Abstract
The transition from nursing student to nurse is difficult. Nursing students enter colleges or universities with the hope that they will graduate and have a wonderful orientation with a preceptor who has excellent clinical skills, is kind, compassionate, empathetic, and respectful and imparts those qualities onto them. Unfortunately, this seldom happens. Thirty to 35% of nursing graduates leave in the first year and up to 57% leave in the second year. This is a tremendous loss of time and money for both new nurses and facilities.
This course provides an overview of the challenges faced by the novice nurse, and facilities integrating the novice nurse into the nursing staff. It describes strategies the new nurse can take to ease the transition from student to professional, and programs facilities can institute to facilitate this transition and protect its investment in the new nurse.