The effect of mentoring programme on reality shock, clinical adaptation and professional competencies of new graduated nurses

The research was conducted to evaluate the effect of guidance nursing practice on the reality shock, clinical adaptation and professional competence of new graduate nurses. The research was of mixed type, with intervention and control groups (pretest-posttest control design) and used blind technique, randomized controlled experimental method and focus group interview method. The population of the research consisted of 65 new graduate nurses who started working in the institution in 2021, and the sample consisted of 56 new graduate nurses (28 intervention, 28 control) as a result of the power analysis. In the first stage of the research, guide nurses were trained, and in the second stage, guide nursing practice was carried out. During this process, 1 month of routine clinical orientation training was given to nurses in the control group, 1 month of guide nursing practice was given to nurses in the intervention group, and new graduate nurses were monitored for 3 months. Quantitative data were collected before, after and in the 3rd month of the study. Guidance Nurse Information Form, Nurse Competency Scale, Guidance Nurse Education Examination Form, New Graduate Nurse Information Form, Reality Shock Scale, Nurse Professional Competence Scale, Clinical Orientation Training Pre-post Test, Clinical Orientation Portfolio, Guidance Nurse Evaluation Form were used as data collection tools. To collect the qualitative data of the study, a Focus Group Interview was held before and after the nurse guide application. Obtained data was analyzed using the G*Power analysis, mean, standard deviation, median, frequency, percentage, minimum, maximum, Cronbach's Alpha, Shapiro-Wilk test, Independent groups t test, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson correlation analysis, and Spearman correlation analysis, qualitative data was analyzed using the MAXQDA 2022 program, and significance was evaluated at the p<0.05 level. In the study, it was found that the knowledge and skill scores of the nurses in the intervention group increased and were higher than the control group in the evaluations made in the 1st and 3rd months of the study after the guide nursing application. It was observed that the reality shock scores of the nurses in the intervention group were lower than the nurses in the control group. No difference was found between the two groups in professional competence scores. In line with the results; It can be said that the guidance nursing practice has a positive effect on the reality shock and clinical adaptation of new graduate nurses, that there is a significant increase in the knowledge and skill levels of new graduate nurses, and that a period of 1 month is not enough to measure professional competence level.