Establishment of a standard definition of practice readiness: Academia's vs practices' registered nurses perceptions related to new graduate nurse competencies within Alberta, Canada

The following study examined the relationship between how registered nurses in academia and practice defined practice readiness related to new graduate nurses. The Theory of Transition as described by Boychuck Duscher in her 2008 article, A Process of Becoming: The Stages of New Nursing Graduate Professional Role Transition provided a framework to examine the process of shifting from academia to practice to better identify the preparation-to-practice gap faced by new graduate nurses. A quantitative research design was used to examine this relationship. Expectations and perceptions of the competency level of new graduate nurses was measured using a modified Internet survey based on Berkow, Virkstis, Stewart, and Conway's 2008 survey Preparing Nursing Next Generation: Survey for Hospital Nurse Leaders prepared by the Nursing Executive Link. Findings showed a significant difference in expectations and perceptions between academia and practice within particular performance based competencies. Overall both groups rated new graduates within an acceptable level of performance. No significant differences were noted between academia and practice in the overall ranking, which is contradictory to the extant literature. While the generalizability of this study is limited due to the small sampling size and the context of the current educational and healthcare systems, it does add to the current body of knowledge in understanding registered nurses expectations of new graduate nurses which contribute to defining practice readiness..