Closing the Academic-Practice Gap

As academic educators, nurses in clinical organizations, and regulatory agencies, we know that our newly licensed nurses are many times unprepared for the reality of nursing practice. This phenomenon is known by a few names-the academic-practice gap or the theory-practice gap. 5,6 An international community of concerned nurses from academia, accreditation, regulation, practice, and industry decided to take action to focus on the academic-practice gap in nursing to improve practice readiness to meet the challenges of practice, decrease cognitive and affective burdens as they enter the profession, and empower nursing students and newly licensed nurses in their clinical practice of nursing. Hence, the International Consortium for Outcomes in Nursing Education (ICONEd) was established in January 2022. The purpose of this article is to describe the creation, vision, mission, and strategic plan to advance the work to narrow the academic-practice gap.