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School of Nursing Science and Health Professions
Department of Nursing
Transition into Practice Model Project Final Report
Regis College/Lahey Clinic Partnership 2011-2012
Summary:
Regis College, together with its project partner Lahey Clinic proposed to integrate the Nurse of
the Future Core Competencies (NOF)© into the senior practicum nursing curriculum at Regis
College and the Newly Licensed Nurse (NLN) Orientation program at Lahey Clinic
Furthermore, the proposed project aimed to align Regis College’s nursing curriculum learning
activities with the NLN orientation learning activities to create a seamless transition into nursing
practice. The project cumulated in the development and implementation of a transition into
practice model-Transition into Practice (TIP).
This project created a unique collaboration between academic and practice partners. The project
involved engaging four distinct cohorts: 1. Regis College’s academic (classroom and clinical)
faculty; 2. Lahey Clinic’s clinical educators; 3. Regis College’s pre-licensure students; and 4.
Lahey Clinic’s newly licensed nurses. With oversight from the Co-leads these cohorts convened
in three educational seminars on Nurse of the Future Core Competencies© and together
developed and aligned learning activities for the nursing students and NLNs for each of the 10
NOF competencies (2011-12).
The work began (August 11, 2011) with a joint assessment of the integration of the NOF
Competencies in the Regis College senior level nursing curriculum and Lahey Clinic’s NLN
Orientation program. To accomplish this academic and practice partners came together to
review and evaluate the integration of the NOF Competencies in their respective programs and to
plan the targeted educational sessions.
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Seminar One:
Seminar One was held on January 19, 2012 at Lahey Clinic and was attended by the Regis
College (classroom and clinical) faculty and Lahey Clinic’s clinical educators. At this seminar
representatives from the academic and practice partners presented their program. As a group, the
academic faculty and clinical educators evaluated their respective curriculum and orientation
program critically and methodically to determine what NOF competencies are currently in their
programs.They discussed how they might integrate the competencies and align their learning
activities related to the competencies.
Seminar Two:
Seminar Two was held on April 24, 2012 at Lahey Clinic and was attended by the Regis College
nursing students and Lahey Clinic’s NLNs . Members of the Department of Higher Education
were in attendance as well. At this seminar representatives from the academic and practice
partners presented the integration of the NOF Competencies and the alignment of the learning
activities in the respective programs. Selected nursing students and NLN’s served as panel
members to lead a discussion on the nursing student and NLN experience.
The TIP project included an extensive evaluation component, through which learners in the
educational seminars participated in focus groups to provide feedback on their TIP experience.
The feedback represents the perspectives of the four distinct cohorts, and included discussion of
the extent to which the TIP program has/will impact Nursing students’ and NLNs’ transition into
practice, as well as the insights of participating nursing program faculty and clinical educators.
Seminar Three:
Seminar Three was held on November 16, 2012 at Regis College and was open to attendance by
members of the academic and practice settings, as well as a broad range of stakeholders and
communities of interest to both collaborators. Representatives from the academic and practice
partners presented the nursing curriculum learning activities and the NLN learning activities and
unveiled the TIP Model. In addition, TIP program’s successes and challenges were discusses
along with plans for dissemination of the TIP Model. Dissemination plans include abstract
submission for presentation at the North Eastern Organization of Nurse Educators (NEON)
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Conference on April 7, 2013, “Educating the Educators: A Professional Development
Symposium”. A second presentation is planned on March 12, 2013 at Lahey Clinic’s Annual
Quality & Safety program at which time Dr. Gwen Sherwood will be a keynote speaker and will
present how practice settings have integrated the QSEN competencies. We will have the
opportunity to present our TIP model to her and elicit feedback and recommendations. In
addition, a manuscript submission is planned.
Goals: Benchmarking
1) To achieve adaptation and integration of the NOF Competencies in Regis College’s senior
practicum and Lahey Clinic’s NLN Orientation program, by assessing progress achieved to-date,
and building upon this progress- Assessment completed, activities developed, integration in
progress in NLN (completion Jan 2012) and Preceptorship (first cohort completion-Jan 2012,
second May 2012)
2) To develop anevidence based replicable model that provides a blue print that supports new
nurses’ successful transition into practice through an academic/practice partnership-completed
Fall 2012.
3) To widely disseminate the outcomes of the project-Seminar One-January 19, 2012, Seminar
Two-April 24, 2012 & Seminar Three –November 16, 2012.
Activities/Deliverables:
1. Face to Face Meetings with Cohorts 1&2- August 11, 2011 & Dec 6, 2011= total 9
hours. Total participants 20 each meeting.
2. Ongoing communication with Co-leads weekly and Cohorts 1&2.
3. Assessment of RC Preceptorship & NLN program integration of NOF Core
Competencies completed Dec 2011.
4. Matrix of NOF activities for crosswalk developed and revised multiple times.
Developed and updated 5 times-last revision April 2012.
5. Developed “DHE Nursing Education Redesign Grant Program: Transition into
Practice Model” Project Fact Sheet for distribution-distributed to constituents at both
organizations-Fall 2012.
6. Implemented Matrix activities in RC Preceptorship and NLN Program. Evaluations
completed.
7. Dissemination completed November 16, 2012 with Seminar 3.
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Findings:
There had been no change in scope of practice, budget issues or barriers identified for this
project. The relationship between cohort one- academic faculty at Regis College and cohort twothe clinical educators at Lahey Clinic has been very collaborative. The face to face meetings
have brought these two groups together when they normally do not work together. Both made
significant contributions to the substance of the activities as they were developed. The two
cohorts were entirely responsible for developing the matrix and working collaboratively to
ensure that both students and NLNs were participating in activities to reflect the NOF
competencies. The Co-leads gained a great deal of insight as to the level of knowledge and
comprehension of the NOF competencies especially in the practice arena from the clinical
educators. The only aberrancy was that the face to face focus groups with the NLNs and the
students could not be held due to inclement weather (Superstorm Sandy). Instead, the focus
group was conducted virtually through email.
The following are the evaluations from each of the seminars and focus groups.
Seminar One: Clinical Faculty- Regis College
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Reinforce information on NOF; relate to needs of the hospital
Focus on practice integration with academic practice; work required for NLNs
Dialoging with clinical educators in practice; more networking
Clinical Educators- Lahey Clinic
 Great overview of NOF Competencies; quite informative
 Need to provide learning experiences for NLNs and nursing students that
center on NOF Competencies
 Need to work with academic partners to develop activities that build upon
student learning experiences
 As a clinical educator I was able to see how the student is immersed in the
NOF competencies and how through our NLN program we can blend and
build on some of the same learning activities for students and NLNs
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Seminar Two: Senior Nursing Students/ NLNs
Semiar Three: Communities of Interest, Students, Faculty, & Clinical Educators
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Expanded knowledge; New information; Focus on transition important; Enhance
confidence in NLN
Useful for teaching; Orientation of NLNs; Preceptor Workshop; Integrate into
curriculum; Use in own nursing practice; General orientation of all nurses
Most helpful was the details of the activities; structure of implementation; practical
application; Model is extremely helpful for use in practice
Additional topics: input from students, NLNs, & preceptors; pre & post measurement
tools for implementation
Suggestions: Use in experienced nurses; Disseminate to all nursing programs; Expansion
into preceptor preparation; Use with LPN student transition
Focus Group: Students (Virtual)
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Some inconsistencies among groups-great communication with preceptor
Reviewed packet & NOF competences with faculty prior
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Provide review and feedback to the preceptor of seminar work; work with clinical
educator
Incorporated each day into assignments
May want to have a day to start to review NOF
Prior meeting with preceptor; videos of NOF
Focus Group: NLNs (Virtual)
 Reviewed the student packet & NOF competences with student but not with nursing
instructor
 I did not know much about NOF prior to precepting. It has been a learning experience
for me as well
 Communication process mainly took place between preceptor and student. Would
like more involvement of clinical educator and clinical instructor
 An initial meeting with the preceptor, student, clinical educator and clinical instructor
before the preceptorship would enhance the learning experience
Lessons Learned:
Overall the project resulted in a strong collaboration between an academic and practice partner to
strengthen the transition into nursing practice experience while integrating the NOF
Competencies into the senior practicum curriculum and the NLN Orientation program. With a
focus on the competencies, alignment of learning activities and the transition of the student to
NLN the academic faculty and clinical educators worked tirelessly and collaboratively.
However, it was found that the clinical faculty and the clinical educator communication at the
point of preceptorship was lacking. In many instances it was the nursing student and preceptor
that ensured learning activities related to NOF competencies were occurring. To enhance a
partnership it would be advantageous to strengthen the communication between the clinical
faculty and the clinical educators and between the nursing students and the preceptors. Bringing
these groups together before the preceptorship begins is a means to this end. In addition, during
this time educating the groups on the NOF Competencies, learning activities and expectations is
an important component of the model that we did not address but that we discovered was
essential.
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