Bridging the Gap: Transition to Practice
AACN offers resources and support throughout the transition from student to independent practice as a nurse.
AACN offers resources and support throughout the transition from student to independent practice as a nurse.
The transition from nursing student to professional nurse represents one of the most critical and challenging phases in a nurse’s career. New nurses often enter high-acuity settings feeling underprepared, even with strong academic backgrounds. Throughout their first year, new nurses undergo intense learning, adaptation and growth. The complexities and realities of direct patient care often underscore gaps in practice readiness that can impact nurse confidence, competency and retention.
Factors impeding success during the transition to practice include the following:
As a leader in acute, progressive and critical care nursing for over 55 years, AACN is uniquely positioned to offer credible, high-value support before, during and after new nurses’ transition to practice. AACN partners with both academic institutions and hospitals to address the experience-complexity gap in nursing and build confidence from day one. These partnerships help ensure nurses are prepared to meet the demands of modern patient care while enhancing engagement and driving better outcomes for patients and healthcare systems.
As a transition-to-practice partner, AACN offers:
We offer evidence-based resources that strengthen new nurses’ readiness to practice, enhance transition outcomes, and build lifelong partnerships with nurses across every stage of their careers. Our resources and programs complement academic experiences, hospital-based residency programs and unit-specific orientation programs.
Explore AACN’s offerings by clicking on each step of the transition-to-practice journey.
AACN provides a wide array of evidence-based resources designed to support nurse leaders and educators throughout the transition-to-practice period — and beyond. We encourage you to explore the following tools during this important phase of professional development.
