Exploring the impacts operation room nursing induction programme has on newly-joined operation room nurses in Singapore

Background: Compressing the knowledge and skills of speciality care nursing, such as perioperative nursing, within a few weeks is not feasible as such knowledge and skills require months and years of training to be attained and proficient. It has, in turn, impacted OR nurses professionally. Objective: This study aimed to explore the impacts of OR nursing induction programmes (IPs) on newly-joined nurses (NJNs) in Singapore OR units. Design: This mixed-methods study included two phases. Phase one used an online questionnaire survey via Google Forms to collect data from 91 OR nurses using 42 items questionnaire survey. In the second phase, eight nurses from phase one were recruited for a Zoom interview to gather more insights regarding the main findings from phase one. Results: The survey revealed five main areas of OR nursing IPs that impacted NJNs in their job role. These include ‘contents’, ‘delivery’, ‘length’, ‘resources’ and ‘seeking clarifications’. Four themes emerged from the interview: ' quality of IP’, ‘skills and knowledge acquisition’, ‘adapting to a new clinical environment’ and ‘resource persons during IP’, which were associated with OR nursing IPs' impacts on NJNs in Singapore. Conclusions: The central challenge identified in this study impacted OR nurses' job role as contributors to knowledge and skills acquisition. Ultimately, nurses in this study expressed that their resilience and initiative to seek clarifications reduced the challenges that impacted their role performance after their IPs.