Authors: Annamma K, Aini Ahmad.
The advancement in the medical science and healthcare technology requires nurses employed in a specialized unit like paediatrics possess specialized clinical knowledge and skills to care for acutely ill children. Newly graduates as nurses move from learning environment of the Nursing school to working environment in the hospital, they face immense pressure due to lack of adequate preparedness and tend to make unintentional mistakes. The purpose of this study was to identify the learning needs of newly graduate nurses employed in general Paediatric unit in two of the private hospitals in Malaysia. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with four paediatric consultants; four unit managers and eight newly graduated nurses with less than six months experience in the general paediatric unit. Two sessions of Focused group discussion (FGD) were also conducted with specialist paediatric nurses in the General Paediatric Unit. The FGD with experienced nurses helped to obtain in-depth information regarding the learning needs of the newly graduated staff nurses in the Paediatric unit. The study findings revealed eight competency domains. The identified domains are professional socialization skills; communication skill with parents; communication skill with children; managing challenging communication situations; case reporting skills; paediatric nursing knowledge; paediatric procedural skills and paediatric pharmacology. The respondents also suggested measures to improve the knowledge and skill competencies of the novice Paediatric nurses.
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