In the ever-shifting, ever-challenging environment that is healthcare, it is crucial to ensure that new nurse graduates are equipped to deliver care that is safe, of high quality, patient- centred and based upon the best available evidence. Medication management encompasses many responsibilities including patient assessment and evaluation, pharmacology knowledge, medication preparation, drug calculations, medication administration, and patient education about medications. These roles consume a significant portion of a nurse’s working day, and are an area of equally substantial concern for students approaching the latter stages of their undergraduate/pre-licensure programmes. The theoretical content on this area, as well as exposure to/hands-on experience in practice can vary from programme to programme. It is nonetheless imperative to ensure that students feel adequately prepared and confident to undertake this responsibility in practice. A recurring stressor reported anecdotally by student nurses within the authors’ faculty is the area of medication administration and management, and whether they feel, or are in fact, ready for this responsibility. Listening to and hearing what students have to say in this regard should be one of the key drivers to shaping how best to prepare them so that they are confident and ready for practice. This paper describes a pilot-study of final year students’ self-reported level of readiness for oral medication administration in advance of becoming licensed registered nurses. Methods A non-experimental, descriptive pilot study was undertaken to ascertain final year nursing students’ perceptions of their preparedness for practice with regard to oral medication administration. A convenience sample of 24 final year students undertaking a four year BSc (honours) in General Nursing programme in one department of nursing in the Republic of Ireland was involved. Participation involved completion of a 17-item likert-type survey on one occasion only. The tool, “Preparedness for Oral Medication Administration Questionnaire”, adapted by Aggar and Dawson (2014), originated from a 13-item competency-based assessment tool developed by Fisher and Parolin (2000) to measure student nurses’ clinical performance. The current study did not involve any intervention. Data were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences© (SPSS) version 23. Click here to view linked References Results From a sampling frame of 87 students, 24 students participated in the survey, yielding a response rate of 28%. The total scale score produced in this sample was 63.3 (±13.1) out of a range of 17 - 102, Higher scores indicate greater perceived levels of preparedness for oral medication administration. This score (63.3) suggests that participants generally perceived that they are not as adequately prepared for their role in the administration of oral medication as they perceive they would need to be. All 17 items on the scale were normally distributed. Individual item means ranged from 2.58 (±1.1) to 4.71 (±.86). Participants’ perceptions of their preparedness for specific aspects around oral medication administration were examined more closely by scrutinising individual item means, which provided more detailed findings. The total scale score produced in this sample was 63.3 (±13.1). This score suggests that participants generally perceived that they are not as adequately prepared for their role in the administration of oral medication as they perceive they would need to be. Conclusion This pilot study revealed that students did not feel adequately prepared for their role in oral medication administration. Key contributors to this were pharmacology knowledge acquisition and application, along with lack of opportunities in practice to undertake oral medication administration roles and responsibilities. A streamlined approach to address these challenges involving nurse educators, clinical preceptors and most importantly students, is paramount. Despite the small scale of this single site study, it did provide useful insight into students’ perceptions of their readiness for oral medication administration and factors influencing this.