Role transition from education to practice and its impact on the career futures of Omani nurses

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine new Omani graduate nurses’ role transition from education to practice. We also sought to describe factors that may affect the effective transition of new Omani graduates to their professional nurse role. Background: There is a substantial literature on the process of transition from graduation to being a professional nurse in countries across the globe; however, little is known about new Omani graduate nurses’ role transition from education to practice. Design: This study had a descriptive cross-sectional design. Methods: Data were collected from nurses who at the time of the study had been working for at least 3 months but not longer than 2 years. Role transition was assessed with the Comfort and Confidence subscale of the Casey–Fink Graduate Nurse Experience Survey (Casey et al., 2004). The survey consists of a 24-items that are rated on a 4-point Likert scale. We conducted a multivariate regression analysis to assess the factors that influence nurses’ role transition. These factors included participants’ demographic information, employment orientation durations, preceptorship duration and length of time before employment. Results: The total sample consisted of 405 nurses working in 13 hospitals in Oman. Most (68.89%) had worked as a nurse for less than 6 months. The average internship and orientation durations were approximately 6 months (SD = 1.58) and 2 weeks (SD = 1.79), respectively. The number of preceptors assigned to new graduate nurses ranged from none to four. The average score on the Comfort and Confidence subscale was 2.96 (SD = 0.38). Results from the regression analysis demonstrated that age (β = 0.029, SE = 0.012, p = .021), waiting time before employment (β = –0.035, SE = 0.013, p = .007) and employment orientation duration (β = –0.007, SE = 0.003, p = .018) were statistically significant factors influencing role transition experience among newly joined nurses. Conclusion: The results suggest that appropriate intervention strategies at the national level are needed to enhance the transition of nursing school graduates to their professional role. Strategies directed toward shortening the waiting time before employment and improving the internship experience are examples of priority-level tactics that can enhance Omani nursing graduates’ transition to their professional role.