Nursing education and transition to the work environment: a synthesis of national reports.

Over the past 10 years and longer, national entities have worked within their organizations and with coalitions of other stakeholders to address issues facing the nursing profession. As a part of this work, the current state of the educational system for preparation of nurses has been discussed, as well as the need for strategies to enhance nursing students' transition from the academic environment to the work environment. This article presents a review and synthesis of national reports published from 1995 to April 2005 that contain recommendations for nursing education and the transition of nurses to the work environment. Common themes and recommendations across reports are identified and reported. Educators and others can learn from the collective wisdom of previous work and use this information to aid in development of plans and policy initiatives for development of the future nursing educational infrastructure.