learning.lab, Institute for Information Systems, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Peter Merian-Strasse 86, 4002 Basel, Switzerland.
School of Nursing, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville 7535, South Africa.
Nurse Educ Today. 2019 Oct;81:57-63. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2019.06.010. Epub 2019 Jul 2.
Nurse graduates' transition into the world of work is a very challenging phase of professional development. This research examined the affordances of using moderated WhatsApp groups to support nurse graduates in this phase.
Study participants, newly graduated nurses (n = 72) from South Africa, were assigned to two WhatsApp groups. The groups were facilitated by moderators during the 12-week intervention. The intervention was based on a curriculum that incorporated topics related to professional immersion that emerged from a priori needs assessment. Twelve individual interviews were carried out and analysed together with the written conversations from the WhatsApp chats using content analysis as part of an interpretive paradigm.
Three central affordances emerged in the analysis: (1) Instructional: joint learning and cooperative problem solving in-situ; (2) Social: co-constructing proximity and providing motivational and socio-emotional support; (3) Professional: scaffolding job immersion in becoming and being a nurse. Through re-connecting relatable social ties (former students) and tapping into a medium that afforded intimacy, immediacy and high levels of ownership, the intervention offered spatially, socio-culturally and often emotionally 'dislocated' graduates a provisional space to belong to.
The feasibility and dynamics of supporting graduates in marginalised and remote areas with a facilitated, peer-mediated and WhatsApp-based transition support group are shown; practical recommendations and challenges are discussed.
护士毕业生进入职场是专业发展中极具挑战性的阶段。本研究探讨了使用有主持人的 WhatsApp 群组为这一阶段的护士毕业生提供支持的可取之处。
研究参与者是来自南非的 72 名新毕业护士，他们被分配到两个 WhatsApp 群组。在 12 周的干预过程中，由主持人对这些群组进行管理。该干预措施基于一门课程，其中包含了从预先评估的专业需求中出现的与专业沉浸相关的主题。共进行了 12 次个别访谈，并与 WhatsApp 聊天中的书面对话一起使用内容分析进行分析，作为解释性范式的一部分。
分析中出现了三个核心的可取之处：（1）教学：现场共同学习和合作解决问题；（2）社交：共同构建亲近感，并提供激励和社会情感支持；（3）专业：为成为和成为护士提供工作沉浸的支撑。通过重新建立可关联的社会联系（前学生），并利用提供亲密性、即时性和高度自主性的媒介，该干预为在空间、社会文化和情感上处于劣势的毕业生提供了一个临时的归属感空间。
展示了在边缘化和偏远地区，通过有主持人的、同伴介导的和基于 WhatsApp 的过渡支持小组来支持毕业生的可行性和动态；讨论了实际建议和挑战。
