Determining novice nurse's experiences in professional preparation: A content analysis

Studies showed that the newly graduate nurses did not develop necessary competencies, and there is a distance between their experiences and the skills needed to work as a novice nurse. This study is done to determine novice nurses’ experiences regarding their professional preparation after graduation. This is a conventional qualitative content analysis. Study population was nurses working at hospitals of Arak University of Medical Sciences. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Data was gathered through individualized semi-structured interviews. 16 novice and 4 experienced nurses participated in the study. Data was analyzed through latent content analysis. 3 themes and 8 subthemes emerged through data analysis including; educational challenges (theoratical education challenges, clinical education challenges and education-clinic gap), educators’ characteristics (educators’ knowledge and skill, challenges in educators’ communication skills), students’ conditions (students’ motivation and interest, students’ clinical experience during education, students’ economical situation). Professional preparation is a challenging subject. In this study participants believed that the challenges in theory and clinical education, educators’ characteristics and nursing students’ conditions can affect nursing students` preparation as novice nurses. Regarding the results it seems proper planning is needed to solve the mentioned problems in order to develop proper competencies and skills needed for nursing students to act as a reliable novice nurse.