Graduate enrolled nurse readiness to practice: A scoping review

Abstract

Background: In some countries, enrolled nurses (also known as Licensed Practical Nurses) have become essential members of the healthcare team, supporting registered nurses to address patient care needs. Registered nurses' readiness to practice is well documented in the literature, however, less is known about the preparedness of enrolled nurses for practice.

Objective: To explore and synthesize the available evidence on the graduate enrolled nurse practice readiness upon completion of their nursing qualification and at the time of entering the nursing workforce.

Design: A scoping review was conducted.

Data sources: Databases such as CINAHL Complete, Directory of access journal, Cochrane Library, Medline, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest and Google scholar were searched.

Review method: The review was conducted using The Joanna Briggs Institute Methodology for Scoping reviews.

Results: Seven studies were identified for inclusion and two themes were constructed as 'ambiguous roles and expectations' and 'lack of educational preparation'. Findings from the selected studies showed a lack of clarity on the role of an enrolled nurse. In some healthcare settings, enrolled nurses were expected to undertake the same role as registered nurses. Furthermore, it was expected that enrolled nurses would be educationally prepared to work in specialty areas such as mental health, acute care and aged care upon completion of their studies. Though, none of these studies provided any conclusive evidence of whether enrolled nurses were ready to transition to practice.

Conclusion: In line with the limited evidence, there is a need to undertake further studies to understand the graduate enrolled nurse practice readiness from graduates' and industry stakeholders' perspectives. The findings will assist the education providers to strengthen their curriculum and health industry to support enrolled nurse transition to practice.

Keywords: Division 2 nurse; Education; Enrolled nurse; Licensed Practical Nurse; Practice; Readiness; Registered Practical Nurse; Scoping review; Transition to practice.