Using nursing practice self-efficacy to compare nurse transition programs

Nurse transition programs have been recognized as an effective strategy to close the academic-practice gap yet they vary in composition. Comparisons between nurse transition programs were lacking in the literature except from an economic perspective. Nursing practice self-efficacy surfaced as a viable means for comparing nurse transition programs from a confidence and performance perspective. The research examined whether there was a difference in the nursing practice self-efficacy of the new registered nurse (RN) at the end of the first year of nursing practice and the type of nurse transition program used for initial entry into the professional practice. The study used a quantitative, causal-comparative, cross-sectional design. The target population consisted of 71 RNs in a specific acute care hospital providing three types of nurse transition programs for initial entry into the practice. A survey tool was used to collect demographic and nursing practice self-efficacy data after one year of professional practice had been completed. A census sampling strategy yielded 22 RNs from three different types of nurse transition programs. The one-way ANOVA did not demonstrate statistically significant differences between the three groups at a .10 alpha level. A post-hoc power analysis revealed a 24.5% probability of detecting a significant difference between the groups. It was questioned whether the three groups were more homogenous than expected. A larger sample size would be needed to increase the confidence in the results and increase the power to detect an effect. Several recommendations for future research centered on adapting the survey tool for increasing the sample size and expanding the sensitivity to detect an effect.