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Learning Objective #1: Identify the primary challenges to new nursing graduate role transition in the contemporary workplace.

Learning Objective #2: Understand the basis for, and the structures of support made available to new graduates by a new non-profit organization entitled Nursing The Future.

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The preparation for, and integration of new nurses into the dynamic climate of healthcare today continues to challenge institutions of higher education, as well as administrators and policy makers across North America. The undergraduate education of our contemporary nursing workforce is a dynamic process that seeks to balance the desire to advance professional concepts and ideas with the need to accept particular work-role realities. The unavoidable space that exists between the educational ideal and the practice reality can be alarming and exhausting for the new graduate. There is currently no formal organization or structure outside of the workplace that is devoted to the assessment, identification, evaluation and strategic planning around issues that arise for these new nurses during their transition to professional practice in Canada. In June 2006, a new initiative was launched in this country entitled Nursing the Future: The Voice of the New Graduate (NTF). With members currently reaching across the western provinces, this organization serves as a bridging support network FOR new graduates sustained BY new graduates. Based on evidence from the author’s research and study of the new graduate transition experience over the past 10 years, this is a model initiative for the pre-graduate preparation, post-graduate recruitment, and long term retention of this human resource demographic. The presenter will provide insight into the context within which NTF was conceived and developed, offer the framework and support pillars upon which this initiative is based, and discuss the potential impact of this organization on future undergraduate nursing preparation and new graduate professional socialization.