To determine the stress experience and coping styles of new nurses during Nurse Residency Programs (NRPs) by identifying, appraising, and synthesizing data from the qualitative studies.
A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies.
Eleven databases were systematically searched for relevant publications in March 2022. All qualitative and mixed-method studies in English and Chinese that explored the stress and coping experience during NRPs of new graduate nurses were included. The qualitative meta-synthesis was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations. Two independent reviewers selected the studies and assessed the quality of each study. Meta-synthesis was performed to integrate the results.
A total of 13 studies revealed 13 sub-themes and three descriptive themes: multi-dimensional stressors, somatic and emotional responses, coping resources and coping methods.
New nurses faced a lot of physical and emotional stress during NRPs, which had a negative impact on their physical and mental health. NRPs are a critical period for the career growth of new nurses. Effective management strategies must be implemented to improve nurse capacity, meet their needs, improve self-efficacy, and build organizational support, as this can improve the quality of clinical nursing and keep the enthusiasm and stability of the nursing team.

With the prevalent problem of nurse retention and the lack of confidence new nurses experience, it is critical for nurse residency programs to have supportive factors that enhance residency experiences. By incorporating mentorship, preceptors, and debriefing components into these programs, skills in communication, organization, clinical reasoning, stress management, and self-confidence increase. This quantitative study was a descriptive analysis of secondary data using a cross-sectional design. Two instruments were used to gather data, the Demographic Information Survey and the Evaluation of the RN Residency Survey. The sample was comprised of 1078 graduate nurses completing nurse residency programs throughout the United States. The findings indicated that higher residency ratings were significantly related to higher preceptor and debriefing experiences. Results also showed no significant interaction effects of reduced stress due to mentoring on the relationship between preceptorship experiences or debriefing experiences and ratings of nurse residency. Consequently, it is important that new nurses are given the opportunity to take part in programs offering mentorship, preceptors, and debriefing elements, as nursing residents have found them to be highly beneficial. Furthermore, debriefing sessions strengthened their skills and built confidence during their first year of employment.

The 2010 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, challenges the nursing profession to take a key role in redesigning the health care system. Intended to shape the future of nursing in the United States, the IOM report has implications for nursing worldwide. While individual states and nursing organizations are developing initiatives to implement the IOM recommendations in the United States, there must be a concomitant effort to examine the ripple effect on global health and the nursing community. This article addresses four IOM recommendations that are directly relevant to internationally educated nurses who practice across borders: nurse residency programs, lifelong learning, leading change to advance health, and interprofessional health care workforce data. The article discusses the IOM recommendations through a global perspective and offers policy implications for legislators, health care organizations and nurse educators, regulators and administrators.