Recently graduated nurses should be spared from being the only nurse on duty. Employers both in hospital and home care should facilitate induction programmes for new graduate nurses.

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wangensteen s., johansson i.s., björkström m.e. & nordström g. (2010) Critical thinking dispositions among newly graduated nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(10), 2170–2181.AimThe aim of the study was to describe critical thinking dispositions among newly graduated nurses in Norway, and to study whether background data had any impact on critical thinking dispositions.BackgroundCompetence in critical thinking is one of the expectations of nursing education. Critical thinkers are described as well-informed, inquisitive, open-minded and orderly in complex matters. Critical thinking competence has thus been designated as an outcome for judging the quality of nursing education programmes and for the development of clinical judgement. The ability to think critically is also described as reducing the research–practice gap and fostering evidence-based nursing.MethodsA cross-sectional descriptive study was performed. The data were collected between October 2006 and April 2007 using the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. The response rate was 33% (n= 618). Pearson’s chi-square tests were used to analyse the data.ResultsNearly 80% of the respondents reported a positive disposition towards critical thinking. The highest mean score was on the Inquisitiveness subscale and the lowest on the Truth-seeking subscale. A statistically significant higher proportion of nurses with high critical thinking scores were found among those older than 30 years, those with university education prior to nursing education, and those working in community health care.ConclusionNurse leaders and nurse teachers should encourage and nurture critical thinking among newly graduated nurses and nursing students. The low Truth-seeking scores found may be a result of traditional teaching strategies in nursing education and might indicate a need for more student-active learning models.

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BackgroundNurses’ clinical competence is vital to ensure safe and high quality care, and the continuous assessment of nurses’ clinical competence is of major concern. A validated instrument for the self-assessment of nurses’ clinical competence at different educational levels across specialties and countries is lacking. The aim of this study was to test the reliability and construct validity of the new Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale (ProffNurse SAS) questionnaire in long term and home care contexts in Norway. The questionnaire is based on the Nordic Advanced Practice Nursing model, in which the nurse-patient relationship is central.MethodsThe study has a cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sample of 357 registered nurses who worked in long term and home care contexts in two geographical regions encompassing eight municipalities and three counties was included. The respondents completed the 74-item ProffNurse SAS questionnaire and demographic background data was collected. Data collection was conducted in two phases: first region autumn 2011 and second region spring 2012.Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were used to test the psychometric properties of the questionnaire and included the following steps: assessment of the factorality of the data, factor extraction by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), oblimin (oblique) factor rotation, and interpretation. Cronbach’s alpha was used to estimate the internal consistency.ResultsThe PCA revealed a six-component structure, reducing the number of items in the questionnaire from 74 to 51. Based on the content of the highest-loading items, the six components were named: Direct Clinical Practice, Professional Development, Ethical Decision-Making, Clinical Leadership, Cooperation and Consultation, and Critical Thinking. The Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.940 (highest; Direct Clinical Practice) to 0.737 (lowest; Critical Thinking), leading to the estimation that the ProffNurse SAS is reliable.ConclusionsThe six components support the study’s theoretical framework. The ProffNurse SAS showed acceptable reliability and construct validity and may therefore be a promising instrument for the assessment of practicing nurses’ clinical competence. However, we recommend further psychometric testing in other countries and contexts and the inclusion of larger samples of nurses at various levels of education, particularly master’s level APNs.