New graduate registered nurse transition into primary health care roles: an integrative literature review

Aims and objectives To summarise the literature describing new graduate nurse transition to professional practice within the primary health care (PHC) setting. Background There is a plethora of research literature spanning several decades about new graduate nurse transition in the acute care setting. Yet, the experiences of new graduate nurse in the PHC setting is unremarkable particularly considering the increasing demand for skilled health care workers and focus of health reform to provide care where people work and live. Design Electronic data bases, Academic Search Complete, EBSCO, Medline, PsycINFO, CINHAL, and ERIC were searched using a combination of terms and synonyms arising from three key concepts which identify the phenomenon; ‘transition’, ‘new graduate registered nurse’ and ‘primary health care. An inclusive search strategy placed no limits on language or publication date. Results Of the 50 articles located and examined for relevance; 40 were sourced through databases and 10 from Google Scholar/Alerts and hand‐searching references. None of the 19 articles retained for analysis addressed all key concepts. Conclusions Some challenges of researching the professional transition of graduate nurses in PHC settings included, an absence of definitive transition models, a dearth of literature and deference to acute care research. Relevance to clinical practice Nursing in PHC settings, particularly the client's home is notably different to hospital settings because of higher levels of isolation and autonomy. Societal changes, health reform and subsequent demand for skilled workers in PHC settings has caused health care providers to question the logic that such roles are only for experienced nurses. Implications arise for education and health service providers who desire to close the theory practice gap and mitigate risk for all stakeholders when next generation nurses have limited opportunities to experience PHC roles as undergraduates and newly graduated registered nurses are already transitioning in this setting.