Korean Nursing Officers' Job Training Experience

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate nursing officers’ experience in specialty training courses. Methods: Data were collected through focus group interviews with 28 participants who had completed nurse officer specialty training programs. Data analysis was conducted through qualitative content analysis. Results: The qualitative content analysis resulted in 14 subcategories and five core categories from 58 main statements. The following five core categories were derived: 'Motivation for participation,' 'Limitations of training content and practice,' 'Unresolved work environment,' 'Attempts to change through training experiences,' and 'Perceptions and realizations after training.' Conclusions: Participants had gaps in their expectations at the beginning of their training, but professionally grew through their academic development and clinical practice experiences. This study is the first to analyze nurse officers' specialty training program experience from 2017 to recent years. The results of this study can be used as basic data for future educational redesign of job training. Efforts to ensure a safe and respectful training environment and professional development for nursing officers should be continued. For future research, we recommend collecting and analyzing additional data by interviewing preceptors and educators in specialty training programs.