The clinical practice developmental model: the transition process

The authors report their hospital's experience in replicating Benner's novice-to-expert clinical nursing practice model, called the Clinical Practice Developmental Model. The authors describe the outcomes of an exploratory, qualitative study conducted to understand staff nurses' perceptions of their transition experience from a traditional clinical ladder for advancement and recognition to the theoretically based clinical practice developmental model. The findings of this study identify critical factors that influenced nurses' perceptions and describe positive and negative outcomes of transition. Specific recommendations to facilitate organizational changes for the nurse executive and the individual nurse are discussed.