title: The journey between ideal and real: Experiences of beginners psychiatric nurses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Understanding how novice nurses perceive their career in the psychiatric ward can be helpful for nurse educators and managers to gain insight into psychiatric nursing care and adding applicable knowledge to the development of support strategies for this group. The aim of this study was to describe and illuminate experiences of new graduated nurses working at a psychiatric ward in an Iranian context.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive phenomenology has been chosen. Participants with baccalaureate degrees in nursing were selected purposefully and they all had less than 6 months of work experience in psychiatric wards beforehand. The study was conducted at the Razi Hospital in Iran. Data were collected through unstructured individual in-depth interviews and analyzed according to the Colaizzi method by means of Husserlian phenomenology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three main themes were found in this study, of which six sub-themes were constructed as follows: Being in the world of fear and complaint, which has been abstracted by having mixed feelings of conflict and compliant on entry to the psychiatric ward, doubt about adequacy of being a psychiatric nurse and working in psychiatric ward and a frightening and non-supportive environment; A sense of imprisoned and confined, which has been constructed by different experience with different environmental milieu in psychiatric ward, as a lock sense; Becoming a psychiatric nurse, which has been constructed as a sense of usefulness, a sense of sympathy and compassion for patients and a sense of professional identity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study identified areas that require modification by providing insight into lived experiences of beginners' nurses as the value in psychiatric ward. New graduated nurses may face negative perceptions and feelings due to confrontation with a new environment, patients and colleagues as well as shortcomings in the preparation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science, Tehran, Iran ; Department of Clinical Sciences and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khankeh
authors.affiliation: Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran ; Department of Clinical Sciences and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Davoud
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Khorasani-Zavareh
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyaid-Ali
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hoseini
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad-Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Khodai-Ardekandi
authors.affiliation: Division of Nursing, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sirkka-Liisa
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Ekman
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bohm
authors.affiliation: Birjand Health Qualitative Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakhaie
authors.affiliation: PhD Student of Psychology in Institute of Humanities and Social Studies, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ranjbar
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Maaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castrén
keywords: Beginners’ nurses; iran; phenomenology; psychiatric ward; qualitative research