Abstract
Little is known about student nurse to graduate transition in Australia and internationally. Although countries maintain registration numbers, there is no account to distinguish between those successful or unsuccessful in attaining employment after earning the entry level degree for nursing. A recent pilot study utilised convenience sampling from two cohorts of graduating nursing students at an Australian university to understand newly qualified nurses’ employment pathways. This article describes the study methods, which included data collected via online survey to explore graduating nursing students’ engagement with the profession at the time of graduation. The study objective focused on the enablers and barriers experienced by graduating nurses to better understand graduate transition pathways for registered nurse career entry. Study findings highlighted a significant gap between graduating student numbers and employment gained, despite a looming global nursing shortage with our discussion confirming concerns supported by the literature. Registered nurse employment success mainly depended on gaining a graduate nurse program for transition to practice.
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