Who am I now? The experience of being a post-registration children’s student nurse in the first clinical placement

SummaryRole transition from staff nurse to post-registration student is not a well researched area of nursing. Two previous Irish studies have been reported of the experiences of post-registration midwifery students [McCrea, H., Thompson, K., Carswell, L., Whittington, D., 1994. Student midwives’ learning experience on the wards. Journal of Clinical Nursing 3, 97–102; Begley, C., 1997. Midwives in the making: a longitudinal study of the experiences of student midwives during their two-year training in Ireland. Unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College, Dublin.] but there is limited research into post-registration children’s student nurses experiences.A broadly phenomenological approach was employed to interpret what it means to be a post-registration children’s student nurse during the first clinical placement. Data was collected from a purposive sample of six students, using unstructured tape recorded interviews. Thematic content analysis was utilised to produce an interpretation of nurses’ experience within the first clinical placement.The findings reflect the participants’ role confusion when changing from being a staff nurse in one discipline of nursing to being a post-registration student in another. They find previous experience is not recognised and that students originating from different disciplines in nursing have different experiences within the first placement. Coping mechanisms are discussed along with preparation for and supports available in the clinical area.