Author(s)

Tomoko Takeuchi, Taisuke Togari, Makoto Oe, Yukie Takemura, Hiromi Sanada

Faculty of Liberal Arts, The Open University of Japan, Chiba, Japan.
Faculty of Nursing, Tokyo Healthcare University, Tokyo, Japan.
Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Research Hospital, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

The current research conducted a longitudinal study of new graduate nurses at 3 times-prior to their employment as nurses and 3 months and 1 year afterward. This study yielded 3 findings. 1) The mental health of new graduate nurses significantly worsens 3 months after employment as a nurse and mental health 1 year after employment as a nurse was significantly worse than that before employment. 2) A sense of coherence (SOC) is the ability to cope with stressors, and the 3 components of SOC decreased significantly in the year after employment as a nurse. 3) The mental health of new graduate nurses was significantly affected by a low SOC and by previous diminishing of SOC. Findings suggested the importance of support to sustain and improve the mental health of new graduate nurses and the importance of approaches in the workplace to encourage the development of SOC.

Longitudinal Study; Mental Health; New Graduate Nurses; Sense of Coherence (SOC)

Takeuchi, T. , Togari, T. , Oe, M. , Takemura, Y. and Sanada, H. (2013) Variations in the mental health and sense of coherence (SOC) of new graduate nurses and the effects of SOC on variations in mental health. Open Journal of Nursing, 3, 122-129. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2013.31016.