Chen, Mary Xiaorong; (2020) The Evolving Identity and Competence of New Nursing Graduates in Practice: A Community of Practice Perspective. Doctoral thesis (Ed.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Novices’ transition is identified as a period of time at the beginning of their professional career, when they go through role changes from students to independent practitioners. The transitional literature indicates novices’ incompetence and difficulties in transition in nursing and other professions. I argue that these findings were based on a fixed model of competent identity, while novices’ transitional mechanism is not well understood. Aiming to examine how transition happens, a focused ethnographic study underpinned by Wenger’s Community of Practice theory was conducted to explore novice nurses’ practice in a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Data was collected using observation over four months and focus group discussions. I identified sociocultural elements indicating the local rules the nurses make reference to in their participation. These elements include the need to assess the situation, to recognise the different characteristics of people and to be able to work with them, to identify and prioritise tasks, and to express and understand one another’s participation. The novices were found to be negotiating meaning and relational positions with different nurses in different situations at different levels, indicating the effect of sociocultural elements on their practice and the formation of community membership identities. The study findings reveal how complex the novices’ workplace and work really are and help us to better understand how competence and membership identity are negotiated among members. I argue that novices’ transitional mechanism is their evolving learning of the workplace and work, and negotiation of membership identity, a necessary part of their professional development. This study extends nursing and wider interdisciplinary literature on novices’ transition to a broader notion of meaning making and identity negotiation among members in practice. The new concepts developed add clarity to Community of Practice theory in understanding members’ negotiation of participation and membership. Implications for policy, education, practice and future research studies are discussed.

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