Novice Nurses' Experiences of Unpreparedness at the Beginning of the Work

INTRODUCTION: Unpreparedness of novice nurses during the process of transition to their professional role can has broad consequences for the nurse and health care system and leads to reduction of the quality of patient care. This study has been carried out with the aim of investigating the experiences of the unpreparedness of novice nurses. METHOD: This study was conducted qualitatively by using conventional content analysis. Participants were 21persons including 17 novice nurses, 2 supervisors, and 2 experienced nurses who were selected through purposeful sampling from four hospitals dependent on Tehran University of Medical Sciences. FINDINGS: Participants' experiences were reflected in three main themes of "functional disability", "communicative problems", and "managerial challenges". Each of these dimensions consisted of several sub-categories. These areas had represented the inability to apply the learned knowledge in practice. DISCUSSION: The sensitivity of health system, especially, educational mentors and nursing managers to create preparation in novice nurses by providing appropriate orientation programs at the beginning of work and the revision and amendment of nursing curriculum can solve this problem to some extent.