Summary· This paper reviews the literature on nursing competence measurement and reports the results of a comparative quantitative study of the competencies of Project 2000 diplomates and BA (Hons) Adult Nursing graduates from two UK nursing programmes.· The ®ndings reveal that graduates appear to overcome any initial limitations and become more competent than the diplomates in certain areas.· Attention to social awareness and participation is necessary in both preregistration programmes, whilst greater attention could be given to graduates' leadership and management development.· Diplomates need support in their professional development if they are to achieve the same level of competence as graduates during the ®rst post-qualifying year.· There are implications for the level of support afforded to qualifying nurses in their ®rst staff positions; preceptorship programmes could be an important means of assisting newly quali®ed staff to gain con®dence. More research on nurse competencies with larger samples drawn from programmes across the UK is needed.

Disturbed sleep can affect personal wellbeing and impede the rehabilitation and recovery of older people from illness. This paper reports the findings of a pilot study which included examination of sleep quality and sleep patterns of older people in community hospital and nursing home settings. A marked proportion of older people reported sleeping well in nursing care settings, and those in nursing homes slept better than those in the community hospital. The main causes of sleep disturbance in both settings were: needing to go to the toilet, noise, pain, and discomfort; a similar pattern was seen across the different settings. No discernible difference was found in quality of sleep and whether patients felt rested or not between those patients on hypnotic medication and those who were not. The implications of the findings for practice and future research are discussed.

This paper examines the measurement of sleep in nursing care settings, within the context of a pilot study which aimed to assess the effect of therapeutic back massage by nurses on the quality and pattern of sleep in older people in nursing homes and a community hospital. Sleep is an important factor in effective recovery and rehabilitation from illness and for the quality of life of older people in care settings. Issues are raised concerning the measurement of the sleep of older people for the purposes of evaluation research. New instruments are introduced, some building on existing tools. The value of self-reported and observed sleep data are discussed. Issues of the feasibility and rigour of these instruments are examined and recommendations are made for their further refinement and use.

Measuring the socialization of graduate and diplomate nurses using the Corwin Role Orientation Scale The nature of United Kingdom (UK) nursing education has changed signi®cantly as the responsibility has been transferred from hospitals to the University sector. More information is needed on the outcome of the Project 2000 diploma and degree courses given the rapidly changing health care context. This paper focuses on the role socialization of graduate and diploma nurses. As part of a larger study, this research investigated the role orientations of 52 nursing graduates and 28 diplomates from two different universities at three time points; on graduation and at 6 and 12 months postgraduation. The Corwin Role Orientation Scale was selected and modi®ed for the study. It comprised of three separate scales measuring professional, bureaucratic and service orientation. The data from the two groups of nurses were examined to identify nurses' ideal role orientations and role discrepancies over the transitionary period from graduate to quali®ed nurse. Although the results showed observed differences between the groups over time, none of these differences were statistically signi®cant. The ®ndings raise a number of questions about the value of the instrument as a measure in the contemporary nursing context. Furthermore, each of the Corwin subscales had a low internal reliability. A possible explanation may be that the instrument, which was developed in the United States of America (USA) in the 1960s, and modi®ed, for this study, has little relevance for contemporary UK nursing. The study ®ndings are also limited by the small size of the sample. In spite of these limitations, the study suggests there are few differences between the role orientations and socialization experiences of UK nursing graduates and diplomates. Indeed, both programmes commonly take place in university settings and students receive the same amount of clinical experience. Further instrument development and exploratory research is recommended to identify the role socialization and orientations of UK nurses through larger national studies.