New Graduate Nurses in the Intensive Care Setting: Preparing Them for Patient Death

Colette D Baudoin; Aimme Jo McCauley; Alison H Davis

doi:10.1016/j.cnc.2021.11.007

New Graduate Nurses in the Intensive Care Setting: Preparing Them for Patient Death

Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am. 2022 Mar;34(1):91-101. doi: 10.1016/j.cnc.2021.11.007. Epub 2022 Jan 22.

Authors

Colette D Baudoin¹, Aimme Jo McCauley², Alison H Davis³

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, 1900 Gravier Street, #417, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. Electronic address: cbaud4@lsuhsc.edu.
² School of Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, 1900 Gravier Street, #5B7, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.
³ School of Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, 1900 Gravier Street, #509, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and nursing shortage has impacted new graduate nurse (NGN) careers. Many NGNs gain initial employment with intensive care areas, encountering unprecedented stress due to high patient acuities, technology, and deaths. Having not yet transitioned into nursing practice, the NGN can experience a reality shock. Nurses are responsible for the care of the dying patient in the intensive care setting, despite inconsistencies in undergraduate curricula on death and dying. Nurse residency programs provide transition-to-practice support and reduce the stressors experienced by NGNs. Residency programs which specifically include palliative care and/or end-of-life content can positively impact stress, burnout, and turnover rates in NGNs.

Keywords: End-of-life care; Intensive care setting; New graduate nurse; Palliative care; Residency programs; Stress; Transition.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Critical Care
Education, Nursing, Graduate*
Humans
Nurses*
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2