Determining the learning needs of new graduated nurses working in inpatient care institutions

Background: The first year of practice impacts newly graduated nurses' adaptation to both work and profession life. During this period, new graduates most need to improve their professional knowledge and skills. Objectives: This study determined the learning needs of newly graduated nurses working in hospitals. Design: This is a descriptive study. Settings and participants: The sample consisted of 459 newly graduated nurses at six hospitals in Istanbul in Turkey. Methods: The data were collected with a collection tool developed by the researchers. The data were analyzed using mean, frequency, percentage, and the chi-square test. Results: The study determined that 34.6% of the newly graduated nurses were working in the emergency room and intensive care unit and 50.5% did not choose their unit voluntarily. Although 67.8% stated that their theoretical training in school was sufficient, 53.2% found clinical and 67.3% found laboratory practices insufficient. Of them, 67.1% stated that they participated in a unit orientation program and nearly half found the program insufficient for solving clinical issues. The newly graduated nurses specified they needed to learn more about nursing interventions such as resuscitation, postmortem care, efficient crisis management and code/emergency management. Newly graduated nurses who chose their unit voluntarily, found their undergraduate education sufficient preparation for the profession, and found the orientation program effective felt more competent in nursing practices. They made several suggestions for their professional development: effective feedback, in-unit trainings, working with a mentor during the first year of practice and more clinical practice during undergraduate education. Conclusions: This study includes data on the learning needs of newly graduated nurses and the factors that affect them. These results will be beneficial for planning studies to help newly graduated nurses to improve their skills.