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Social Media and Public Sector Policy Dilemmas
Week 7 – Discussion Question:
In the report SOC, the authors (Fyfe and Crookall) make the following initial point: “Social media demand a new paradigm regarding the ownership, use and management of information. The challenges of privacy and official languages can be managed within that new paradigm. The problems linked to information management, privacy and security are simply new manifestations of old phenomena; there have always been risks of improper disclosure and misuse of government information” (Fyfe & Crookall, 2010).
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The report concludes with four (4) items they identified as “needed” and five (5) specific “recommendations.” Drawing on the report, our texts, other sources and your own professional / personal experience with social media do the following: Select ONE of the recommendations and discuss ways of implementing this recommendation in your own agency or business setting. Be as specific as you can with regard to implementation strategies.
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Critical Assessment Literature Review
Write 6-7 pages of a Critical Assessment Literature Review related to your research question. Your textbook (McMillan, 2012) includes an excellent definition of, and step-by-step instructions for, writing a literature review in chapter 3.
Research Question: How can I use group forums to motivate students in an eighth-grade algebra class? Use the literature review template (see attachments). Use the following instructions to complete your literature review:
1. In addition to the peer-reviewed primary research articles, you found earlier this week, locate and use 2-5 additional sources related to your research question.
Critical Assessment Literature Review
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2. Analyze the literature and write a scholarly review of the 5-8 sources as they pertain to your question/statement.
3. Use the Sample Literature Review 1, and Sample Literature Review 2 as guidelines for your writing.
The Sample Literature Review is a full review from a thesis paper. For this assignment, your literature review needs to be only 6 pages (double-spaced, 12 point, APA format). 4. Use the Literature Review Template to write your literature review.5. Include a reference page with proper APA style and formatting.
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‘Racist or not?’: Heart of Darkness a study of Joseph Conrad.
Joseph Conrad occupies an important position in English literature. He is credited as being “one of the greatest novelists in the English language” which is no small feat for any writer but a particularly striking one for someone who learned English in his adult years. Conrad was born Jozef Teador Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski in Russian-occupied Ukraine to Polish parents in the year 1857. He led an active life with roughly twenty years of naval adventures. In 1878, he arrived in England and began to learn the native language. He was twenty-one.
Conrad’s literary career was as adventurous as his life. He produced fourteen novels and eight volumes of stories. His impact on literature-in-English was nothing short of revolutionary and his influence is particularly apparent in American fiction. In the immediate post-World War I landscape, critical giants (including FR Leavis and Thomas C. Moore) took an active interest in analysing Conrad’s works. In the 1930s renewed American curiosity about the author led to many well-written biographical records being published.
Conrad’s fiction revolves around his own experiences. Fascinated by Africa as a young boy, he would grow up to work for an imperial company. This would take him on many journeys to “the dark continent” and leave him with a disillusionment of colonisation.
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After prompting celebratory reverence for more than half a century, Conrad’s fiction is now facing sharp criticism. A lot of this revolves around race. The world looks different in the twenty-first (and twentieth) century than it did in the nineteenth. Writers from once-colonised nations have integrated themselves into the academic and artistic world of English literature, and have found Conrad’s depictions of Africans (and others) to be intellectually lazy, filled with Orientalist stereotyping and employing a rhetoric that justifies colonisation.
Forefront amongst these are: African author and critic Chinua Achebe and Palestinian-born intellectual Edward Said. The former has famously called Joseph Conrad “a thoroughgoing racist”.
So, was Joseph Conrad – story-teller extraordinaire and firm part of the English canon – nothing more than a racist, included in the company of great English writers simply because he was lucky enough to be born a white man at an age where you could recycle stereotypical descriptions of Africans to no-end and still be given credit? Or is he simply a victim of literary-theory, that oppressive force that many celebrated critics feel has taken over English classrooms and turned them into battlegrounds of political correctness?
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To decide, many point – as this essay will – to Conrad’s famous novella Heart of Darkness.
Published in 1899, the premise of the short story is simple: On the deck of a ship docked on River Thames, a man named Marlow recounts his previous adventure as the captain of a river-boat that travelled up the River Congo. Marlow was the employee of an imperial company specialising in ivory trade in Africa. His mission was to rescue Kurtz, the evasive station captain stranded somewhere in the depths of Congo.
Conrad was different from his contemporaries in that he offers an apparently scathing critique of imperial domination right from the start of the novella. Unlike many, he does not posit colonial rule as of benefit to the natives and highlights white cruelty at (almost) every turn.
Marlow points out that his predecessor Fresleven once beat the chief of an African tribe with a stick over a dispute involving some hens. When a fire breaks out at the company’s central station a black man is punished; he is beaten bloody at the mere suspicion of playing a part in the destruction and afforded no trial.
A line of slaves joined with chains hanging from their necks is paraded around the station, and Marlow’s companion is eager to “kill somebody” as punishment for the black men (who are forced to carry him everywhere) deserting them. Even Kurtz – who is a part of the company’s newly recruited “gang of virtue” – scribbles “Exterminate all the brutes!” in a moment of carelessness as a jarring postscript on his (ironically titled) pamphlet for the ‘Suppression of Savage Customs’.
If the white people are cruel – the black people are oppressed, and Conrad makes sure to show this repeatedly. The hungry slaves deserted after they had fulfilled their usefulness are “black shadows of disease and starvation.” Black heads on stakes decorate Kurtz’s house, a reminder that even the best view natives as easily disposable.
On the river-boat, Marlow’s white crew members throw a slab of smelly hippo meat overboard, their olfactory sensibilities overriding a major concern: what will the black-crew eat? This is of little consequence to the Europeans and (strikingly) Marlow recounts this instance with a good deal of sarcasm, commenting that the useless brass wire paid in place of the meat “was paid with a regularity worth of a large and honourable trading company.”
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This is to Conrad’s credit. He does not seem to fully subscribe to the mission civilisatrice (‘civilising mission’) that maintained that the white man had a duty to go forth and westernise all non-Europeans for their own benefit. This was a powerful rhetorical position in the nineteenth century, and this novella offers contemptuous commentary in this regard: Marlow encounters a man paid by the company for the upkeep of roads and points out that neither roads nor upkeep was to be seen unless the body of a black man lying in the middle of the path with a bullet hole through his head “could be considered a permanent improvement.”
When he first arrives in Congo, Marlow encounters the senseless digging of a hole which seems to have no purpose other than a “philanthropic desire” to give the natives work. When Marlow’s aunt elaborates on the goodness of colonisers spreading culture and Christianity to savages, he replies: “The Company is run for profit.”
These – and other – instances show that Conrad was ahead of his time, at least to a certain extent.
Shouldn’t this be enough to exonerate him?
Achebe doesn’t think so.
In 1975, he delivered a lecture titled ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’. In it, he outlines why he indicts Joseph Conrad.
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For one thing, Conrad sees Africa as little more than a foil to Europe. If Europe is cultured, civilized and advanced, then Africa is (all words used to describe Congo in Heart of Darkness:)savage, barbaric and primitive. A place “where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality,” Achebe writes. This is problematic because it sees Africa only in terms of not-being-Europe, and not as a real place with its own spatiotemporal context.
This means that the author is so blinded by his prejudices that he deliberately misses out on achievements by Africans. As Achebe points out, the tribe of Fang people lived near were the novella is set. European travellers inspired by their bronze-art would introduce cubism to 20th century Britain around the time of Conrad’s writing. But you wouldn’t guess from that from reading this novella. Conrad spares no adjective in describing how hopelessly childlike, incapable of progress and primitive Africans are.
That they could create something worthwhile is unimaginable. Essentially what Achebe points out is that Conrad’s works are ‘Orientalist’ – a tricky word that basically means that European domination in Africa, Indochina and the Near East was accompanied by representations that insisted that black and brown people were incapable of progress and so justified colonial rule as being in their own best interests.
Secondly, African characters in the novel are rarely allowed to speak lucidly. Their language is brushed aside as “grunting phrase[s]”, a “clamour” and “an incomprehensible frenzy”. The narrator has a disturbing habit of comparing them to animals. There is a black river-boat boilerman who struggles to understand the work his white masters require of him, and Marlow comments that watching him was “as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind legs” while a black helmsman is compared to a horse. These depictions further dehumanise Africans in the eyes of readers.
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Edward Said was a post-colonial literary critic who coined the term ‘Orientalism’. In his 1993 book Culture and Imperialism, he talks about Conrad. He is much more charitable than his African colleague and credits the author with the creation of a convincing narrative and a powerful voice that pays attention to the “waste and horror” of Europe’s mission in the dark world.
However, Said admits that Conrad recycles the narrative of European domination, and does not show Africans as real people. He writes: “…neither Conrad nor Marlow gives us a full view of what is outside the world-conquering attitudes embodied by Kurtz, Marlow, the circle of listeners of the deck of The Nellie and Conrad.” The full humanity of Africans is compromised in favour of stereotypes.
So, was Joseph Conrad racist? The jury is still out. But as academia expands to include perspectives from those living in the Global South it seems likely that Achebe will have the last work. In a 2003 article in The Guardian, Chinua Achebe is in conversation with a white author Caryl Philips who admires both him and Conrad. There, Achebe offers some insightful remarks with regards to Heart of Darkness:
“You see, those who say that Conrad is on my side because he is against colonial rule do not understand that I know who is on my side. And where is the proof that he is on my side? A few statements about it not being a very nice thing to exploit people who have flat noses? This is his defence against imperial control? If so it is not enough. It is simply not enough. If you are going to be on my side what is required is a better argument. Ultimately you have to admit that Africans are people. You cannot diminish a people’s humanity and defend them.”
This article ends with this insightful exchange, in which Philips examines his own skepticism with regards to Joseph Conrad’s racism (the dialogue in quotation marks is Achebe’s):
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“Yes, you will notice that the European traders have ‘tainted’ souls, Marlow has a ‘pure’ soul, but I am to accept that mine is ‘rudimentary’?” He shakes his head. “Towards the end of the 19th century, there was a very short-lived period of ambivalence about the certainty of this colonising mission, and Heart of Darkness falls into this period. But you cannot compromise my humanity in order that you explore your own ambiguity. I cannot accept that. My humanity is not to be debated, nor is it to be used simply to illustrate European problems.”
The realisation hits me with force. I am not an African. Were I an African I suspect I would feel the same way as my host. But I was raised in Europe, and although I have learned to reject the stereotypically reductive images of Africa and Africans, I am undeniably interested in the break-up of a European mind and the health of European civilisation. I feel momentarily ashamed that I might have become caught up with this theme and subsequently overlooked how offensive this novel might be to a man such as Chinua Achebe and to millions of other Africans.
Achebe is right; to the African reader the price of Conrad’s eloquent denunciation of colonisation is the recycling of racist notions of the “dark” continent and her people. Those of us who are not from Africa may be prepared to pay this price, but this price is far too high for Achebe. However lofty Conrad’s mission, he has, in keeping with times past and present, compromised African humanity in order to examine the European psyche. Achebe’s response is understandably personal.
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Strategic Plan Literature Review
A fundamental technique applied by management accountants in managing an organization is strategic planning. Strategic planning a comprehensive method that consists the determination of what an organization should become and how it can achieve its goals and objectives Griffin (2013). In strategic planning mission and vision for the business are laid out. It does not necessarily involve describing how to achieve the goals of the business but to describe where the business is going.
Though strategic planning is a paramount need for an organization’s growth through recharging, an organization is mostly tired of coming up with new ways due to the scarcity of resources (Byron 2011). This paper is intended to analyze strategic planning as a management accounting function by going through literature reviews to ascertain the applicability, characteristics, and assumptions underlying the technique.
Literature review
Bain (2015) researched on strategic planning and its applicability in organizations. According to the author, strategic planning exploits the full potential of a business and acts as a link between the objectives of the business and the resources required to achieve the objectives. According to Bain (2015), a clear strategic plan should address the following issues.
1. A full insight into an organization’s mission, goals, and objectives.
2. Explore all the potential business gaps and markets for emerging opportunities and threats.
3. Provide an understanding of the future market segments and priorities.
4. An analysis of the company’s weaknesses and strengths and its competitors together with processes in the value chain that need to be changed or adopted.
5. Identification, assessment, and evaluation of strategies and creation of a business model that can differentiate the business with competitors.
6. Preparation of programs and policies for proper implementation of the strategies.
7. Allocation of resources, responds to environmental changes and monitoring of performance.
Strategic Plan Literature Review
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Strategic planning is used by management accountants to change the performance of a business, promote discussions that provide facts that are politically sensitive, the creation of a model that integrates all the functions of the organization, and have proper context for making budgeting decisions (Amy 2012). Through strategic plans, managers get more insightful information for decision making and business appraisal.
The assumption made in developing strategic plans is that resources are readily available, and the organization is underperforming. Also, it is assumed that the external factors and internal factors provide all the required information for making strategic plans. However, it’s hard to get complete strategies since competitors do not give information that is relevant for benchmarking and the process is also implicated b social and political factors (Byron 2013).
Another scholar, Paul (2013) made a comprehensive research on the essential requirements for strategic planning. The author also assumes that the organization making strategic plans is financially struggling. According to the author, strategic planning is a functional process that provides the difference between a struggling organization and an innovative-driven organization.
The reason behind strategic planning is to create a cultural environment that believes in planning not just for the company to strive out of its low performance but long after regaining form (John 2012). Successful strategic planning incorporates ideas, inspiration, hard work, and determination. Most strategic plans are currently static and should evolve to being more adaptive and directive.
Strategic Plan Literature Review
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Paul (2013) noted that the essential elements of a successful strategic plan involve:
1. Beginning at the top.
For a unified mission and vision, top management should take priority in implementing the strategic plans. The plan does not only involve management accounting but all other senior departmental managers including the CEOs. The senior managers should drive the strategies and give reasons behind each plan for effective accomplishment of organization goals. A strategic plan involves all the processes of an organization, and it is through coordination of the different functions and processes that a cohesive strategic plan is formulated. Management should be leaders in their job to ensure the strategies fall in place.
2. Inclusion of strategic plan at all levels
Management accountants should involve all the levels of employees while designing a strategic plan. As proven by the lean approach, each has different ideas, and if given the right conditions, the ideas can be put to work (Khan and Join 2010). The sales team, financial accountants, casual workers, and even customers should be involved in strategic planning. Involving all levels of the organization in strategic planning ensures that passion for the internal community is strong for all the people working at the organization. Employees get motivated to work even extra hard when they feel they are considered a part of the organization.
3. Concentrate more on skill than vision
Though a strategic plan is guided by the vision of the organization, skills and expertise required is key to the achievement of the firm’s goals. Different skill sets should be applied while crafting the strategic plan (Bain 2014).
4. Have a guidebook for making decisions
The strategic plan should be used by all the functions of the organization to make decisions. Mission, vision, and decisions should be the core of the strategic plan and should provide advance decisions for the firm. The strategic plan should be the first thing to be viewed and applied daily as it is a representative of the organization.
5. Flexibility
Though the strategic plan is used as a guidebook, the market keeps on changing, and it should be designed in a way that it can be changed. Priorities and economic conditions shift making the tasks laid out for accomplishment to change and evolve.
A well-documented strategic plan uses the past to forecast the future and creates a specialized culture for the organization. Strategic plans impact the organization socially by integrating the different functions and departments (Erica 2012). It is ethical in its form since all the stakeholders are involved hence ensuring that the needs of each are looked into before it is implemented.
Strategic Plan Literature Review
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Dennis (2013) talked about an organization looking beyond strategic plan. There are so many challenges faced by organizations that they wonder whether they will survive, let alone succeed. One of the main ways of re-starting an organization is through strategic planning. At the beginning of strategic planning, organizations are always excited yet mostly they end up failing in their mission. Failure by organizations results from strategic plans lacking some primary components such as:
1. A detailed assessment of the organizational structure.
2. A vision that is clear with uptight measures.
3. A clear and comprehensive funding structure to acquire all the necessary resources.
4. A plan that is detailed for implementation by both the staff and the management.
After the process of making the strategic plan, management accountants involved in the process always say that the process gave them insights into fulfilling the goals of the organization, that the functions were fully engaged and so on. The managers involved in the process should have greater confidence in the improvement of the organization and also the know how to accomplish the goals (James 2012). All the staff and board of directors should also be excited because they know where they are as an organization and where they are going.
According to Dennis (2013), effective process of strategic planning begins by first establishing the current position of the organization and the internal obstacles that it’s facing and all the hindrances to its achievement. Establishing obstacles is done by having a comprehensive face to face interviews with all the involved stakeholders both internal and external.
Before the interviews are done, it is crucial to collect and review information about the organization. Information management needs to have include budgets and financial statements, table of organization used by management, board minutes, marketing and public relations schedules and a better understanding of all the components. It’s only after there is a detailed list of information that a strategic plan can be prepared.
Strategic Plan Literature Review
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The vision presented by the strategic plan should create enthusiasm, commitment and should be well understood. After a clear identification of where the organization intends to go, review of all services and programs is done to determine processes that need to be changed or improved. Few goals should be set to enhance attainability. Also, during strategic planning, it is an appropriate time to outsource activities or involve other organizations so as to achieve the goals of the organization (Graham 2014).
After a comprehensive assessment of the organization is done, inspirational mission and vision for the organization is established as the foundation for the strategic planning. It is only by going beyond the traditional methods of strategic planning that the employees can be re-energized to impart new life to the whole organization.
According to Bill (2014), Strategic planning is no longer creating vibrancy and energy in organizations. The inability of the managers to forecast the future was the major contributing factor to the decline in the use of strategic planning. Instead of directing resources to opportunities that were productive, strategic managers accepted any project that was brought forward.
Also, strategic plans were not interrelated to the main action plans, and if action plans were described, they were so vague such that managers continued to do their operations in the usual way. A lot of time would be spent in drafting an attractive mission statement that wasn’t practiced.
Strategic Plan Literature Review
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All the above scholars identify strategic planning as a core function of management. It is through having a strategic plan that the direction of an organization is established. However, a plan is incomplete without the involvement of both the internal and external stakeholders. According to Ronald (2013) the plan should be at par with the regulations of the market as well as company’s policies. It should create a correlation between the social aspects of the organization as well as the political aspects.
Leaders should be incorporated and should be first in coming up with effective strategies. It is through proper leadership that common goals and team work is established (James 2011). An organization that does not incorporate teamwork as a core social aspect does not succeed. It is, therefore, necessary to involve all the stakeholders in the designing of the strategic plan.
Before commencing to write a strategic plan, the management should have clear information on all the organization functions. The sales people, accountants, human resources, budgetary committee, financial managers and all internal, as well as external stakeholders, should be involved. When all stakeholders are involved, it’s easy to get a clear picture as to what is ailing the organization.
The obstacles undermining the performance of the organization should be established (Steven 2013). Involvement of all the functions and stakeholders ensures that all ideas are incorporated and weighed against each other to get a common goal. A strategic plan is not necessarily designed to show how goals are to be achieved but where the future of the organization lies.
The reason so many strategic plans are set but do not work is because resources are not directed where they can be mostly profitable. Managers become so blinded with setting up mission and vision for the organization that they do not plan for specific issues that will lead to profitability in an organization.
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Historical data on cost allocation strategies, budgeting, financial statements, and performance is used to generate a strategic plan. The strategic plan also incorporates forecasting and cost analysis since the plan should lie within the available resources (Mark 2013). The more information and stakeholders are involved, the best the outcome. A strategic plan should not be just a documented plan, but it should provide a clear mission and vision for the organization and should be a guide to employees and all staff. The plan should create a culture of team work and leadership. When all the stakeholders are involved, the employees feel part and parcel of the organization and get motivate to put their best feet forward.
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New Graduate Nurse (NGN)
Transitioning from a student into a professional practitioner is a difficult experience for most people. However, the transition experience is especially difficult for graduate nurses who are ushered into a demanding work environment. Most new nurses are shocked at the sheer contrast between student life and work. Just a few weeks after employment, Graduate nurses are expected to take up serious responsibilities including patient care and supervisory duties.
This review explores literature on the New Graduate Nurse (NG) transition experience with the aim of discovering shortcomings in this knowledge area. This research hopes to bridge the gap in knowledge about self-care strategies that NGNs can use as the transition to Registered Nurses.
Background
Waves of research have studied the experiences of nurses as they transit from student to practicing Registered nurses. The first research wave focused on the experiences of individual nurses during the transition phase. The second wave, investigated the effectiveness of interventions meant to support nurses during the transition. Most studies into the experience of New Graduate Nurses (NGNs) used survey and interviews to arrive at their conclusions. The studies reported that NGNs initially found the role of practicing nurse extremely stressing and they reported many challenges.
However, role stress decreased as NGNs gained confidence, obtained clinical support and developed competence (Casey, Fink, Krugman, &Propst 2004; Halfer& Graf, 2006). NGNs described the transition as a difficult time filled with feeling or incompetence, fear of physicians, an overwhelming sense of responsibility, and difficulties in prioritizing, organizing or delegating tasks. Bowles and Candela (2005) carried a study in Nevada that sought to find the attrition rates of new nurse.
It was reported that approximately 30% of NGNs quit their first nursing jobs within the first year of employment. In just two years, 57% had moved from their first jobs. According to Bowles and Candela (2005), the high nurse turnover hinders work productivity, quality patient outcomes and the morale of the staff. Moreover, high turnover means healthcare organization have to incur the cost of rehiring and retraining new nurses to take the roles of those who leave.
While training more nurses may solve the nurse shortage problem, the problem of deficient patient care and supportive work environment needs to be handled to smooth the nurse transition. Casey et al (2004) found that NGNs are not satisfied with their working environment as they lamented the lack of a consistent preceptor, struggles with authority, a feeling of being undervalued, and workload issues. Chi, Laschinger and Wong (2006) carried out a study on transition among 226 nurses with less than 2 years practice experience.
The study reported similar results to Casey et al (2005); they indicated that there were high burnout rates among new nurses. The nurse complained about the lack of support, limitation of access to resources and opportunities as their main barrier to productivity at the transition phase. However, the job satisfaction outcomes of NGNs improved significantly after the first 18 months of practice. Halfer and Graf (2006) reported high job satisfaction rates among 84 subject of their research.
The two authors argued that nurse started to enjoy their work once they were able to organize their time, prioritize tasks, access resource, understand job expectation, and were made aware of the availability of professional development opportunities. Studies of nursing thought processes also indicate support the conclusion that the transition is a stressing time for graduate nurses.
According to Pellico, Brewer and Kovner (2009), NGNs’ confidence was initially low as they were unsure about the experience and knowledge , they also feared the interaction with patients as they felt they would not be able to understand their issues. NGNs were also worried about acting autonomously and deciding when it was necessary to call physicians. By the 9 month, NGNs had significantly boosted their confidence and were able to make competent patient care decisions.
The research wave on NGNs’ transition experience was followed by studies that investigated institutional initiatives to smooth the transition. The second wave was concerned with the preceptor and recognized him/her as a crucial component of the NGN transition process (Bowles and Candela, 2005). This phase of research proposed formal classes; evidence based practice, and guidance and mentoring as crucial precepts of nursing practice.
The studies proposed that all medical care should be involved in precepting, the presence of a designated preceptor and rewards for those who successfully carry out the preceptor’s role (Bowles and Candela, 2005). Some studies indicated that extended residencies and structured orientation to support the NGN transition improved job satisfaction and reduced the high nurse turnover. NGNs have complained about limited orientation, disorientation, feelings of confusion and loss, overwhelming responsibility as the main barriers to successful transitions.
The difficulties of the NGNs transition to practice are further complicated by other changes in their life (Scott, Engelke and Swanson, 2008). NGNs may have moved to a new town, become married or changed schools. Obviously, the new nurse transition face is fraught with difficult and there is need for support and self-management strategies to handle the stresses of this phase of a nurse’s career.
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Experiences of New Nurses
NGNs transitioning issues can be classified into four broad themes; demands on nurses, support at the workplace, the control of their role as employees, and perceptions of self efficacy (Bowles and Candela, 2005).
Workplace Demands
Demand in the workplace on new nurses is a theme that has been explored by many studies. NGNs identified workplace demands such as staff shortages, workload, decision making responsibilities and administrative duties as overwhelming issues (Casey et al, 2004). A survey of newly licensed nurses around the US found that demands relating to time were among the most stressing issues for NGNs. Nurses complained that they were often required to work hard or fast by their supervisors.
Casey et al (2004) also noted that nurses found it stressing to take responsibility for patient care provided by unregulated staff. Unfortunately, nursing has the dubious distinction of being the only profession which requires new practitioners to assume supervisory duties. Studies exploring the expectations of the multidisciplinary team working with new nurses reveal too high expectations of the (NGNs Waite, 2004). At eight weeks, the multidisciplinary team studied in the research expected new nurses to be able to make specific clinical assessments, be able to use laboratory data, and be able to react to emergencies (Dyess and Sherman, 2009).
In addition, the team expected the NGNs to be knowledgeable about the whole health systems. Many employers have complained about the deficit of key skills and the readiness of NGNs to deal with the demanding clinical environment. NGNs critical thinking skills and approaches to medication administration have also been called into question by some scholars. Romyn et al (2009) argued that NGNs are often responsible for near misses and medication errors as they are not proficient enough handle the medication demands of the job.
According to Edwards et al (2015), the concerns about the competence of NGNs are not unwarranted as competent performance is not guaranteed while working with graduate nurses. The lack of a consistent system to measure the performance of NGNs also further complicates the expectation of competence placed upon them. One of the common criteria for measuring competence in nursing is speed and ability to complete specific tasks (Romyn et al, 2009).
Unfortunately, the speed of New Graduate nurses may be quite low and they may not have the same capability to handle patient issues as experienced nurses (Delaney, 2003). This method of evaluating the performance of NGNs sees their work condemned as unsatisfactory and is often associated with stress among the new graduates joining the workforce.
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Control
Many NGNs report concerns about the control or autonomy of their new roles as practicing nurses. Many new nurses complained that being responsible and accountable to patients was stressing (Delaney, 2003). Duchscher and Cowin (2004) pointed out student nurse roles did little to equip NGNs for the responsibilities awaiting them in practice. Duchscher and Cowin (2004) support the view that patient care decision and outcome responsibilities often overwhelm new nurses.
However, the reactions of the NGNs varied as some embraced the new responsibilities, but most reported a feeling of being overwhelmed (Delaney, 2003). Researchers have argued that control is a double edged sword in the transition period. For nurses who embrace responsibility and accountability easily, it is exhilarating and exciting. In contrast, control brings about a feeling of anxiety for nurses who are unprepared for the new responsibilities.
NGNs may also suffer disorientation and poor sense of control as a result of unfamiliarity with the practice environment. NGNs are surprised when they realize that the practice environment is significantly different from the school context (Duchscher, 2001). Chang and Hancock (2003) argue that NGNs can experience as a result of uncertain expectation of the new role which gives rise to role ambiguity.
Support
Support by supervisors or coworkers plays a significant role in easing the NGN transition process. Often NGNs expend much effort in trying to familiarize themselves with existing workers in their healthcare setting (Casey et al, 2004). Duchscher and Cowin (2004) note that NGNs are in need the support of other members of the multidisciplinary team. Majority of NGNs report that there are adequately supported by preceptors and colleagues (Delaney, 2003).
They also reported that they felt part of the team. However, new nurse could not challenge established ways of doing things as they lacked support in doing this. Nurses also need support from family and friends outside the workplace. In fact, nurse reported that they performed better when they received support from outside the workplace.
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Self-efficacy
Casey et al (2004) reported that NGNs feel incompetent and inadequate as they begin practicing as nurses. Many new nurses report feeling as if they did not posses the necessary skills or knowledge to work as Registered Nurses (Delaney, 2003; Duchscher and Cowin, 2004). NGNs also greatly doubted their clinical competence as they lacked a frame of reference unlike experienced healthcare workers (Duchscher and Cowin, 2004). Duchscher and Cowin (2004) points out those NGNs felt their inadequate knowledge was a serious limitation. However, NGNs reported higher self-efficacy and confidence scores as they continued to gain clinical experience.
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Transition Impacts
Job stress
Job stress is one of the most widely reported results of the NGN transition (Delaney, 2003; Duchscher and Cowin, 2004; Twibell et al 2012; Pellico, Brewer and Kovner, 2009). Despite the emphasis on job stress in many studies, few have investigated the intensity of stress affecting NGNs. Chang and Hancock (2003) reported that the transition experience resulted in moderate amounts of stress among NGNs. According to Casey et al (2004), NGNs comfort and confidence is initially very high as the new graduates join the profession, however, it decreases with time in the job.
Fortunately, nurse comfort and confidence starts to increase as they gain experience and peaks one year after commencing practice. Chang and Hancock (2003) reported that nurses experience many stressors during the transition process. According to the two, the initial stressors include role ambiguity and responsibilities. After one year of employment, the main stressor is role overload.
Job Satisfaction
One of the most ignored outcomes of NGN transition is the job satisfaction impact. Common studies have emphasized on the challenges experienced during the transition phase but rarely have the satisfying job aspects being explored. Delaney (2003) reported that some new nurses reported that they found their new roles as practicing nurses satisfying. Nurse’s satisfaction with their work increased when they started to recognize available opportunities for personal growth and development.
Some NGNs reported that it felt exciting to finally take up the role of a practicing nurse. However, NGNs also reported many dissatisfying elements in their work, these included dizzying pace of work, inadequate staffing and too much autonomy and responsibility (Pellico, Brewer and Kovner, 2009; Casey et al, 2004; Chang and Hancock, 2003). Nurse who were satisfied with their work also were also more intent on staying with their employer.
Further research explored job satisfaction as an independent variable and presented interesting research findings. Delaney (2003) reported that nurses who were satisfied with their jobs felt a strong sense of belonging to the organization. Satisfaction in jobs was also negatively associated with role stress, role ambiguity and conflict during the transition process (Chang & Hancock, 2003).
Research has also explored outcomes such as turnover intent and nurse turnover. Many of these outcomes increase when there is shortage of nursing manpower. A high patient:nurse turnover is likely to precede and increase in patient mortality and has been indicated as an accelerator of nurse burnout (Bowles and Candela, 2005). Nurses report that the main causes of high turnover among NGNs are poor work design and emotional exhaustion.
These result support the need to research into self-management strategies that nurses can use to cope to the stressing experiences of the transition process. Twibell et al (2012) have hypothesized that self-care strategies may help nurse achieve higher levels of satisfaction with their jobs.
Interventions to support NGNs
Decades of research have popularized the notion that NGN transition is a process that needs to be addressed (Bowles and Candela, 2005). Many interventions have been applied to assist is making the transitioning process easy. However, there are few reports of intervention that aim to teach nurses how to self-manage the transition by performing recommended self-care practices.
Early studies recommended the use of internship programs and preceptor pairing to expose the nurse to the “real world” prior to commencing practice (Bowles and Candela, 2005). However, the value of preceptor and internship programs have come into questions recently and new research is needed to clarify the value they add to the NGN transition process.
One of the gaps in NGN transition research is the lack of measurement of the effectiveness of interventions to support NGN transition (Bowles and Candela, 2005). Many of the early studies, presented subjective results of the effectiveness of the interventions they were studying. Later studies in the late 1980s started to include quantitative measures of the effectiveness of the interventions (Casey et al 2004). However, most of the studies failed to measure the impact of the studies on patient outcome. Some of these studies are included in this review.
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Conclusion
The NGN transition process is a well researched area within the nursing profession. Most stakeholders seem to be aware of the problems that face NGNs as they transition into their practice. Decades of research present findings detailing mostly ineffective interventions to deal with the NGN transition process. One of the most common intervention experimented in research was the use of internship, residencies and preceptors. However, many researchers call into question the usefulness of these interventions in addressing the problems of new nurse’s commencing practice.
This research reveals two reasons why intervention to smooth the NGN transition failed to work despite decades of research. First, the early interventions were never objectively evaluated and thus the opportunity to gauge their effectiveness and increase their impact was missed. Furthermore, most of the intervention were designed to address problems identified in specific health care settings and were not backed by an understanding of the issues facing NGNs.
Few of the interventions sought to get to the bottom of the stress experienced by NGNs. Secondly, the interventions failed to take into consideration the many elements of the practice environment. This review presents some of the environmental factors that lead to a difficult experience for NGNs transitioning to practice. NGNs perception of their own abilities and knowledge is among the most stressing factors.
Many NGNs feel incompetent and inadequate when there are starting out. This attitude contrast sharply to the work demand, high expectation, and responsibility that characterize their work environment. Other healthcare workers expect nurses to exhibit the same level of competence and skills as experienced practitioners less than two months after being employed.
Few nurses are prepared for the sudden responsibility and autonomy they have over patient care decision. Many find the new responsibility overwhelming and are stressed. However, a substantial number of new nurses are excited and exhilarated to work autonomously. This review also indicates that support from colleagues, supervisors, family and friends are important for a successful transition. Nurses who receive support express confidence in their ability, Skills and knowledge.
This review has revealed that the NGN transition process can be an extremely stressing period. Many studies point to the stress and emotional distraught that is experienced by NGNs during the transition. Most studies report that new nurse feel overwhelmed by the demands of the new environment, feelings of inadequacy and fear of failure. Very few studies have investigated the possible positive impact of self-care mechanism that may assist nurse’s cope with the difficult transition period. This research will seek to address this gap in research and provide valuable evidence that may be used to improve the NGN transition experience significantly.
References
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Casey, K., Fink, R. R., Krugman, A. M., & Propst, F. J. (2004). The graduate nurse experience. Journal of Nursing Administration, 34(6), 303-311.
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