Construction of Learning Objectives and Content for Newly Graduated Nurses in Tertiary Teaching Hospitals: A Delphi Study

Background: Transition education is a robust strategy to improve the core competency of newly graduated nurses and the quality of clinical nursing and ensure people's safety. Limited information about the learning objectives and educational content for newly graduated nurses in China was available.

Objective: Construct the learning objectives and educational content for newly graduated nurses based on defined core competencies.

Design: We used a literature review and the e-Delphi method to conduct this study.

Settings: Ten tertiary teaching hospitals and six nursing schools in Zhejiang Province, China, were selected.

Participants: Experts (n = 21) were invited to the e-Delphi study.

Methods: Based on seven competencies from the literature review and the research group discussions, we formed an initial set of objectives and specific educational content for newly graduated nurses. Subsequently, experts provided supportive and modification advice on the competencies, objectives, and specific content in the two Delphi rounds. The consensus percentage and the weight of each first-level, second-level, and third-level item were calculated.

Results: Consensus was achieved on seven core competencies, 44 learning objectives, and 60 components of educational content. The positive coefficient of the two Delphi rounds was 100 %, the authority coefficient was 0.83 and 0.87, the proportion of experts who made suggestions was 71.40 %, the coefficient of variation (CV) was <0.25 (P < 0.05) except for two items and the Kendall coefficient (W) was 0.15-0.48 (P < 0.01).

Conclusion: The developed objectives and content framework provide a reference for implementing systematic and standardized education for newly graduated nurses.