Describe your acculturation experience as a new graduate to the culture of the nursing profession. How is it similar or different from the acculturation experience of a new nursing colleague who joined your team within the past year?

In the past three years the world changed drastically due to the pandemic. The healthcare enviroment also changed and with it, the workers took the blunteness of it all. I graduated as a nurse in 2021 and working last year during the summer of 2022. When I started working in the multi-specialty clinic, I learned that many nurses had come and gone. There had been a big turn over since 2020. My preceptor was very burnt out and did not teach me with much patience. She had only been there a year and the longest working charge nurse had been there two years. As I kept training two more new gradute nurses joined the floor. As our group became bigger, the scene and environment became more clear. We got along well, and our charge nurses started to feel hope that they were going to see better days ahead. I entered a culture that had taken the full blow of the pandemic but it started to change as new nurses made up the group. I can’t imagine the hardships that the old staff endured during the pandemic. Nurses and Healthcare workers need more emotional support and mental health care during these difficult times. We need our experienced nurses to be well so that they can pass on their wisdom to the newer generation.

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