Lifelong learning is a central concept in higher education for promoting the nurses’ professional development to be able to adapt to the continuously evolving healthcare environment. Furthermore, a review of the literature established that the nursing profession in Egypt faces many challenges and has been significantly underdeveloped in professional terms over the last three decades. A literature search was conducted using EBSCO host, CINHAL, Medline and Pro-Quest utilizing keywords such as work-based learning, and preregistered nurses. This review focused on qualitative studies published in Egypt and the wider Middle East region from 2008 to 2018. Searches were limited to English language publications and peer-reviewed articles. Joanna Brigg Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist tool for qualitative research was used for quality assessment for eligibility. The review included six published articles. These studies focused on different forms of WBL among undergraduate nursing students. Burnard’s thematic analysis method was used to analyse the extracted data. The data analysis revealed five main themes in relevance to the two outcomes. The review found that the learners’ transition to a new learning method and the readiness inadequacy are two main challenges. On the other hand, the review revealed that increasing interpersonal skills, promoting self-directedness and enhancing critical thinking abilities are the major effects of WBL. The findings stress the importance of WBL as an active learning approach. Although WBL forms a challenge for learners, they later realize and value the importance of WBL in improving their critical thinking abilities and promoting selflearning skills.