Status and associations of transition shock among nursing students during clinical practice: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Background Transition shock experienced by nursing students during their clinical practicums is a relevant and worrying issue, which will affect their adaptability to work and future development. However, little is known about influencing factors of transition shock for nursing students. Objectives To investigate the status quo of transition shock among nursing students, and to discover its influencing factors in the transition process. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey. Setting: The survey was carried out at four tertiary A hospitals in Changsha, Hunan province, which is located in south-central China. Participants: In November 2022, a total of 620 full-time nursing students were investigated by convenient sampling, and 564 valid questionnaires were recovered in this study. Methods Sociodemographic information of students were collected. The Transition Shock Scale was used to evaluate students' transition shock level. Results The average of the overall score of the Transition Shock Scale was 46.67 ± 8.99. Attitude towards nursing has significant impact on influencing students' transition shock (p ＜ 0.05). Additionally, the number of night shift, whether chose nursing as first choice or not, whether being class leaders or not, education level, future plan, school scale, monthly household income also contributed to different dimensions of transition shock (p ＜ 0.05). Conclusions The transition shock of nursing students was at medium level. The transition shock influencing factor of them was their attitude towards nursing. Therefore, administrators in clinical practice should pay attention to the impact of the transition shock and take reasonable intervention measures to enhance the positive impact of the attitude towards nursing on transition and help nursing students successfully complete the transition.