RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Emergency nursing is one of the most challenging and understaffed areas of professional nursing. Currently, little is known about how new graduate nurses perceive their experiences as novice emergency nurses. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how new graduate nurses who are oriented to emergency nursing as their first professional area of nursing employment perceive the orientation program and emergency nursing at the beginning and end of a 6-month program. METHOD: This descriptive study incorporated qualitative and quantitative methods consisting of interviews and a survey. Study participants included 15 women and 3 men. Their mean age was 32 years. All were employed full time in their first position as a graduate nurse. They were asked their perceptions of the program at 3 and 6 months. RESULTS: Participants shared their perceptions of why they had been attracted to the program, characteristics of the emergency department and emergency nursing, being in a new job and role, reflections on their performance, the classroom and clinical components of the program, and their recommendations for future orientation programs. Results of the quantitative survey on participants' perceptions of their first job as a registered nurse indicated that they found the work of the orientation program to be stressful. DISCUSSION: Understanding the experience of new graduate nurses to the emergency setting provides crucial information for orientation program design. Incorporating active teaching and socialization strategies early in the program may facilitate the transition from novice to beginning competent emergency nurse.