Objective: The shortage of nurses is an overwhelming problem worldwide. Numerous studies indicate that fresh nursing graduates encounter many challenges in their first year after graduation. These difficulties affect their psychological health and influence their perseverance which results in a high resignation rate. Hong Kong is not an exceptional case; therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the challenges encountered by fresh nursing graduates during the transition period in order to provide insights to academics and clinical administrators in order to facilitate the transition and alleviate the negative impacts, thus increasing the retention rate. Methods: This was a qualitative study and eight new nursing graduates (M = 4; F = 4) from the same local higher education institute were interviewed individually. Thematic coding was used to analyse the data. Results: Finally, nine themes were identified including eight areas of challenges and one common attribute. Workload, lack of knowledge, communication, expectation, change of role, working atmosphere, support and a blame/complaint culture are the common areas of challenges that they encounter in the transitional period. Furthermore, this study also found that new nursing graduates possess a common attribute, i.e. positive personal attitude which seems able to enhance their perseverance in this period. Conclusions: The identified themes are interrelated and all the stakeholders should join together and form a cycle of continuous improvement in order to improve the nursing programme and clinical supports to the fresh nursing graduates.

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) claimed the lives of 286 Hong Kong people in 2003. Since then, the Hong Kong government has been promoting the benefits of proper hand hygiene. There are few studies that explore the general quality of handwashing and the hand-hygiene practices of the public of Hong Kong; given this, the aim of this study is to explore this neglected topic. This study is a quantitative study that was conducted in January 2018. The results show that the majority of participants only wash their hands after using the toilet (87%) or handling vomitus or faecal matter (91%). The mean duration of handwashing was 36.54 seconds (SD = 18.57). The areas of the hand most neglected during handwashing were the fingertips (48.1%), medial area (30.5%), and back of the hand (28%). A multiple logistic regression shows that participants who have reached third-level education or higher often tend to be more hand hygienic than those who have not reached third-level education (p≤0.001, B = 1.003). Thus, participants aged 30 and above tend to neglect 5 more areas of the hand than those aged below 30 (p=0.001, B = 4.933).

Aims (a) To explore the meanings of master's education in the professionalization of nursing; and (b) to describe the core attributes that nurses gained through master's study. Design Narrative inquiry. Methods From June 2017 to June 2018, unstructured interviews were conducted with 12 master‐prepared nurses at advanced nursing position with minimum 5 years of postregistration experience. Collaborative thematic narrative analysis was conducted on verbatim transcripts. Members checking, peer validation and audience validation assured verisimilitude and utility. Results There was a need to fit one's own assertion for professional growth in nursing career structure. Master's study equipped nurses with specialty skills and knowledge with enhanced reflexivity, which nurtured morality, problem‐solving ability and capacity to collaborate inter‐professionally. Master‐prepared nurses demonstrated effective clinical leadership through acting as change agents. Conclusions Master's level education and master‐prepared nurses are instrumental to the professionalization of nursing by expanding the roles of nurses. Nursing career mentoring will maximize nurses’ agency in healthcare system. Developing innovative inter‐professional pedagogy will nurture the reflexivity of master‐prepared nurses.

All humans learn about the world through five senses as they are the first contact point when information enters the brain. The VARK learning style inventory is the sole assessment tool to measure an individual's learning preference in terms of senses. VARK represents visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R), and kinaesthetic (K). The aim of this study was to examine the reliability of VARK questionnaire version 7.8 in Chinese learners with four multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis (MTMM-CFA) models for further research study. A total of 177 Chinese nursing undergraduates were recruited. The results showed that correlated trait-correlated uniqueness (CTCU) was the best-fit model to the VARK scores and the reliability estimates for the scores of the VARK subscales ranged from 0.69-0.84. Among these 177 nursing students, there were 46 (26%) visual learners, 27 (15.3%) aural learners, 11 (6.2%) read/write learners, 21 (11.9%) kinaesthetic learners, and 72 (40.7%) multi-modal learners.

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