Professional adaptation of nurses and the support received from colleagues

Aim
Aim of the study was to evaluate the process of professional adaptation of nurses and the support received from colleagues.

Material and methods
96 nurses (96.0%) and 4 nurses (4.0%) who started working in the profession in the Podkarpackie province were qualified for the primary study. The dia­gnostic survey method and the analysis of literature were applied, and the questionnaire technique was used. The author’s questionnaire for assessment of perceived adaptation and Social Support Scale (SWS) were used. Differences between variables were verified using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Reliability of the scales was assessed by the Cronbach’s a coefficient. A significance level of p < 0.05 was assumed. Calculations were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 program.

Results
The nurse(s) were most likely to work in Primary Care (13.0%), Operating Theatre (11.0%), OAIT (9.0%), Surgery (6%), and other conservative. The average time of implementation to single shift work during the adaptation period was 1.8 months. The respondents perceived adaptation to be greatest in the areas of team communication (4.10) and team collaboration (4.07). The overall level of adaptation was 3.84 on a 1-5 point scale. The highest level of support the nurse(s) perceived was in the area of informational support (12.32). The results indicate that the respondents perceived a high level of support from their coworkers.

Conclusions
Respondents who are introduced to the specifics of working in a particular facility, working under the supervision of a mentor, present a high level of perceived professional adaptation.