Extant nursing scholarship demonstrates that the transition from being a novice nurse to becoming a registered nurse can be stressful and challenging for new entrants, as many experience fear of failure, fear of assuming total responsibility in clinical settings, as well as fear of making mistakes (Banks et al., 2011; Dyess & Parker, 2012; Jamieson, Harris, & Hall, 2012; Morrow, 2009; Newton & McKenna, 2009). Because early experiences in the workplace have been shown as strong predictors of future work satisfaction and career development (Jamieson et al., 2009), the transition literature has continued to attract widespread attention as scholars and practitioners attempt to understand the movement of professionals from novice nurses to registered nursing practitioners, the associated experiences and consequential development (Cubit & Lopez, 2012). Consequently, it is important to explore the experiences of novice nurses in transitioning to clinical settings within the first two years after absorption into gainful employment. The experiences and challenges of newly qualified nurses in their attempt to transition to registered practitioners have been well documented in the literature, with several scholars arguing that these experiences and challenges are embedded within a framework that causes nurses to be enmeshed between the socializing forces of academia and the day-to-day reality of nursing (Ross & Clifford, 2002). Indeed, the transition is particularly difficult as novice nurses are required to adapt to new responsibilities and expectations irrespective of the fact that developments in nursing curricula in many countries across the world continue to provide a broader and deeper theoretical base for practice, but with little regard to the level of practical skills attained (Cleary, Matheson, & Happell, 2009). Consequently, new nurses find it challenging to get socialized into the context of clinical nursing practice due to their own real or perceived inadequacies in the practice environment (Newton & McKenna, 2009). Ross and Clifford (2002) note that “in 1974, Kramer highlighted the reality shock experienced by newly qualified nurses in the USA when they found themselves in work situations for which they felt inadequately prepared” (p. 546). The concept of ‘reality shock’ therefore denotes how novice nurses experience feelings of bewilderment, inadequacy, stress, and lack of confidence in their own professional identity as they transition to registered nurses. These feelings, which have been directly associated with high nurse turnover and low job satisfaction levels in practice settings (Ashcraft, 2004, Candela & Bowles, 2008; Okerby, Newton, Cross, & Jolly, 2009), are reinforced by the ‘colliding expectations’ between what novice nurses are taught in institutions of nurse education and what they normally experience in clinical settings (Jamieson et al., 2012). Drawing from the earlier works of Kramer, Duchscher (2009), extensively cited in Dyess and Parker (2012), conceptualized the ‘transition shock’ to imply “multifaceted, inclusive of misunderstood perceptions of practice and adjustment, and difficulty in appreciating differences among generational cohorts and mixed emotions” (p. 616). This description, through fragmented in scope, demonstrates how “the contemporary new gradu