Integrating new graduate nurses in home health care

In 2005, the home health nursing sector of a large Canadian health authority was on its way toward changing a hiring prerequisite of acute care (medical or surgical) experience for entry to practice into home care nursing. At that time, home healthcare services in Canada and the United States were generally requiring acute care experience as prerequisites for working in home health. However, much of the research beginning as early as early 2000 challenged this perspective and universities and colleges offering baccalaureate degrees in nursing began including home health content in their curricula. The findings from research add to the ongoing critique of this acute care requirement and support the concept that acute care and home care are different practice areas with distinct competencies. This article discusses the contextual background that influenced the undertaking of our research, the relevant research literature, our research findings, model for integration, and evaluation of our pilot and lessons learned. The successes seen as a result of New Graduate integration are now being utilized by other home care nursing offices as a result of this work.