Proceed With Caution: Integrating Newly Graduated Nurses Into an Emergency Department

Virtually, no published research is available on the relationship between employing newly graduated nurses (NGNs) in the emergency department (ED) and the advancing of nursing practice and the optimization of patient care outcomes. Traditionally, nurses hired into these practice areas have required advanced skills in clinical assessment and experience with a variety of situations that were assumed to offer them a framework by which they could recognize and respond to potentially life-threatening changes in a patient's status. This qualitative study explored the issues of integrating NGNs into the ED. Findings clearly established the challenges to integrating NGNs into this practice context. The intersection of variables included a low level of clinical predictability accompanied by high acuity; an increased level of practitioner autonomy combined with high levels of risk when applying decision making to patient outcomes; and the potential for devolution of professional identity in the face of highly intense, morally conflicted, and socially nuanced care situations.