Perceived Readiness to Practice among BSC Honors in Nursing Graduates: Implications for Training

New nurses, at all levels of qualification, are generally perceived as not meeting expectations for safe nursing practice. Unfortunately, they are expected to be job ready, demonstrate competence in the provision of evidence-based care, practise independently, and assume accountability and responsibility for their own actions by hospital managers and nursing authorities. This was a cross-sectional analytic survey conducted online with a random sample of 118 BScN graduates from the University of Zimbabwe, Department of Nursing Science. Contact numbers, email addresses and social media platforms were used to contact the graduates. An adapted version of the Casey Fink Readiness for Practice Questionnaire (CFRPQ) questionnaire was used to collect data. It had 3 sections namely; Section A—Demographic data, Section B—Adapted Readiness to Practice Questionnaire and Section C—Needs to enhance readiness to practice questionnaire. The questionnaire was uploaded online with a link that was sent to participants who had given consent. They were filled in and returned to the researcher. Constant reminders in the form of emails, and text messages were sent out to enhance response. Approvals for the study were granted by the Joint Research and Ethics Committee and the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe. The study was conducted according to the requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave informed consent. The researchers had sole access to fill in surveys which were kept in a password protected electronic folder. Data were collected over 6 weeks from the 28th of July to the 11th of September 2020. It was coded and analysed using STATA version 15. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse demographic data and readiness to practice scores. Qualitative data on needs to enhance readiness to practice were also coded and analysed thematically. Response rate was 53%. Majority of participants (at least 86.4%) expressed confidence caring for patients on medical surgical units. Many participants highlighted the need for more supervised clinical placements to enhance readiness to practice.