Uncovering knowing in practice during the graduate year: An exploratory study

Becoming a graduate nurse is both a complex and stressful transition. Graduates must socialise into the context of nursing practice while developing their own clinical expertise and knowledge as novice registered nurses.This paper describes a study that explored graduate nurses' development of knowing and reflectivity during their graduate programs. This study used a series of audio-taped focus groups and anecdotes collected from participants during the first eighteen months of being a nurse. Anecdotes were submitted as word files, electronically to the chief researcher and thematically analysed using Carper's (1978) ways of knowing as a framework. Four ways of knowing were identified through the anecdotes: knowing self, empirical, personal, and ethical. Substantiation of these was further enhanced from focus group data. Development of practical knowledge as a novice is influenced by the degree of engagement afforded to the graduate nurse and their skills of critical reflectivity.