DUAL TRANSITIONS IN NURSING: A MILITARY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Military nursing is characterized by diverse challenges, one of the more significant challenges being the dual transition whereby student nurses need to transition from student nurses to professional nurses and from candidate officers to officers. A military nurse has both nursing and military demands. Consequently, novice professional nurses feel inadequately prepared for the responsibilities and the role of a professional nurse. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of final year nursing students with regard to dual transitions in the military health system.

 

A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used in the study. The target population comprised representatives of the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) which inlcuded final year nursing students, novice professional nurses, unit managers and nurse educators. A purposive sampling method was used to interview a total of 41participants by means of four focus groups and 18 individual semi-structured interviews. The transcripts were analysed using Cresswell’s four step process.

 

The final year nursing students particularly reiterated the inadequacy in the preparation for both the roles of the professional nurse and that of a military officer, highlighting the lack of clinical accompaniment due to shortage of staff, poor clinical exposure and limited clinical opportunities for experiential learning. The nurse educators alluded to the lack of support that they are not receiving from the unit managers in preparing the students. The unit managers cited the lack of competency of final year nursing students on completion and the military ranking system as impeding a successful transition.