The newly educated nurse, - expectations and challenges facing the professional role

Abstract

Abstract 

The purpose is to explore expectations of the professional role and graduate’s first experiences as a professional nurse. The study has a descriptive retrospective design. The method is a survey, and the sample (N=129), 36% of the graduates from a Norwegian university in the Spring of 2017. The graduates were looking forward to start working but dreaded the responsibility and lack of competence. The first months as a professional were characterized by fear of inadequacy and work overload, correlating with limited knowledge of routines and disease-related issues, challenges in clinical assessment, little feedback, and insecurity for the assessment of others. The majority were almost immediately in charge of nursing care with limited supervision. The study confirms that graduates are unprepared for the complex workday of the professional role. Furthermore, mentoring schemes need improvement, and the nursing education should emphasis on practice in independent professional assessment. Challenges in the student-nurse transition still exist and underline a need for more knowledge to address this.