The health-care environment is ever-changing and with these changes comes the demand for professionals who are well equipped with knowledge and clinical expertise. The need is more critical than ever before, thus having to understand how the changes in health care impacts NGNs who are transitioning to practice in this ever-changing environment [11] . Nursing shortages due to migration to other countries is prevalent in Fiji, leaving young graduates to take over the roles of the senior nurses who migrated [8] . Transitioning to a new environment can be a challenging event leading NGNs to feel frustrated and lack confidence to carry on the job of a registered nurse. Adequate clinical support structures provided during this crucial period can assist NGNs to perform better and with confidence and function completely in the wards [18] .

Nursing students, after graduation, embark into a journey of transition to a professional graduate registered nurse [8] . New graduate nurses’ transition is a complex and challenging experience as they adjust to the new professional role [9] new graduate nurses experience challenges and difficulties while they adapt to the new jobs during transition to practice in a stressful and complex work environment [1] . To become a successful member of the health care force, NGNs need to gain confidence, the ability to perform high critical care nursing, deal with high patient numbers, the ability to work independently in the ward, and manage relationships with providers and families and the interprofessional team [1] [8] [9] [12] .

For a successful transition, NGNs need a preceptor program that will assist senior nurses to continuously monitor, guide, teach and make the NGN familiar with the demanding work environment in any setting within the health care environment. [19] mentioned in their study that a supportive environment is needed to allow novice nurses to gain experience and a need for preceptor support, guidance, teaching, and continued practice of skills. Appropriate support will help alleviate the uncertainty and build their confidence.

A preceptorship program must be formulated to assist senior nurses while they mentor, assist, teach and guide NGN transitioning to professional roles. [18] mentioned that NGNs reported lack of support and unavailability of experienced nursing staff to shadow graduate nurses, therefore, having a preceptor program could assist the NGNs during the transition. [13] suggest that fatigue also needs to be addressed in the preceptorship program. Senior nurses are expected to provide quality care for patients, coaching and mentoring younger nurses, but are faced with shortages in their environment. A study reported that professional nurses saw new nurse graduates as an answer to fill in for the shortages and share workload with the senior nurses [20] . There were high expectations from the registered nurses that NGNs could perform certain duties and procedures independently and reflected a change in identity [8] .

When senior nurses are assigned to NGNs, they must give in their own time and effort, having a load for themselves, they work overtime, get stressed and overwhelmed with the amount of work they must carry out daily. Yet they are also assigned to mentor new nurses who need constant supervision, teaching and guiding them may not be an easy task. The conditions in which registered nurses work in CWMH are a concern with lack of resources being a huge concern.

[21] states that clinical supervision is left for the clinicians to take over, having more than six (6) students in any shift to supervise, senior nurses are given another responsibility of guiding NGNs in their wards. Yet there is no support provided to senior nurses, to be relieved of the significant amount of nursing duties to carry out such extensive responsibilities of supervising student nurses, NGNs and medical students. On the other hand, senior nurses have been working in the field for many years, some have spent their entire nursing career in the wards but had never had any supernumeraries provided for the enormous amount of work carried out daily. In addition, [8] states that NGNs find it difficult to cope with the workload, being left on their own to carry out duties which they are not familiar with while taking charge of a shift too early in their career. No support programs are available for the new nurse due to lack of resources, and manpower, which does not allow them the luxury to be under supervision even during internship [20] . Moreover, preceptors need time and training to develop the necessary skills to assist NGNs effectively.

Several transitional programs such as preceptorship are essential and have been framed in developed countries which aid the registered nurses to competently support NGNs in their transition from novice to becoming experts [22] . Preceptorship programs will increase the intention of the NGN to stay in the workforce, therefore reducing human resource shortages.

There are no preceptorship programs in Fiji although the School of Nursing through Fiji National University (FNU) used to run programs of preceptorship with our clinical counterparts, it is not activated in the last decade [19] . Assisting senior nurses to be able to guide and support NGNs is vital as NGNs will be part of the human resource and take over the nursing duties from these senior nurses. It is important that a preceptorship program is developed for the registered nurses in Fiji, which is funded, and senior nurses are trained on it’s use, they are also given super-numeration for the extra work they are assigned to do. When senior nurses are well trained to support the NGN they will provide adequate support, this will in turn lead to a satisfied workforce, energized and ready to serve the people of their country. Problems such as bullying, fatigue and burnout will also be addressed as stated by [13] .

While data collection is still going on, the researchers probed to understand vague or inconsistent comments. Transcription of the audio tapes was done followed by analyzing the transcribed data. A report of the interviews was done in a question-by-question format and quotes were then amplified. Later, within the week analysis of the data from both the interviews was carried out by comparing the results of both the interviews, looking for themes which emerge from each question and then having an overall assessment of the themes. Meaningful segments were clustered together aligning to the thematic codes. A master list is kept, and codes are reapplied to new segments of data whenever an appropriate segment is encountered [23] .

Ethics approval was sought from the College Human Health Research and Ethics Committee (CHHREC: ID 078-23). A written approval from the Medical Superintendent (MS) and the Director of Nursing (DON) at the CWMH was also sought prior to commencing the research interview.

Confidentiality of participants was strictly observed. Their identities were coded. All information derived during the recruiting process, interview, and recording of the interview were password protected.

Two participants were interviewed during the pilot study who supervise and train NGNs in their wards. The table below explains their roles and responsibilities.

NGNs transition is an added responsibility, especially when NGNs show some undesirable attitude towards learning and adapting to an unfamiliar environment. The increased workload on Senior nurses has revealed that they do not have ample time to support the NGNS in their wards. Supervising nursing students and mentoring new graduates is a crucial responsibility of senior nurses who are among those migrating, adding onto the extra load on those who remain in the service [3] . Senior nurses perceive that their workload restricts them from focusing on the NGNs learning process, follow them through the day’s work and supervise during nursing procedures as highlighted in Table 1 . This leaves NGNs to work on their own, where mistakes are prone to happen. Senior nurses also expressed their concern on how NGNs show their willingness to learn by asking questions and participating in discussions during patient care. A study conducted in Saudi Arabia by [24] mentioned that NGNs were appreciative of the trainers who taught them to deal with patients and gain important knowledge and skills, answering their questions effectively.

The added responsibility of being a counselor while the Senior nurses supervise the NGNs plays an important role and adds to the workload which is noted from the responsibilities as highlighted in Table 1 . Counselling is done when some NGNs report late to work or do not turn up to their allocated shift. Senior nurses also refer NGNs to their managers and the DDON in some instances.

“If they don’t listen to us then we refer them to the DDON”. NUM1

“Well, I talk to them, when I am counseling them, it is like they want to follow” NUM2.

NUMs reported that they do not have time to supervise the NGNs in their ward and relates to the duties they are required to complete within a day ( Table 2 ).

“We don’t have time to supervise new graduates”. NUM1

“No time to give to interns”. NUM2

“With the current situation, we are expected to do the work and when the interns are not supervised all the time, and all the errors arise”. NUM1

Considering the heavy workload of the senior nurses and the responsibilities they must undertake; a huge amount of time is spent on direct patient care in the ward which is short-staffed. They usually have bed allocations during the day shift with a considerable number of responsibilities to take care of.

“I do 8-4:30pm shift every day and I am always in the ward to look after patient as we have only 2 staff per shift in a 22-bed unit”. NUM1

“For me, yes I will jump in if there is not enough staff, but I take them to the room so that I can teach them”. NUM2

Senior nurses voiced feeling obliged to educate the NGNs as it is their duty, to have someone to take care of them in the ward.

“They should have proper activities during induction”. “They should be supervised, it’s part of our staff duty list”. “Especially for me I am someone who likes to teach, I collect them to teach them. One drawback is that, so I stop asking questions because there is someone listening to our discussions”. NUM2

This pilot study reports on the attitude of learning by the NGNs, as observed by the senior nurses during the transition. As mentioned by one senior nurse that “the attitude of the NGN when they are ready to answer back and do not have the right attitude towards learning” (NUM2).

A structured approach to monitor the NGNs can build confidence and autonomy and enhance competency. Mentoring programs are needed to assist senior nurses to establish effective communication and interpersonal relationships with the NGNs [13] to develop quality nurses in the field will depend on the quality of role models who aid them thus strengthening the importance of the mentor as a positive role model [25] . Professional communication skills and the ability to solve problems are enhanced through proper mentorship [26] , this is also described in Table 3 where senior nurses feel the attitude of NGNs need to be professional.

The attitude of new nurses can be very challenging when they do not cooperate with the senior nurses is described in Table 3 . The results of this study are also similar to [27] where senior nurses report the attitude of new graduates when they were taught about patient care. The attitude of NGNs could be improved by providing support through a preceptor-preceptee relationship that is strong as the key to a successful transition [28] . Moreover, proper training for the preceptors, who understand how to instruct the NGNs would also assist in improving the attitude of NGNs during transition (Arroyo, 2024).

“Some NGNs like to be taught but some do not want to learn, they show their attitude, for example one nurse asked an NGN; have you emptied the IDC? one NGN replied, it’s your job. That’s why some senior nurses don’t want to teach them” with that kind of attitude it’s a bit of a challenge” (NUM1)

“From us coming out of Nursing school we know how to respect our seniors but now they are ready to say, “Yes I know”. “They do not have any respect for seniors” (NUM2)

“We take time to teach but some don’t want to learn” (NUM2)

However, it was mentioned that “some NGNs are easy to teach some don’t take it seriously, they look at us it’s like 50/50 when we teach them”. (NUM2)

Moreover, it was mentioned that NGNs are reporting late to work or even not turning up to work and they do not inform the senior nurse about their absence.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that SNs feel that there is something missing along the way from Academia to clinical practice. Similarly, [23] also report novice nurse should possess soft skills such as social skills whereby, they can work with other persons in the team and having weak social skills will create conflicts among the team.

“NGNs are not taught certain procedures from school, and they do not know how to perform them after graduation”. (NUM2)

“Looks like a practical part is missing, especially the procedures, they say they are not taught”. (NUM1)

However, [21] mentioned that senior nurses expected new graduates to be honest if they did not know anything about patient care.

Senior nurses mentioned the NGNs would carry out procedures and would not ask for help when needed. Focusing on the soft skills attributes of the NGNs by the education body could prepare NGNs to communicate their issues with the senior nurses. As mentioned by [3] the simulation could be used to enhance communication skills.

Support from senior nurses.

Lack of time constraints limits support given to NGNs by the senior nurses. Heavy workload of senior nurses plays a vital role in supervision during procedures so that NGNs learn their procedures well.

NUM1 “We don’t have time to supervise the new graduates, whole day and we don’t have time to supervise”.

NUM2 “Only a few of them have time to teach them”.

Participants had their responsibilities to take care of while they supervise the NGNs in their units. They expressed concern about some NGN’s attitude toward learning and found NGNs to be aware of certain procedures. They would either carry out the procedures differently or ignore certain steps during the procedures.