Centering the Concept of Transitional Care: A Teaching–Learning Innovation

Abstract

Coordination of care, including the provision of safe and effective transitions, is a core professional standard for nurses. However, as currently designed, prelicensure nursing education prepares nurses to function in discrete settings rather than across settings. A teaching-learning innovation focusing on transitional care was implemented as an educational pilot project with 20 senior-level baccalaureate students in their leadership course. Students in the educational pilot immersed in the subject of transitional care via concept-based learning activities and performance improvement projects. During the course, students were assigned to designated clinical sites representative of a continuum of care. An integrated clinical postconference offered students the opportunity to discover the role of the nurse in transitional care from a systems perspective and facilitated a deeper understanding of the subject that extended beyond the walls of students' discrete clinical sites.