Abstract
The article presents and discusses results from two follow up studies of nurses during the first five years after qualifying. The purpose has been to attain knowledge relating to factors that have a significance for the nurses regarding competence development and how learning occurs among nurses in the post educational period and factors that inhibit such development of competence.
In this study both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used. The study shows that learning and competence development during this period are tied to ongoing activities and practices in the community of practice and experienced colleagues play an important part through their interactions. Factors that inhibit such interactions and development of competence are related to findings which are associated to power relations expressed through knowledge, authority and abstractions of practice, and through possibility which is connected to resources and prioritizing. The study indicates how power relations both within the local community of practice and with other communities of practice influence the nurse's daily activities.