Newly qualified registered nurses’ and midwives’ experiences from rural health district placement in Namibia

BACKGROUND: The transition period for newly qualified registered nurses/midwives (NQRN/Ms) is a fundamental phase in their career. Yet, transition experiences have been studied mostly within urban and/or specialised healthcare settings in high-resource countries. This study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of NQRN/Ms in a rural health district in Namibia. METHODS: A qualitative, descriptive, explorative, and contextual design was followed. The sample consisted of eight participants who were purposively selected. Data were collected via in-depth individual interviews and analysed following a reflexive thematic analysis. The researchers were guided by Lincoln and Guba’s strategies for establishing trustworthiness. FINDINGS: Themes conceptualised from the analysis include encounters with rural community members; encounters with colleagues; staffing, management, and supervision; shortage of resources; poor infrastructure; unreliable communication networks; and the lack of social life. CONCLUSION: The NQRN/Ms had mixed experiences related to a variety of aspects such as social life, resources, colleagues and community members. These findings can be used to improve undergraduate nursing curricula, as well as to create graduate job preparation workshops and support networks. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-023-01272-2.