Experience of New Graduate Nurses in Nurse Residency Programs During the COVID-19 World Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Individuals who entered any nursing program during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) world pandemic were exposed to a different and chaotic learning environment. The goal of this study was to describe the experience of 452 new graduate nurses (NGNs) who entered the profession between 2020 and 2022. METHOD: This study was a qualitative thematic analysis of an open-ended survey from the American Nurses Credentialing Center Practice Transition Accreditation Program® (PTAP®). RESULTS: The thematic analysis resulted in five themes: the pandemic was a significant disruptor, the program was a generally negative experience, the quality of the preceptors and mentors made a difference, the content of the program made an impact, and the residency program prepared NGNs for the RN role by building confidence and promoting relationship building and a sense of community. CONCLUSION: The 2020-2022 world pandemic created a challenging environment for NGNs to enter nursing and had implications for practice. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2024;55(2):87-93.].

Preparing Nursing Professional Development Practitioners for Virtual Facilitation.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid transition from teaching in person to teaching in a virtual environment, which forced many nursing professional development practitioners unfamiliar with this methodology to quickly adapt and acquire new skills. This article describes a course created to ease nursing professional development practitioners' transition who suddenly found themselves teaching in this unfamiliar environment. The process described may be useful for other organizations transitioning to teaching in a virtual environment.

Continuing Education for Mentors and a Mentoring Program for RN-to-BSN Students.

Mentoring programs have been used effectively with graduate and undergraduate nursing students and newly licensed nurses. There are few publications about mentoring for the RN enrolled in a bachelor of science in nursing (RN-to-BSN) program. To address low graduation rates in the public RN-to-BSN nursing programs, the Montana Center to Advance Health Through Nursing designed a mentoring program to help these nurses achieve their BSN. This voluntary program was initiated at an RN-to-BSN program in a 4-year college with six RN students who were paired with a mentor. An interactive, continuing education workshop on mentoring also was developed to prepare experienced nurses for their role as a mentor. This workshop was held nine times across Montana, with a total of 156 attendees. Workshop evaluations were consistently positive. Participants identified time and personality issues as barriers to successful mentoring and recommended expansion of the workshop to a distance-learning format so more nurses could attend. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2016;47(6):272-277.