A local professor and author has just published her second textbook about the nursing profession.
The Nurse Professional: Leveraging Your Education for Transition into Practice is a new textbook by College of New Rochelle associate professor of nursing, Pelham Bay local, and Community Board 10 Health and Human Services Committee chairwoman Deborah Dolan Hunt.
The book was recently published by Springer Publishing and is available at hundreds of places on online, including Springer’s own website, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, and also on Kindle, said Hunt.
It is intended to serve as a guide for student nurses as they transition from the classroom to the workplace in hospitals and medical facilities.
“The new book is for student nurses and new nurses as they are preparing to become registered nurses,” stated Hunt. “This is a foundational book for all students and new nurses to prepare them for their transition into their professional practice role.”
She explained that the tips and techniques she advocates in the The Nurse Professional have a basis in her own experience both working at hospitals like Montefiore-Einstein, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center (now Montefiore North) and Westchester Square Medical Center (now Montefiore Westchester Square), her 20 years in nursing and in her experience as a nurse educator at CNR.
“The book is kind of a culmination of a lot of things that are going on in my career,” said Hunt. “When I worked in the hospital I did a lot of recruitment and hired a lot of new nurses, and I noticed that a lot of times they would leave rather quickly. They would just feel overwhelmed and even though we had orientation programs, reality would hit, burnout would occur, and we would just have this ‘revolving door’.”
After moving onto academia at CNR, she said she and her colleagues noted that many nurses who had graduated were coming back to the school with questions, sometimes feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, and in other cases having a hard time in their first job, said Hunt. Another challenge is passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), she added.
The book, presented in four parts, covers topics like successfully passing the NCLEX and getting your first position, time management and organizational skills, feeling confident and competent, nurse bullying and workplace violence.
The book also covers successful transition from college to the workplace, and how to delegate to nurses assistants. One of many ideas it advocates is journaling as a way to break stress and keep perspective during what can be trying times in a career.
The book is needed, Hunt said, because academic studies show as high as 30% turnover in the first year for new nurses, 57% in the second. All this turnover comes at a cost.
Hunt grew up in Morris Park, she said, and attended Columbus High School, St. Raymond’s High School for Girls, and St. Francis Xavier. She later graduated from Mount Vernon School of Nursing, and earned a Bachelors Degree at Mercy College, a masters at CNR, and a doctorate (PhD) at Adelphi University, she said.
For more information about The Nurse Professional, visit www.springerpub.com/the-nurse-professional.html. Hunt’s first textbook is The New Nurse Educator.
