Newly Graduated Nurses’ Learning Process of Elimination Support

─ Senior Nurses’ Guidance Recognized by the New Nurses

Abstract

〔Purpose〕To examine the elimination support learning process of newly graduated nurses based on what instructions from senior nurses they could remember and state.

〔Methods〕I conducted semi-structured interviews with six new nurses three and six months after they started working as nurses. Each interview lasted for approximately 50 minutes.

〔Results〕Instructions from senior nurses, initially intended to help with basic techniques learned through providing living activity support, was found to have progressed to ancillary techniques for treatment that the novice nurses keenly felt important to know. The senior nurses first wanted the new nurses to have a perspective of efficiently carrying out routine work. After that, they required them to be involved with the patients to support their lives. The key instructions initially focused on support techniques, but then changed to assessing and judging patient conditions. The attitudes of the novices changed during this process. In the beginning they followed the instructions of the senior nurses. Then, the novices considered their own ways for implementing elimination support while being exposed to the diversified perspectives of the senior nurses.

〔Discussion〕In six months the new nurses have come to pay attention to patient conditions. They are now working to implement support techniques based on scientific evidence, and have started performing elimination support with their own styles, reflecting their understanding of patients as living persons.