Uncertainty of new intensive care nurses: A descriptive qualitative study

Due to COVID-19, intensive care units are overloaded with a large influx of patients. However, the number of nurses is not sufficient to provide quality care to affected patients. One solution to this problem is to hire people who are completing their nursing training. Many resources are invested in integrating these newly graduated individuals (NEPs) into intensive care. However, the retention rate is very low since the transition between training environments and intensive care practice is difficult for NEPs. They say they are anxious and feel uncertain. This feeling is described as the inability to predict the outcome of a patient's situation. Faced with uncertainty, NEPs do not feel equipped to make good decisions. This compromises their ability to act and provide quality care to patients whose condition is often unstable. Furthermore, uncertainty causes stress, which leads many PNDs to leave their jobs. Therefore, uncertainty threatens the well-being of PNDs, human resources and the quality of care provided in intensive care. To date, there is no study on the uncertainty of PNDs in intensive care. In this study based on a theory of uncertainty, the feeling of uncertainty among PNDs in nursing will be described with individual interviews. These will allow obtaining the story of a situation causing uncertainty to PNDs with patients in intensive care. Themes will be analyzed to understand the challenges that accompany the transition of PNDs and propose strategies to improve their integration into intensive care and reduce uncertainty.