The purpose of the research was to clarify the quality of nursing practice and related attributes in nurses in their first and second years of clinical experience, to consider the characteristics of quality nursing practice, and methods of education and support through a comparison between the groups.
A conceptual framework was drawn based on a literature review and contained 22 variables associated with nurses’ attributes that were likely to be related to the quality of nursing practice. The Problem-Solving Scale for Nurses (PSN; 9 subscales, 45 items) was used to measure the quality of nursing practice, and an attributes questionnaire was used to understand the subjects’ backgrounds. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,183 first-year and 1,059 second-year nurses working at 79 hospitals throughout Japan. The number of questionnaires collected from the first- and second- year groups was 413 (response rate= 34.9%) and 372 (response rate= 35.1%), respectively, and the number of valid questionnaires analyzed statistically was 360 and 306, respectively. The mean item score calculated from the overall PSN score was significantly higher in the second-year group (3.55) than in the first-year group (3.65) (p = .008). Moreover, “confidence in one’s own nursing practice” in both groups, “the construction situation of daily life that suits oneself” in the first-year group, and “the clarity of one’s goal as a nurse” in the second-year group were related to the quality of nursing practice. We obtained suggestions about the characteristics of nursing practice developed by nurses in their first and second years and guidelines for education and support.
