title: Are newly qualified nurses prepared for practice?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While many people find starting a new job stressful, the transition from student to newly qualified nurse comes with additional pressures, as being unprepared could harm patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether newly qualified nurses in the UK feel prepared for practice, exploring their experiences and expectations as they make the transition from student to registered practitioner.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review of the literature was carried out to look at newly qualified nurses' experiences of becoming staff nurses within adult nursing, and to identify if there were gaps in that body of knowledge that could be addressed to support them.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There is still a significant gap between theory and practice and ward managers' expectations of newly qualified nurses can be unrealistic. Some newly qualified nurses learnt to cope with being "thrown in at the deep end" but this is not always the best way of making the transition to becoming a staff nurse. The pressures of a busy ward environment means that soon-to-be qualified students are being treated as part of the workforce, and their learning needs are not a priority.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Introducing a mandatory preceptorship programme would assist in smoothing the transition from student to staff nurse.
authors.affiliation: University of Derby.
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.forename: Dinah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holmes
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D009726:Nurses; D013338:Students, Nursing; D006113:United Kingdom