Second year student nurse engagement: Sophomore slump; reality or myth?

The first year student experience has received much attention in the literature, with journals solely dedicated to the topic including the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the second year student experience, with the first studies emerging from the USA and producing a body of literature termed the sophomore slump (Tower et al., 2015). Findings from a small scale longitudinal study exploring student nurse engagement with learning in year two of a three year undergraduate degree are presented which questions whether the sophomore slump is a reality or a myth.