Exploring BScN Recent Graduates’ Perceived Readiness to Practice

Assessing BScN recent graduates and their readiness to practice is of vital importance in the climate of high nursing turnover and nursing migration. The literature confirms that readiness to practice is a longstanding issue in nursing and the practice-education gap remains an issue to date. The purpose of this research was to explore BScN recent graduates’ perceived readiness to practice in nursing and make recommendations for nursing practice, education, and future research. A cross-sectional descriptive correlational mixed-methods research design was used for this research. The results confirm that the majority of BScN recent graduates from this study reported feeling ready for their professional nursing role. Key areas that participants reported less confidence in relation to their clinical and relational skills were identified. The impact of Covid-19 on the participants’ readiness to practice was also assessed. Recommendations to improve nursing education and implications for practice were addressed. Future research should be repeated at different universities, with larger sample sizes, and more purposeful sampling