Transition from student to professional

Abstract

All the ambition which brought about an application for nurse training has finally culminated in successful achievement of the goal — to be a nurse. Nothing can quite compare to those first days of wearing a staff nurse uniform, really doing the job of a professional practitioner in your own right — so why do you, as a new staff nurse, so often feel unprepared, anxious and ill-at-ease? Henderson (1969) noted that:

The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to a peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge, and to do this in such a way as to help him gain independence as rapidly as possible. (p. 4)