Role socialization and competency skills of new graduate novice nurses

Abstract

The current healthcare environment requires hospital administrators to seek innovative ways to meet the increasing shortage of nurses and maintain patient safety. Hospitals must provide new graduate nurses with a learning environment that fosters role socialization and competency skills. A mentoring program based on Kramer (1974) can facilitate professional growth and promote skills acquisition (Taylor, Westcotte, & Bartlett, 2001). The purpose of this study is to compare role socialization and competency skills in two groups of new graduate novice nurses one group that has attends a traditional orientation program and the other group that has attends a mentor enhanced orientation program. The sample will include 50 graduate nurses employed at Northeast Medical Center in Humble, Texas. The Corwin (1961) Nursing Role Conception Scale will measure role socialization. The Northeast Medical Center Critical Care Checklist Assessment and Validation Record will be used to evaluate skills acquisition. The Basic Knowledge Tool Version 7 (BKAT-7) a 100 item paper-pencil test will be used to test (Toth, 2005). This study will provide information about role socialization and skills acquisition for nurse educators in the hospital setting.