Becoming a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: The transition from student to nurse is a complex situation in any circumstance. The newly graduated nurses of 2022 had to go through this transition after carrying out most of their nursing studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a lack of literature related to this transition from student to worker. The novice to expert model by Benner (1982) was the theoretical framework that structured this thesis. This led to the research question: How did nurses that trained during the COVID-19 pandemic period experience the transition from student to nurse in the acute care hospital in Malta? Aim: To explore the lived experiences of newly qualified nurses who completed their nursing studies during the COVID-19 pandemic, transitioning from student to nurse in the acute care hospital in Malta. Design: A qualitative design adopting an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was the design deemed most appropriate to answer the research question. Participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling techniques and were all recruited from the main acute care hospital in Malta. Four newly graduated female nurses voluntarily took part in a single face-to-face interview. The data was transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework. Results: Two main themes were reached that captured the experiences of these participants. The themes included: ‘Learning in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic’ and ‘Adapting to life as a nurse’. Conclusion: The participants experienced challenges in their learning during the pandemic however, they were easily adaptable, and the core learning was not affected. In fact, when transitioning into the practice, the participants did not feel like novice nurses but rather advanced beginners. Their transition was mainly affected by the realisation that practice is different from learning and the lack of belonging being relieving nurses brought about. Recommendations for practice, education and further research have been made.