The First Year

About the Book

THE FIRST YEAR: Conversations with a New ICU Nurse follows a newly hired nurse through his first year of practice in a metropolitan hospital. Through nine in-depth interviews, author Kay Zincus has the new nurse describe what he does to care for acutely ill patients, work with families, cultivate effective relationships with physicians and nurses, and grapple with the inevitable ethical issues that are part of the life and death situations in intensive care situations.

Frank and reflective, this book offers new and future healthcare workers —and their friends and families — a rare window of insight into the challenging transition from nursing school to real-life nursing practice. It reminds educators of the big leap students must make from nursing school to effective nursing practice. And it offers insights to consumers of healthcare about the shortage of nurses affecting many hospitals. A troubling question emerges—how will we have an adequate supply of well-trained, acute-care nurses when so many leave in their early years of practice?



To my knowledge no one has ever documented a new nurse’s first year through a series of interviews from the perspective of citizen-consumer curious about this type of transition! The narratives are very compelling and rich! —University professor, nursing

Wow! I have never read anything like this. It is so insightful and rings totally true to this new nurse’s experience. There is an unmet need for this information and a place for it in the nursing and education literature. — Hospital social worker

I found these first-year experiences and insights compelling all the way through. It could be an invaluable teaching tool as a case study and reading for the general public interested in occupational socialization. This new nurse demonstrates deep thinking, the ability to consider ethical issues, and is intelligently reflective and articulate in his learning of the role of the nurse in these intensive care situations. — University professor, education and sociology

About the Author

Kay Zincus is an educator and researcher with more than thirty years experience in community colleges and universities.