Purpose: New graduate nurses are being expected to care for sicker, older, and more diverse patients with a multitude of chronic illnesses (Chamber, Thiekotter, Chambers, 2013). With the continuing education-practice gap in nursing, academic educators may be forced to change how they teach students to prepare them for professional practice. Academic educators must continue to cultivate the relationship between clinical and classroom in order to represent the types of high-risk health challenges seen in patients today (Kavanagh & Swzeda, 2017). One way academic educators can do this is to shift their focus on teaching what is known to preparing new graduate nurses for the unknown (Chambers et al., 2013). The problem studied was a lack of knowledge on how faculty view their role in preparing students for successful transition to practice. Consumers expect nurses to be highly trained and competent when caring for their loved ones in the hospital (Bennett, Grimsley, Grimsely, & Rodd, 2017). Understanding how faculty are preparing graduates for transitioning to practice is essential when preparing nurses for success in an ever-changing patient population and expanding nursing role. Many times, newly graduated nurses are eager to address issues that arise in patients. However, a lack of information coupled with a lack of critical thinking skills and confidence can sometimes cause negative or even fatal outcomes in patients. The study aimed to explore the role faculty believe they play in narrowing the education-practice gap for new graduate nurses to feel prepared to successfully transition to professional practice.
Methods: A qualitative exploratory case study was selected for the study with a snowball sampling method used to recruit participants. The research study was conducted with five nursing faculty from two and four year colleges or universities located within the United States who had more than five years of clinical bedside experience and more than one year of teaching experience in an accredited nursing program. The researcher was the primary data collection instrument in order to establish a strong rapport between participant and researcher to allow participants to feel comfortable sharing experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Conducting semi-structured interviews allowed participants the opportunity to be forthcoming and detailed without fear of judgement. Open-ended questions were asked that were set initially and follow up questions were used when new information was introduced. Face to face and Skype interviews were conducted of each participant
Results: Five overarching themes were identified and included: applying knowledge to practice, instilling confidence, providing experience, maintaining relevancy, and faculty competence.
Conclusion: The conclusion of the study was that faculty had an understanding of what their role was in preparing students for practice but they differ in how each one teaches and the expectations and competency level between faculty was also different.
