Background: The COVID-19 pandemic requires an accessible, practice-ready nursing workforce to assist with the increase in health service delivery. Graduate nurse transition programs are the entry point for most graduates into professional practice, and this review focused on both empirical studies and gray literature to identify at what point practice readiness occurs and what can assist graduate nurses' transition to become practice ready. Method: A scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review framework. Results: Consensus purports supportive environments, ideally in formal structured graduate transition to practice programs, to enhance graduate nurses' clinical skills and confidence development. With nursing confidence and competence gained through professional practice experience, it is apparent that for a sustainable nursing workforce, greater access for graduating nurses to transition programs is imperative. Conclusion: Recommendations include restructuring transition programs with possible time reductions, limited rotations, comprehensive orientations inclusive of preceptorship, and dedicated educators to increase and enhance supportive graduate nurse transitions. [ J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(8):392–396.]

BACKGROUND: A looming worldwide nurse workforce shortage will increasingly

The present paper reports the findings of a quantitative descriptive study that evaluated the use of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) as a screening tool in the child health context. Two hundred and sixty-one women who attended child health clinics in one metropolitan health region of Western Australia over a designated 4-week period for a 6-8 week or 7-9 month health scheduled infant screening assessment agreed to participate. The study aimed to (i) identify the proportion of women in the study who scored 13 or greater on the EPDS; (ii) evaluate current practice outcomes from the use of the EPDS by child health nurses and; (iii) report demographic variables associated with scores obtained from participants. Findings showed that the EPDS is a useful screening tool to identify women who may be at risk of developing depression during the postpartum period. However, the study also identified a weakness in clinical practice protocols, with some child health nurses not referring women who reported symptoms of depression on the self-report scale. Therefore, to ensure best practice standards more education regarding clinical practice protocols needs to be implemented with child health nurses in order to facilitate optimal outcomes for women using the self-report scale.

This framework draws upon national and international cancer curricula to identify the essential cancer-related learning outcomes for Australian medical students. The framework incorporates feedback from medical, radiation and surgical oncologists, haematologists, and palliative care physicians on what medical graduates need to know about cancer. The consensus view was that medical students require a basic understanding of the principles of cancer management and the opportunity to see cancer patients in a cancer service unit. The framework assumes that certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes are already embedded in current Australian medical school curricula, presenting instead only the core cancer content in order to provide a clear and concise framework designed to maximise integration within existing curricula.