workforce
Frustrated ambitions
Graduate nurses face
many difficulties in gaining
registered nurse experience.
By Dianne Juliff
T
here are challenging times ahead for the nursing workforce
due to the increasing global nursing shortage and the
continued marked attrition rate of newly graduated
registered nurses.
A recent study on the lived experience of nine male West
Australian GRNs in their first year has revealed that two of them,
James and Oliver (not their real names), had trouble securing GRN
positions post-graduation.
Their experiences concur with the findings of a 2014 graduate
nurse and midwife questionnaire. Respondents who were
unable to obtain employment, even after applying for multiple
positions, cited issues such as lack of nursing experience, lack of
nursing positions for new graduates, and lack of jobs without the
completion of a nursing graduate program.
It had been over six months since James had completed his
undergraduate nursing degree before he started in the mid-year
GRN program, although he would have preferred to start straight
after his registered nurse (RN) registration.
James continued to work in patient care assistance while
waiting for his program, as he knew many other new GRNs who
had been unsuccessful in obtaining nursing positions despite
copious applications to various health services. The reasons for
this, according to James, included their lack of RN experience and
novice status.
He also revealed that as the months went on after graduating,
he became more nervous about commencing as a new GRN
and was not sure how it would go for him. He further recapped
20 | nursingreview.com.au
on his lack of