Readiness to Practice Indicators: Accelerating New Graduate Nurses Toward Independent Practice

Abstract

Academic institutions and hospitals want the same outcomes: safe, practice-ready nurses, but each use different tools to evaluate practice-readiness. Successful transition-to-practice programs aimed at closing the academic gap require thoughtful and actionable collaboration between academic and practice settings with consideration of using mutual evaluation tools. Readiness to Practice Indicators (RPIs) are an evidence-based tool intended as a determinant for independent practice that synthesizes the scope and standards of nursing practice with a focus on how to manage a patient assignment. RPIs have been used with new graduate nurses since 2016 and now are being used as the performance evaluation tool shared by academic and hospital organizations in a new Student Readiness to Practice Program. Participating academic institutions, hospitals, and community organizations have agreed to use the RPI evaluation tool across settings. Future research will evaluate whether early exposure to RPIs in the senior practicum accelerates the transition of new graduate nurses into productive staffing and increases retention and satisfaction among new nurses and preceptors.