Paper: Effect of Student Nurse Intern Position on Ease of Transition from Student Nurse to RN (19th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice)

Tuesday, 8 July 2008: 10:30 AM

Jennie E. Steen, RN, BSN , Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA

Elizabeth W. Gould , Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA

Bonnie Raingruber, PhD , Nursing, California State University, Sacramento and University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA

James Hill, RN , University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA

Learning Objective 1: identify three ways the internship program eased the transition to new graduate RN.

Learning Objective 2: identify three ways the internship program benefits the unit and hospital.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the effect of the student nurse intern position on the ease of transition from student nurse to registered nurse. It was hypothesized that student nurses participating in an internship program at a Level I trauma center in Northern California would report a positive transition from intern to RN. Utilizing a Likert scale, two different questionnaires were distributed to RNs that participated in the internship program within the past four years. One questionnaire was given to RNs that remained on the same unit on which they interned, and the other questionnaire was distributed to RNs that switched units within the hospital, both upon graduation from an associated BSN program in the area. The main topics investigated included the following: camaraderie with peers, familiarity with hospital system and culture, confidence, education and career advancement, and pressures to perform. The data was then analyzed using percent responses obtained from survey research conducted at one point in time. Results indicate that the internship program eased the transition to new graduate RN. Furthermore, a significant number of participants reported increased confidence in performing nursing tasks and interacting with patients and families. Results may contribute to the nurse internship experience by discovering in what ways the internship program effects new graduates. There is the potential to contribute to the success of future interns in addition to hospital unit ability to hire and orient new graduate RNs. This study is also significant because it may improve nursing education and could be used as a model for other nursing programs in their development of internships.

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