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Aim: To describe the facilitating/inhibiting factors of preparation for preterm infant discharge and recommendations for increasing discharge readiness from parents' and healthcare providers' perspectives based on Meleis's Transitions Theory. Design: A qualitative cross‐sectional descriptive design. Methods: We selected a purposive sample of 17 parents (9 fathers and 8 mothers) and 13 healthcare providers (10 nurses and 3 clinicians) from the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital in Eastern China. Data were collected between May ‐July 2018. Data from audio‐recorded semi‐structured individual interviews were coded with content analysis both inductively and deductively. Results: The analyses yielded four themes: personal conditions, community conditions, nursing therapeutics, and patterns of response. Parents and healthcare providers had unique opinions about the themes. Conclusion: Meleis's Transitions Theory seems to be an applicable and practicable framework for understanding the discharge preparation of parents with preterm infants and may be used to help healthcare providers to develop appropriate interventions on discharge preparation practice. Impact: To address the lack of discharge readiness of preterm infants in China and countries with a similar clinical context, healthcare providers should help parents play a more active role to promote their engagement in discharge preparation. In a wider global community, healthcare providers should consider parents' personal conditions and their practical needs in performing discharge preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]