Appreciative inquiry as an intervention to improve nursing and midwifery students transitioning into becoming new graduates : an integrative review

Objective: To identify, critique and synthesise the evidence about the impact of Appreciative Inquiry on improving nursing and midwifery students as they transition into becoming new graduates. Design: An integrative review. Data sources: The databases were: Pubmed, Ovid Medline, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health and Scopus. Review methods: A Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) five stage approach was used to appraise the primary literature related to nursing and midwifery students transitioning into becoming new graduates. Results: A total of 805 articles were retrieved and six studies met the inclusion criteria and included in this review. These studies have shown that Appreciative Inquiry as an intervention can be used to improve nursing and midwifery students' experiences as they transition into becoming new graduates. Three overarching themes were identified: caring, connecting and nurturing, transforming the workplace and work practices and appreciating and enabling nurses and midwives as a profession. Conclusion: Appreciative Inquiry offers a creative, exploratory and compassionate method to improve positive change for nursing and midwifery students as they transition into becoming new graduates. The impact of caring, nurturing nurses and midwives who mentor nursing and midwifery students makes a difference in increasing the likelihood that graduates will remain in the profession and establish fulfilling relationships with both colleagues and people.