The role of physical design and informal communication

The data collection period coincided with the graduate nurse’s formal orientation
program. In this 12-week formal orientation period, graduate nurses are co-assigned
with an experienced nurse preceptor who assists graduate nurses in their transition
from the student role to the RN role. The graduate nurse’s orientation began the week
of January 21st, all of which was spent in the classroom. It wasn’t until week two of
her orientation that she actually started working on the unit, at which point data
collection began. The data collection period was intended to continue for 11weeks,
concluding with the completion of the orientation program. However, because the
study of 6N was done in conjunction with the study of another unit at the same
hospital, both of which addressed the same research questions and used the same
methodologies, data was only collected for 9 weeks because that was the time period
in which the graduate nurse on the other unit was able to be observed, and the goal
was to collect comparable data over the same time period.
Before data collection could begin, IRB requirements mandated that all 6N staff
members be informed of the study and its purpose. To accomplish this, the researcher
composed a memo briefly describing the study that was emailed to all 6N staff and
was posted in various locations throughout the unit (see Appendix A). Furthermore
the nurse manager as well as the clinical nurse specialists (CNS) involved with the
unit informally talked with staff to create awareness about the study. Obtaining
graduate nurse and Orientor consent to participate in the study was also required by
the IRB. To achieve this, one-on-one meetings were held with both subjects to
describe the study and answer questions, at which point consent was received (see
Appendix B for graduate nurse consent form; Appendix C for Staff consent form).
In addition to satisfying IRB requirements, the researcher sought to develop a
deeper understanding of the workings of the unit before data collection began.
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