Description of Student Participants

The following section gives a brief description of the students. It provides demographic details and describes the degree and nature of their engagement with the study. The names of the participants have been changed to protect their anonymity

96 Chloe

Chloe was a young woman in her early 20’s who had previously completed a science degree. She had no previous health-care work experience and started the GEN programme directly after completing her first degree. She was studying the adult branch of nursing. She maintained her diary entries throughout the study and engaged in reflective and in-depth discussion during interview, often requiring minimal prompts. Unfortunately, her practice documentation was not available for analysis due to it being selected randomly for external examination and moderation.

Gwen

Gwen was aged in her early 40s and had a bachelor of science degree which she completed a number of years ago and an MSc in Science. Her previous work experience included a range of public and voluntary sector positions. She was studying the adult branch of nursing. Gwen shared with the researcher her personal diary which she kept for her own development as opposed to the one which kept for purposes of portfolio development or to share with her mentor. She appeared to express stronger emotional responses in her diaries than in interviews which were more reserved and less spontaneous.

Janine

Janine was a young woman with a social science degree. She had formerly worked as a health care assistant (HCA) for a short period of time in a care home and volunteered in a community project for people who are socially excluded. Janine conscientiously wrote in her diary in a fluid and reflective manner. However, her interviews were consistently short with long pauses and required a high level of promoting. Her diary entries were used throughout to encourage her to elaborate further on responses to questions. Janine started the course on adult branch and transferred to mental healthbranch after the first 6 months.

97 Jenny

Jenny was a young woman with a science degree. She had no previous experience of working in a healthcare setting. However, she had lived with a medical condition which resulted in her having frequent contact with health services. There were some concerns around her ability to assimilate knowledge, respond to the unfamiliar and apply theory to practice towards the end of the programme. This led to her needing an extended period of time in practice to achieve the required competency levels. She was studying the adult branch of nursing and went on to study medicine directly after completing the GEN programme. Jenny did not submit diary entries during the study and would often forget to attend interviews which led to a number being carried out over the phone. She was extremely engaged during interviews and was able to refer back to previous interviews to note how her opinion and position had been confirmed or changed over time.

Richard

Richard was a 40 year old man who had previous experience working in the service industry in management positions. He was also an active member of his church and had worked with young people in the capacity of youth worker. Richard had a Masters in a therapeutic intervention which he completed directly before commencing the GEN programme. He was studying the mental health branch of nursing. Diary entries came in the form of sporadic emails in note form to remind him of key points during interviews. Interviews were highly self-reflective and required few prompts as the research questions appeared to be congruent with the issues he was grappling with personally. He took the opportunity within the interview to give his view of the course itself and suggest ways it should be improved.

Samantha

Samantha was a young woman with a humanities degree. She previously worked in Human Resources and had no prior experience of working in healthcare. She had a desire to work abroad and was studying the adult branch of nursing. Samantha wrote highly descriptive and detailed diary entries throughout the study period which described her day to day activity in practice. Her interviews consisted of reflective and emotive versions of these events.

98 Cara

Cara was a young woman who had previously completed a humanities degree. She had worked in different countries as a translator and has no prior experience of working in a healthcare setting. She was studying the mental health branch of nursing. She did not submit regular diary entries and was extremely apologetic about this during interviews. She spoke fluidly and in great depth during her interviews and demonstrated a highly reflective way of processing events which required minimal prompts.

Rachel

Rachel was a young woman who completed a previous science degree. She had worked voluntarily in another country and was employed in the public service industry however she has no previous experience of working in a healthcare setting. She was studying the adult branch of nursing. Rachel submitted diary entries at the start of each placement but not throughout. She attributed this to her workload when on placement and was always extremely apologetic during interviews. Rachel initially utilised the interviews to express her concern about her competence and appeared to be seeking reassurance from the interviewer. She appeared uncomfortable with the non-conversational manner of the interview scenario and would regularly ask questions herself in an effort to initiate a more equal exchange. This changed towards the end of the study where she appeared able to take the floor more happily.