Final-Year Nursing Students' Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

The transitional experience from final-year nursing students (FYNS) to newly graduated RNs (NGRN) challenges individuals' professional and personal identities. Multiple studies have documented the experiences of FYNS graduating in the pandemic, but no studies have synthesized the findings.

This scoping review examined the barriers and facilitators FYNS experience as they transitioned to become NGRN during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Databases were searched for relevant articles, and articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2019 and 2021 that focused on the support of FYNS in clinical settings in North America, Europe, and Australia were included.

Three themes were identified: emotional turmoil and coping, clinical competence and readiness for practice, and teaching strategies.

This review revealed important insight on how the pandemic affected FYNS' transition to practice and identified gaps in the literature for future research. [.