Editor's Note

Fertile ground
Healthy mentoring begets a stronger generation of new nurses
Beth Ulrich, Ed.D., RN, South Central Editor
May 14, 2001

It's time once again to welcome our new graduates into the profession. While the nursing shortage has most assuredly given them their choice of jobs, it also has set up a potential "eat our young" scenario.

No doubt, given the competition for nurses, the new graduates have been promised orientations and internships that will facilitate their transition from students to registered nurses.

The question is whether the organizations making the promises have committed the resources and perseverance needed to make the promises a reality. Orientations and internships look good on paper, but they won't work if the preceptors are pulled away for staffing or, worse, if the new graduate is asked to cover the unit "just for this shift."

How we treat the new graduates will affect their entire nursing careers. The workplace environment-when new graduates look for and begin their first jobs-is an influential contributor to long-term professional values and character.

Certainly, this year's nursing graduates should feel wanted, but there is at least an equal chance that they will be overwhelmed. It's one thing to stretch your limits when you are an experienced nurse; it's quite another to have your limits stretched when you don't yet feel competent at the novice level.

Values form the foundation on which these young nurses will build until they retire. Morris Massey, in The People Puzzle, defines three stages of value development-imprinting, modeling and socialization-to describe what takes place during a child's formative years.
Given the nature of nursing education and enculturation, one also can see a similar values development pattern in the "growth" of a nurse.

Imprinting occurs during nursing education. Past studies have indicated that even over short periods of time, students' values will shift toward those of their faculty even when the faculty members are not intentionally trying to change the students' values.

Modeling begins when the students move heavily into the clinical area and intensifies as the new nurses move into the work world and compare what they have been taught with what they see. Experienced nurses (good or bad) become their role models.

Socialization in nursing occurs as the new nurses gain sufficient experience to ask meaningful questions about the profession and test their beliefs with other nurses.
In nursing, we've eaten our young more than once. Despite our best intentions, we've taken bright spirits full of new knowledge, hope and excitement and thrown them into almost impossible situations.

Let's do it differently this century. Before the new graduates arrive at your facility, develop contingency plans for covering for preceptors while they lead orientation.

Make sure that the behaviors modeled for the new graduates (intentionally or otherwise) are behaviors that will serve them well throughout their careers. Be open to the concept that even though they are inexperienced, they still have talents and ideas that may be useful. Tell them what you expect of them and give them feedback about their performance. Make sure to tell them what they are doing right as well as what they need to do to improve.
When they start to ask questions and test their newly developed values and beliefs, listen attentively and respond in a thoughtful manner.

In 2001, let's commit to protect our young-to encourage them and nurture them-so that they can develop into the nurses they've dreamed of becoming.