Training load of newly recruited nurses in Grade-A Tertiary Hospitals in Shanghai, China: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to provide insight into the training load of newly recruited nurses in grade-A tertiary hospitals in Shanghai, China. The lack of nurses in hospitals across China has resulted in newly recruited nurses in grade-A tertiary hospitals in Shanghai having to integrate into the work environment and meet the needs of the job quickly; thus, they undergo several training programs. However, an increase in the number of training programs increases the training load of these nurses, impacting the effectiveness of training. The extent of the training load that newly recruited nurses have to bear in grade-A tertiary hospitals in China remains unknown. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted across three hospitals in Shanghai, including one general hospital and two specialized hospitals, in 2020. There were 15 newly recruited nurses who were invited to participate in semi-structured in-depth interviews with the purpose sampling method. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data. The COREQ checklist was used to assess the overall study. RESULTS: Three themes emerged: external cognitive overload, internal cognitive overload, and physical and mental overload. CONCLUSION: Through qualitative interviews, this study found that the training of newly recruited nurses in Shanghai’s grade-A tertiary hospitals is in a state of overload, which mainly includes external cognitive overload, internal cognitive overload, physical and mental overload, as reflected in the form of training overload, the time and frequency of training overload, the content capacity of training overload, the content difficulty of training overload, physiological load overload, and psychological load overload. The intensity and form of the training need to be reasonably adjusted. Newly recruited nurses need to not only improve their internal self-ability, but also learn to reduce internal and external load. Simultaneously, an external social support system needs to be established to alleviate their training burden and prevent burnout.