Hossein Ebrahimi
1, Hadi Hassankhani
2, Reza Negarandeh
3, Mark Gillespie
4, Azim Azizi
2*1 Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
2 Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
3 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland
Abstract
Introduction: Newly graduated nurses experience many stressful
situations during transition to practice. The provision of emotional support
from more experienced nurses can ameliorate such work-related tension. Studies
have not clearly specified the means through which such support could be most
effectively provided; therefore the present study was conducted to explore the
experiences of qualified nurses around the provision of emotional support to
newly graduated nurses.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted through
semi-structured interviews with 18 qualified nurses. A purposive sampling approach was used for selection
of participants. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by the
conventional content analysis method. The study took place from 2014-2015 in six teaching hospitals in the northwest of Iran.
Results: Emotional
supports emerged in four following main-categories:
Assurance, creating a sense of relaxation and security, lifting spirits, and
emotional belonging and involvement.
Conclusion: These
results can help to establish an effective source of emotional support for
newly graduated nurses. This can play an important role in reducing their
stress and anxiety, in increasing their self-confidence and in forming a
constructive relationship between them and qualified nurses.