Orientation After Graduation: Does this Affect Recently Graduated Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists?

Abstract

Introduction: Newly Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) graduates are not typically offered a formal orientation through their place of employment once they finish their training and join the workforce. The transition from student to licensed practitioner can be challenging, even in the advanced practice nurse population. Newly graduated CRNAs can be influenced by the stresses related to transitioning from the student role. This transition experience may negatively impact the new graduate’s perception of job satisfaction, work performance and stress.Purpose: This scholarly project was designed to examine stress levels, job satisfaction and self-confidence among new graduate CRNAs who completed an employment offered orientation program. It was hypothesized that newly graduated CRNAs who underwent an employment offered orientation will experience lower levels of stress, greater job satisfaction and greater self-confidence compared to those who did not. Method: A quantitative study was conducted to compare two groups of newly graduated CRNAs. Electronic surveys were distributed to the alumni of 13 universities with CRNA graduates for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. The anonymous results were measured using a Likert scale and the results of those who completed an orientation were compared with those who did not. The outcome variables were measured using an unpaired t-test for significance.Results: There were a total of 19 participants, 5 received employment orientation and 14 did not receive employment orientation. Microsoft Excel was used to organize the data into three columns where the total score for the Likert questions were computed for the levels of self-confidence, job satisfaction and perceived stress with higher scores indicating more self-confidence, job satisfaction and perceived stress Using an unpaired t -test calculator the total scores and the average scores for each participant in each category were scored: Orientation N=5 and no orientation N =14. For Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) the two tailed P value equals 0.35 indicating no significance in the participant’s perception of stress regardless of participation in an orientation in employment. For self-confidence, the two-tailed P value equaled 0.20 indicating no significance in the participant’s perception of self-confidence regardless of participation in an employment orientation. 2 The job satisfaction two tailed P value equaled 0.83 indicating no significance in the participant’s perception of job satisfaction regardless of participation in an employment orientation. There were numerous common themes discovered in the open-ended questions. Participants concerns over childcare, dissatisfaction with salary and schedule and autonomy were cited as reasons for dissatisfaction with the participants current employment. Discussion: This study investigated the differences of an employment orientation on the stress level, job satisfaction and self-confidence of the newly graduated CRNA. Further studies are needed which should include larger participation from multiple states with an extended survey period so as to obtain more comprehensive results for the long-term trajectory of the transition experience of the newly graduated CRNA. Longitudinal studies of larger samples of CRNAs are needed to capture the transition experiences of the new graduate student. Future studies with mixed method designs may be beneficial to examine the feelings of the new graduate CRNA during this transitional period. This study recommends institutions examine their onboarding regimen for newly hired new graduate CRNAs to determine if an orientation would be beneficial for their specific workplace.