Abstract
Preparedness of newly qualified professional nurses has become a concern in
clinical practice. The importance of quality care and patient safety issues in
healthcare has increased the expectations of the new professional nurse. The reality
of working in a clinical setting for newly qualified professional nurses can prove to be
overwhelming, resulting in a lack of confidence in their ability to perform effective
patient care. The purpose of this study was to acquire an understanding of the newly
qualified professional nurses’ experience of preparedness for practice in the private
hospital setting in order to provide recommendations to support newly qualified
professional nurses.
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design using a
phenomenological approach was employed to explore and describe the lived
experiences of newly qualified professional nurses’ preparedness for practice. The
target population was newly qualified professional nurses working six months to a
year in a private hospital setting in Gauteng. Purposive sampling was used to select
participants for this study. Data were collected through eight in-depth
phenomenological individual interviews, which were transcribed and analysed
utilising Giorgi’s method of analysis.
Themes and a central storyline were identified by means of thematic analysis. The
findings emerged that newly qualified professional nurses felt ill-prepared for the
huge leadership role and responsibility they had to step into; as a result, they
profoundly doubted their own competence. At an interpersonal level the participants
realised that they have to acquire a range of skills in order to deal with various role
players and to ensure a high standard of nursing care. The newly qualified
professional nurses felt that they needed time to grow into competent and confident
professional nurses.
Trustworthiness was ensured by means credibility, transferability, dependability and
confirmability. Ethical considerations focused on autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence
and justice. Recommendations for nursing education, nursing...
M.Cur. (Nursing Education)