciplines of staff were surveyed, including the graduates, about their perceptions of the role, the advantages and disadvantages to the department and the changes that could be made to the graduate nurse program.
The results demonstrated the desire for more interaction with other graduate nurses throughout the hospital, the need for formal education sessions aimed directly at the graduates and a more flexible workplace. It also demonstrated an improvement of basic nursing skills by all nurses throughout the department, improved camaraderie and further desire to take on a mentoring role by more experienced nurses.
The graduate nurse program has changed in many aspects since its conception. We have increased our intake to seven nurses annually and implemented more formal and informal teaching sessions, reflective practice and tutorials with other graduate nurses in the hospital. We have further developed the mentoring role to involve formal and flexible meeting times and feedback mechanisms.
We have more than half our graduates working as emergency nurses with a significant number pursuing a postgraduate qualification. We believe the success of the graduate nurse program has addressed some of the staff shortage and staff retention issues in the Emergency and Trauma Centre and that it provides a good framework for the transition of graduate nurse to emergency nurse.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aenj.2007.09.025
The role of the graduate nurse in the Emergency and Trauma Centre has been formally evaluated through staff satisfaction surveys. All disciplines of staff were surveyed, including the graduates, about their perceptions of the role, the advantages and disadvantages to the department and the changes that could be made to the graduate nurse program.
The results demonstrated the desire for more interaction with other graduate nurses throughout the hospital, the need for formal education sessions aimed directly at the graduates and a more flexible workplace. It also demonstrated an improvement of basic nursing skills by all nurses throughout the department, improved camaraderie and further desire to take on a mentoring role by more experienced nurses.
The graduate nurse program has changed in many aspects since its conception. We have increased our intake to seven nurses annually and implemented more formal and informal teaching sessions, reflective practice and tutorials with other graduate nurses in the hospital. We have further developed the mentoring role to involve formal and flexible meeting times and feedback mechanisms.
We have more than half our graduates working as emergency nurses with a significant number pursuing a postgraduate qualification. We believe the success of the graduate nurse program has addressed some of the staff shortage and staff retention issues in the Emergency and Trauma Centre and that it provides a good framework for the transition of graduate nurse to emergency nurse.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aenj.2007.09.025
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 197 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Australasian Emergency Care |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
