Exploring Well-being in Rural New Graduate Nurses Transitioning to Practice A Pilot Study

Purpose: While stress, anxiety, depression, and professional well-being are beginning to be explored in newly graduated registered nurses as key psychological determinants in their transition to practice, these variables are poorly described in those transitioning to practice in rural settings. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the prevalence of and associations among these variables in newly graduated registered nurses transitioning to practice in rural community and critical access hospitals in Texas. Sample: Using convenience sampling and multiple recruitment methods, 24 registered nurses with a range of 4 to 23 months' experience participated in the study. Method: A cross-sectional, associational research design was used. After obtaining Institutional Review Board approval, participants completed online surveys regarding their perceptions of stress, anxiety, depression, professional well-being, job satisfaction, and resignation ideation. Findings: Participants reported a mean age of 29.6 years and were mostly female (91.7%) and white (70.8%). High levels of job satisfaction were reported by 62% of the sample and only one-third reported frequent thoughts of resignation ideation. Slightly more than half of the participants (58.4%) reported a lower or at-risk level of professional well-being. Lower levels of professional well-being were significantly associated with higher levels of perceived stress, depression, and anxiety, more frequent resignation ideation, and lower levels of job satisfaction. Conclusions: More research is needed to understand the determinants and outcomes of professional well-being in registered nurses transitioning to practice in rural settings to develop evidence-based interventions to help rural nurse preceptors, educators, and leaders support them. Keywords: Well-being, New graduate nurses, Rural hospitals, Transition to practice, Job satisfaction, Resignation ideas