“…While there had been a number of publications in recent years, the majority of these focus on: characteristics of competence and measurement issues (Exstrom, 2001;Hardcastle, 1999;Waddell, 2001;Watson, Stimpson, Topping, & Porock, 2002;Zhang, Luk, Arthur & Wong, 2001); standards of competence, specialty areas and advanced practice (Badger & Rawstorne, 1998;Barker, Williams & Smith, 2001, Darbyshire, 1994ICN, 2002;O'Brien, O'Brien, McNulty, Morrison-Ngatai, Skews, Ryan, Hardy, Gaskin & Boddy, 2002;Wissmann, Hauck & Clawson, 2002); and assessment methods and measurement of student nurse clinical performance (Andre, 2000;Horsburgh, 2000;Neary, 2001;Robb, Fleming & Dietert, 2002). Others (French, 2002;May, Edell, Butell, Doughty & Langford, 1999;Maynard, 1996;White & Taylor, 2002) discussed the link between evidencebased practice, critical thinking, nursing knowledge and competency to practice; or Chapter 1: Introduction the educational preparation of nurses and the performance of the graduate nurse (Bechtel, Davidhizar & Bradshaw, 1999;Chapman, 1999;Fulbrook, Rolfe, Albarran & Boxall, 2000;Grundy, 2001;Meerabeau, 2001;Watson, 2002).…”