Nursing Education Transformation: Promising Practices in Academic Progression

Health care has changed over the past decade; yet, nursing education has not kept pace with social and scientific advances. The Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, called for a more highly educated nursing work-force and an improved nursing education system. Since the release of that report, the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, and the AARP Foundation, has worked with nursing education leaders to better understand existing and evolving nursing education structures.

Through a consensus-building process, four overarching promising practice models, with an emphasis on seamless academic progression, emerged to advance the goals of education transformation.

Key nurse educators and other stakeholders refined those models through a series of meetings, collaborative partnerships, and focused projects that were held across the United States.

This article summarizes that process and provides a description of the models, challenges, common themes, recommendations, and progress to date.