Transition Into Practice for Nursing Professional Development Specialists: A Pilot Program.

Novice nursing professional development practitioners lack the experience and confidence needed to be successful in their new role. A large, multistate healthcare system implemented a facilitated, virtual nursing professional development fellowship program intended to bridge the gap by providing learning integrated with current practice, support, and community. An initial pilot of the program led to curriculum adjustments, resulting in a 6-month program that has demonstrated a positive impact on self-assessed learning gains.

Preparing Nursing Professional Development Practitioners for Virtual Facilitation.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid transition from teaching in person to teaching in a virtual environment, which forced many nursing professional development practitioners unfamiliar with this methodology to quickly adapt and acquire new skills. This article describes a course created to ease nursing professional development practitioners' transition who suddenly found themselves teaching in this unfamiliar environment. The process described may be useful for other organizations transitioning to teaching in a virtual environment.

Beyond the Chemotherapy Certificate: Building a Knowledge Base Virtually for Oncology Nursing Practice Across a Health System.

In a 51-hospital system serving seven states in the western United States, an organizational assessment in 2016 indicated critical staff shortages in one region for chemotherapy and immunotherapy-trained nurses. Leadership across the system was also concerned about nurse retention and turnover rates. Oncology nursing professional development practitioners designed and implemented a new multimodal oncology curriculum that utilizes a flipped classroom technique. Results indicate that first-year turnover rates were lower in nurses who participated. Healthcare systems are encouraged to invest in organizational infrastructure to implement nurse transition into practice programs to prepare, sustain, and stimulate specialization in oncology nursing.