Critical Appraisal of Evidence

Critical Appraisal of Evidence Name: Institution Critical Appraisal of Evidence The healthcare system is constantly changing as growing expectations of society among other factors continue to affect the modes of service delivery in the sector. These changes make the transition of undergraduate nurses into clinical practice a very stressful period, resulting in increased focus on strategies of improving the transition process. There exists extensive research and studies on transition strategies to determine whether they improve clinical competence and productivity of nurses. This paper contains a critical appraisal of a systematic review on the effectiveness of strategies applied in the transition from undergraduate nurse to clinical practice. Summary Existing literature such as ‘Bridging the theory practice gap: a review of Graduate Nurse Program (GNP) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates’ (2011), analyses the effect of the graduate Nurse Program in the United Arab Emirates. Strauss (2009) in ‘Easing the Transition: A successful New Graduate Program’ conducted a project on the effect of New Graduate Program at Winchester. They concluded that the program was effective in retaining graduate nurses in the profession. A study by Fielden, (2012) supports this conclusion by arguing that the use of graduate programs in Saudi Arabia improved on the number of nurses in the career. A study conducted by Duchscher, (2009) in ‘Transition shock: the initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated Registered Nurses’ reveals that there is a need of using preparatory theory on the senior students who face the challenge of the changing environment between school and their new professions. Edwards et al. (2011) in ‘The effectiveness of strategies and interventions that aim to assist the transition from student to newly qualified nurse’ identifies as the highest source of evidence in the study review of transition programs. The review is made up of several existing evidence summarized into one comprehensive review showing the effectiveness of strategies used in the transition process. It also fully addresses the issue of quality, precision, and validity of the study results thus making it the best evidence for critical appraisal. Critical Appraisal The studies completed by Edwards et al. (2011) intended to establish whether support strategies during transition are effective and their impact on retention rates. The objective of the review is to answer this question by synthesizing available data from previous studies regarding the effectiveness of strategies and support offered during transition from undergraduate nurses in final school years to the clinical workplace. The clear review objective is to evaluate and update any progress on interventions since 2002 (Edwards et al., 2011). The review justifies appraisal findings using results from data synthesis and outcomes of thirty-three studies in the review. The rationale behind the studie...