Experienced Nurses Transition to Practice

Abstract

When I think about transition to practice, I immediately think about the new graduate nurse. The novice nurse who spent countless hours learning from a textbook, practicing skills in a laboratory setting, and rotating through many clinical experiences. I conjure up a pleasant image of the new nurse who is excited about their inaugural nursing job as they don their sparkling clean uniform and pristine nursing shoes. I see the nurse who is ready to apply what was learned in a controlled setting taking the good from all their mentors while weeding out the bad to define a personal nursing identity of their own. But there are other new nurses out there—the experienced nurse who is transitioning to a new specialty. For the purposes of this article, we will call them the transitioning experienced nurse.