[An exploratory study of role adaptation of newly employed nurses]

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing role adaptation in newly employed nurses and the consistency between role expectations before employment and after one year of employment. The results of this study may contribute to strategy development towards positive role adaptation in newly employed nurses. The data used in this study were collected from 111 nurses, the sample was drawn from all newly employed professional nurses working at Y Medical Center in 1987. The data were collected longitudinally in the 2nd-3rd weeks, the 3rd month and the 12th month after employment. The results of this study were as follows: 1. The degree of change the importance of factors influencing role adaptation and the length of time after employment were investigated. The result showed that the degree of change was the greatest within the first 3 months after employment. Important factors related to role adaptation were working conditions, the environment of the assigned ward and the work load. These factors always displayed high scores without any great change over time. New employees put more importance on practical factors which were obtained through experience in their jobs rather than on ideal factors which they had considered more important while in school. 2. Consistency between role expectation before employment and after 12 month of employment was investigated. The highest consistency item was the expectation about the variety of patients, and the highest inconsistency was the expectation about their own welfare. An average score of 69.07 points was achieved from a maximum of 125 points for the 25 items, showing that expectations for role development before employment were not fully satisfied. In conclusion the administrator should assess the initial expectation at the time of employment of new nurses and she/he should make clear to the new nurses that these expectations may not be realistic. In this way the administrator can provide more satisfactory conditions towards the expectations of the new nurses and help them towards positive role adaptation and reduction of role conflict. Newly employed nurses have high and unrealistic expectations about socialization to the profession from their nursing educational program. It is suggested that a transitional training program should be planned and carried out for newly employed nurses.