On the difficulty of finding one's place: A qualitative study of new nurses' processes of growth in the workplace.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: To explore new nurses' processes of growth in the workplace in order to understand the challenges they face. BACKGROUND: Quantitative and qualitative research to date has not adequately explored the complex ways in which initial work experiences may shape new nurses' very high quit rate and, consequently, impact the long-term nursing shortage in Taiwan. DESIGN/METHODS: We conducted in-depth interviews with new nurses to explore their professional development, including the challenges they faced, and their feelings about staying or quitting. Twenty newly registered nurses who had worked in a hospital setting full-time for a year or less in two southern Taiwan medical centres were interviewed. Data were collected from March-November 2016. EQUATOR guidelines were followed, using the COREQ checklist. RESULTS: Interview transcripts were analysed and coded; three stages of growth were discovered: Feeling disillusioned and shocked, Gaining experiential knowledge and Making a place for oneself. Most nurses (n = 18/20) went through these three stages within 9 months and continued to work in nursing at follow-up 2 years later. CONCLUSIONS: Job continuity was contingent upon new nurses' enduring a painful process of adjustment in the first two stages when new nurses were unsure of themselves and their interactions with preceptors were wrought with social tensions. New nurse development and retention efforts should make explicit the possibility of these tensions and how to deal with them. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: A better understanding of new nurses' growth processes and adjustment pains can help refocus professional development and retention efforts towards how new nurses can succeed in finding a place for themselves.

Uses and Perspectives of Aging Well Terminology in Taiwanese and International Literature: A Systematic Review.

The aim of this study is to examine aging well (AW) terminology in Taiwan in its local and global contexts, and to suggest ways of communication by Taiwanese professionals that is sensitive to the lay public's preferences. Researchers conducted a systematic review using Khan et al.'s strategy, and Harden and Thomas' method, to sift through seven databases and synthesize diverse studies on AW. Primary aging well terms used in English and Chinese, their usage frequency in Taiwanese academia, and one term uniquely used by lay people in Taiwan were identified. The synthesized literature illustrated commonality as well as diversity in use and interpretation of aging well terms within Taiwanese society and compared with the Western-based research. More qualitative research is needed to explore how AW is experienced, interpreted, and expected from lay perspectives in Taiwan and other countries have primarily relied on translation and adaptation of Western terms in their scientific research.

New concepts of science and medicine in science and technology studies and their relevance to science education.

Science education often adopts a narrow view of science that assumes the lay public is ignorant, which seemingly justifies a science education limited to a promotional narrative of progress in the form of scientific knowledge void of meaningful social context. We propose that to prepare students as future concerned citizens of a technoscientific society, science education should be informed by science, technology, and society (STS) perspectives. An STS-informed science education, in our view, will include the following curricular elements: science controversy education, gender issues, historical perspective, and a move away from a Eurocentric view by looking into the distinctive patterns of other regional (in this case of Taiwan, East Asian) approaches to science, technology, and medicine. This article outlines the significance of some major STS studies as a means of illustrating the ways in which STS perspectives can, if incorporated into science education, enhance our understanding of science and technology and their relationships with society.