Standardizing Clinical Placement Education for Prelicensure Nursing Students

Background: Meeting clinical compliance requirements established by federal, state, and accrediting bodies for prelicensure nursing students entering health care organizations is a complex, resource-intensive process, which, if done incorrectly, can result in serious consequences for nursing programs and health care institutions. Problem: Although the clinical compliance preparation requirements are similar for each hospital, each institution requires students to complete their education materials, resulting in unnecessary repetitive training and time lost gaining valuable clinical experience. Approach: Academic and hospital leaders implemented a statewide, standardized prelicensure nursing compliance program accessed by nursing programs through a repository for students to complete before their first clinical experience and then annually. Outcomes: Eighty-eight percent (N = 24/27) of prelicensure nursing programs and all acute care (N = 41) and 5 specialty care hospitals have adopted this model. Conclusions: Standardization ensures consistent learning and reduces inefficiencies by streamlining compliance processes and operations, resulting in saving time, resources, and money.