Transition support arrangements to support new graduate & novice nurses entry into perioperative nursing: A scoping review

Background and objectives: As novice nurses transition into the workforce, they often experience transition shock as they assimilate into a new role, causing cause significant stress, anxiety and job dissatisfaction. This phenomenon is commonly observed within the perioperative nursing speciality. The development of transition support programs is aimed at assisting novice nurses' transition by providing fundamental knowledge, socialisation, support, and training. This review aimed to uncover the support programs and their components available to nurses transitioning into the perioperative speciality. The research question that provided guidance for this review was 'What are the transition support arrangements, and their characteristics, to support new graduate nurses and novice nurses who are transitioning into perioperative nursing?'.Literature search: Arksey & O'Malley's' five-step scoping review framework was used. The researchers performed a comprehensive literature search of PubMed, Proquest, CINHAL and SCOPUS with no limit on publication date until April 2023. A blinded screening process was undertaken, and the data extraction was tabulated. Data was presented as a narrative synthesis following thematic analysis.Results: The initial search identified 537 publications. Screening and duplicate removal led to the exclusion of 512 publications. Of the 25 publications included in this review, two were primary research publications, while the other 23 were discussion papers. Analysis indicated that program approaches and components of programs were frequently described.Conclusion: The findings highlight the significance of transition programs within the perioperative speciality area. However, the paucity of empirical evidence on the pedagogical underpinnings and evaluation of effectiveness indicates the need for further research. Conducting further research within perioperative transition to practice will enable programs to be designed based on theoretically-sound and evidence-based approaches to support nursing transition to practice within the speciality perioperative environment.