The Professional Practice Of Nursing: Evaluating The Implications Of Schlossberg's Transition Theory

The Transition Framework and Its Phases

The professional practice of nursing refers to the commitment to compassion, caring and values of ethics. It is a continuous development process of self and others. It is responsible and accountable for the insightful practice. The graduate health professionals, when transferred to the role of a registered nurse, have gone through a transition process. This essay evaluates the transition framework which is based on Schlossberg’s Transition Theory for its implication of it on its tradition to the professional practice. This paper highlights the different aspects that can be applied in professional practice.

The transition framework refers to the document that mainly outlines what people want to meet in the upcoming years. It is underlying all aspects of life, including education, housing, employment. The transition framework is split into five phases. It involves start, setup, discovery, test and commitment. It is a comprehensive framework covering all future topics and does not stand alone with the prescriptive policy. The transition framework refers to the middle range theory for the transition developed by the researcher who had used the transition as the conceptual framework (Murray, Sundin & Cope, 2019). It is analysing the findings that are related to the transition that experiences and give responses.

 It has identified the differences and similarities in the application of the transition. This transition framework enhances the scope for the nurses to be registered nurses (Schmitt & Schiffman, 2019). This transition theory is the process of moving from one state to another one that is generally linked with the significant changes in the roles, goals and responsibilities.  It includes someone from the social services for ensuring to get this framework is based on the theory of Schlossberg. In this theory, Nancy Schlossberg has defined transition as any kind of incident or event that makes changes in the routines, relationships, assumptions and roles (Stambulova,& Samuel, 2020). A transition process can exist when the person is experiencing it considered to be the transition. According to this theory, there are different types of transitions such as unanticipated anticipated transitions. Unanticipated transition is not predictable, such as the sudden death of a person. In the current scenario of COVID 19, all of the higher education students pass through the unanticipated transition (Wall, Fetherston & Browne, 2018). Though it can be predictable, the sudden closure of the education system makes a huge change. Even the restrictions on travel, maintenance of the social distance instruction and health recommendations are coming into this unanticipated transition.

Schlossberg's Transition Theory

On the other hand, the anticipated transition is the process in which it is predictable. The transition of graduate nursing students to professional practice is an example of this anticipated transition. Non-event transitions are those events that are expected but it is not successfully implemented (Barclay, 2017).In non-event transition, four divisions have been found such as personnel, ripple, resultant and delayed.  Schlossberg has identified four major factors that can impact the ability of the person to cope with a transition including self, strategies, support and situations that are known as the 4 S’s (Bartlett, 2019). The situation is the condition that triggers the transition with timing, control and assessment. Self factors are the demographic and personal characteristics that affect the views of life of an individual. These factors might be sex, age, stage of life, health status and ethnicity (Della John McKitterick1 Micah & Eckert, 2020). It refers to the psychological resources involving commitments, values and ego development. Social support is another factor where the family units, friends and institutions have been considered. The last factor is the strategy about planning, modifying the requirements, managing stress to cope with the transition. The mentioned factors can be utilised by the person who is in the situation of transition (Duchscher & Windey, 2018).

This theory has helped people to adjust to the transition. However, this theory has outlined the types of transition and how to cope with this transition process.

The transition of the local or regional health workers to the professional practice program mainly offers a significant and unique experience to the student nurses that will vitally contribute to the establishment of the role as a registered nurse (Lindstrom, 2019). The transition framework emerges from the practice settings including the medical, surgical, aged care, midwifery, emergency and the health of the community that allows for broad clinical skill development.

In the transition from graduate nurse to registered nurse, the main issue is how to manage the time and professional skills. In the transition to the new role of the registered nurse, the nurses can experience self-doubt, loss of confidence and prior expertise. This is a part of the anticipated transition where mainly developmental transition has occurred. In this transition process, nurses' awareness and engagement have been affected. However, this transition does not affect the cultural beliefs of the nurses (Murray, Sundin & Cope, 2019). The nurses can use the transition framework that can generate the research questions and can guide the effective care before, during and after the transition period in their practice.   

Types of Transitions and Factors Affecting Coping Ability

In this professional practice, nurses can focus on the four S to cope with this transition. At first, they can observe the situation and observe the physicians to work. This theory helps the nurses from different groups who used the transitional framework and this theory helps the nurses from different nursing phenomena that could give different and new visions of nursing (Schmitt & Schiffman, 2019). Moreover, this transition theory has supported the nurses in the patient transition. After applying this theory to their professional nursing practice, they can eradicate discomfort from their practice. In clinical practice, the nurses can improve their strategies to cope with the situation. According to the situation, the nurses can strategise their work process (Stambulova & Samuel, 2020). The nurses need to understand this transition process that can help guide the individuals for the health outcomes of the transition.

In order to meet the desired outcomes, the nurse needs to manage the transition and can gain a new sense of identity. It results in a successful transition and benefits both organisations and nurses (Vick, 2021). Individual discomfort can be eased while the nurses can integrate into the new environment and start to apply the nursing skills with competence in clinical situations. While transitioning to the new role, the nurse can feel novice as the new role may require necessary skills and knowledge which are not familiar (Wall, Fetherston & Browne, 2018). The nurses complicate the transitional practice to deliver a safe healthcare service. The models and Schlossberg’s transition theory help the nurses by giving them an overview of the patterns, properties, types and defined conditions. The necessity of the expectation and preparation of what is going to be anticipated during the transition to planning the strategies for managing the situations.

The nurse can identify the situation of transition and can check the transitions that are considered on time or off time. The nurse can observe how the transition can affect the individual. The graduate nurses who have got a new registered nurse role can view this transition as the gain of their life. According to this theory, the nurse can take this role positively. The nurse can consider the psychological effect that the nurse needs to use the holistic approach and learn everything that the physician has instructed. However, the family members and friends of the nurse need to support and encourage the nurse to fulfil the requirements of the role. The nurse needs to understand the needs of the patients and then need to make decisions or actions. This transition theory helps the nurse to overcome the challenges which are inherent in the transition. The nurses can make plans for the potential result and help in preparing to move on the stage. This theory can help nurses develop academic writing skills and critical thinking skills. The additional issue of the professional practice in nursing is to apply information technology.

Implications of Schlossberg's Transition Theory on Professional Practice

Most of the nurses have no basic skills of applying the skills. The 4S system of the transition theory can be considered to encounter academic issues. The unfamiliar nature of all learning approaches that can be encountered often meant the former ENs either did not possess the personal resources needed for managing the specific issues or could find the significantly challenged resources. Using this transition framework theory can help the nurses in the different stages of the transition. However, in professional practice not for only own transition; even this theory can be used for the patient's transition to support them.

It can be concluded that this theory helps the nurses to experience new roles positively. It encourages the nurses to acquire the needed skills for the transition. It is not necessary that at the initial stages, the nurses can manage all situations and skills. However, over time, they can be enabled to perform better and can cope by using the 4S system of the transition theory.

References

Barclay, S. R. (2017). Schlossberg’s transition theory. College student development: Applying theory to practice on the diverse campus, 23-34. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zpbvDQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA23&dq=Applicationof+Schlossberg%E2%80%99s+transition+theory+framework++in+nursing&ots=QOP9FF3T7u&sig=9klbEaGNHPY-NTstHoc5qLKyvrM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bartlett, L. P. (2019). The Lived Experience of Practical Nursing Faculty Who Have Transitioned to a Concept-Based Curriculum as Required by the North Carolina Nursing Curriculum Revision Project. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/

Della John McKitterick1 Micah, D. J., & Eckert, N. C. M. C. M. (2020). International nursing students’ and new graduates’ experiences of transition to the nursing workforce: a scoping review protocol. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Della-John-Mckitterick-2/publication/345720765_International_nursing_students'_and_new_graduates'_experiences_of_transition_to_the_nursing_workforce_a_scoping_review_protocol/links/5fb5d0bc458515b79750dcc5/International-nursing-students-and-new-graduates-experiences-of-transition-to-the-nursing-workforce-a-scoping-review-protocol.pdf

Duchscher, J. B., & Windey, M. (2018). Stages of transition and transition shock. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 34(4), 228-232. doi: 10.1097/NND.0000000000000461

Lindstrom, D. D. (2019). From Community College Faculty to Dean: Using Schlossberg’s Transition Theory to Understand the Transition Experience. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=hied_etds

Murray, M., Sundin, D., & Cope, V. (2019). Benner's model and Duchscher's theory: Providing the framework for understanding new graduate nurses' transition to practice. Nurse education in practice, 34, 199-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2018.12.003

Schmitt, C. A., & Schiffman, R. (2019). Perceived needs and coping resources of newly hired nurses. SAGE Open Medicine, 7, 2050312119833216. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312119833216

Stambulova, N. B., & Samuel, R. D. (2020). Career transitions. In The Routledge international encyclopedia of sport and exercise psychology (pp. 119-134). Routledge. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roy-David-Samuel-2/publication/335001276_Career_Transitions/links/5f7e9e5da6fdccfd7b4f7cbd/Career-Transitions.pdf

Vick, C. (2021). Veterans' and Spouses' Transition Experiences Due to Unanticipated Medical Retirement: A Phenomenological Study. Selected Topics in Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 6, 43-56. DOI: 10.9734/bpi/sthss/v6/4131F

Wall, P., Fetherston, C., & Browne, C. (2018). Understanding the enrolled nurse to registered nurse journey through a model adapted from Schlossberg's transition theory. Nurse education today, 67, 6-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.04.017