The transition from student nurse to practicing, newly graduated nurse has been described as a time of challenge. Lack of confidence has been described as a source of uncertainty during the role transition from student nurse to practicing nurse. Cognitive apprenticeship (CA) is an instructional strategy that can facilitate ease of transition for newly graduated nurses (NGNs) during the clinical or preceptorship portion of hospital orientation. The purpose of this mixed methods pretest-posttest design was to explore if there would be a difference in confidence and ease of transition to practice, after completing a cognitive apprenticeship based hospital orientation. Newly graduated, newly hired registered nurses as well as experienced nurse preceptors were solicited for participation in this study. The Casey-Fink Graduate Nurse Experience Survey was administered as both the pretest and posttest. Qualitative data were also collected from focus group interviews of both newly graduated nurses and preceptors. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in confidence after a CA-based orientation. Furthermore, the findings revealed the importance of preceptor training for effective preceptorships. This study adds to the literature regarding transition to practice strategies as well as pedagogical strategies for preceptorships.