JOURNEY OF CHANGE - BUILDING A BRIDGE BETWEEN NEONATAL NURSING-EDUCATION AND PRACTICE

Faculty of a post-basic registered nurse preparation neonatal intensiv e care nursing education program in Canada questioned how well student s' knowledge equipped them to handle the demands of the clinical setti ng. The response to their inquiry prompted the abandonment of traditio nal teaching approaches and laid the foundation for a modification of the curriculum. The faculty developed a novel way of looking at the pr ogram's content, so that it centered on the needs of the neonate. The article introduces a unique neonatal nursing framework and explains ho w this framework fits with neonatal nursing education and neonatal nur sing. This framework has potential usefulness for inservice, orientati on, and outreach programs.