Difficulties experienced by newly-graduated nurses in Turkey: A qualitative study of the first six months of employment

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the difficulties experienced by newly-graduated nurses within the first six months of employment.

Methods: This research was designed as a qualitative study based on content analysis. The study sample consisted of nurses who had graduated from nursing in 2010, have been working at a public university hospital in Istanbul for at least six months, and were selected via “maximum variation sampling” from purposeful sampling methods. Data were collected via semi-structured in-depth interviews. The data collection process ended at the end of the fifteenth interview when data saturation was reached.

Results: The results obtained based on the qualitative sampling isolated four general themes explaining the difficulties newly-graduated nurses experience within the first six months of their employment: lack of knowledge, heavy workload, lack of clinical skills and communication difficulties.

Conclusions: The findings of this first qualitative study conducted with nurses in Turkey are in support of the related literature. Among the difficulties experienced by the newly-graduated nurses within the first months of employment, educators should address the issue of lack of knowledge and managers should address the other issues raised.