What if education, practice, and regulation established a shared responsibility for new-graduate nurse competence? What if we worked purposefully together to develop and measure that competency at end program, and practice picked up the torch for ongoing development toward expertise?
We are at the precipice of scientific revolution in nursing education. Incongruent expectations among educators and practice partners for new-graduate nurse competence and minimal national data on transition-to-practice deficits is driving disparate actions and slowing widespread change. Burgeoning healthcare knowledge, increasingly ill patients, the technology boom, staff shortages, and a disconnect between nursing educational outcomes and healthcare system needs have brought us to what seems like a crisis, but is an exciting opportunity to move nursing education, practice, and regulation forward to a new reality of collaboration for the benefit of students and patients. What if nursing schools put aside protection of intellectual property to instead promote disciplinary excellence with real, widespread collaboration?
The International Consortium for Outcomes of Nursing Education (ICONEd) was formed through an innovative partnership among nursing educators, practice partners, and regulators to develop and implement a collaborative, multi-pronged approach to
- Design and push out a national campaign to identify common goals and expectations for competence in pre-licensure nursing program graduates upon entry to practice.
- Conduct and foster high-quality, multi-site outcomes-focused nursing education and practice research with pre-licensure nursing students and graduates through their first years of practice.
- Develop a web-based repository of detailed replicable study designs and measurement tools accessible for free.
- Establish focused research groups to provide consultation and mentor matching for those interested in research.
ICONEd is over 100 members strong and growing, representing over 50 nursing schools, multiple healthcare systems/institutions, and multiple national, regional, and local Transition to Practice Programs across the US, Canada, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and Qatar, as well as representatives from accreditation, the NCSBN, and nursing education industry.
Are you ready for a paradigm shift? Join ICONEd!
Contact Mary Ann Jessee at mary.a.jessee@vanderbilt.edu
