The Competency/Outcomes Model: Advancing Academic Progression.

Aim: This article describes the Competency Model (CM) as a promising curriculum framework to foster academic progression from the associate to the baccalaureate degree in nursing.

Background: The CM was identified by the Center to Champion Nursing in America as one of four seamless nursing academic progression models to streamline nursing academic progression. It is built on a foundation of authentic collaboration between education and practice partners to develop and maintain explicit, current, practice-relevant nursing education outcomes.

Continuing the Creativity and Connections: The Massachusetts Initiative to Update the Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies.

Aim: This article describes the collaborative effort of nursing education and practice to update the Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies.

Background: The Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies were published in 2010. With the establishment of the Massachusetts Action Coalition, a primary goal was to continue to promote the integration of these competencies into all education and practice settings throughout Massachusetts and share this process with other states.

Shared Curriculum Model: A Promising Practice for Education Transformation.

Background: The shared curriculum model is one of four successful models of academic progression identified through a consensus-building process facilitated by The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, and the AARP Foundation.

Method: Seamless academic progression from the associate degree in nursing (ADN) to the baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN) is achieved either by simultaneously revising both ADN and BSN curricula or by making targeted adjustments in ADN or BSN curricula to create a unified academic progression. Systematic vetting and definitive agreement on nursing prerequisites and corequisites, general education courses, nursing major content, and general degree requirements are necessary to ensure coordinated degree progression.

Nursing Education Transformation: Promising Practices in Academic Progression.

Background: 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.

Primary care nurse practitioner clinical education: challenges and opportunities.

The Institute of Medicine report and the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act present significant opportunities for the nursing profession. As the largest group of primary care providers, nurse practitioners are the critical element in the provision of comprehensive primary care, and a critical element to the success of the redesigned health care system. Nurse practitioners can bridge the gap between coverage and access and provide the patient-centered innovative approaches needed.

Creativity and connections: the future of nursing education and practice: the Massachusetts Initiative.

Education and practice partnerships are key to effective academic program design and implementation in a time of decreasing supply and increasing demands on the nursing profession. An integrated education/practice competency model can positively impact patient safety, improve patient care, increase retention, and ensure a sufficient and competent nursing workforce, which is paramount to survival of the health care system. Through the contributions of nursing leaders from the broad spectrum of nursing and industry organizations within the state, the Massachusetts Nurse of the Future project developed a competency-based framework for the future design of nursing educational programs to meet current and future practice needs.