ANPD’s Implementation Committee members are excited to introduce a bright, shiny, updated Environmental Scanning Toolkit! Get a behind-the-scenes peek from three committee members as they share their experiences volunteering on the committee and using this valuable ANPD product.

Download and print the Environmental Scanning Toolkit flyer to post in your NPD setting and provide quick access to this useful resource by scanning the QR code.

Lillian Jensen, MN, RN, CNL, NPD-BC

Early last year while listening to Adam Grant’s Podcast “Worklife,” I heard the concept of a “fail quota.” The idea is to deliberately set a goal each year for a number of projects that will be unsuccessful. The thought is if you are succeeding at everything you do, you are missing out on experiences that can move both you and your organization forward to achieve big risk, big reward moments and help push you out of your comfort zone and into something exciting!

The fail quota can also help to lessen the blow for perfectionist types that struggle with the big “F” word — failure. As a nursing professional development (NPD) specialist for five years, I struggle with perfectionism, as many NPD practitioners do, and failing certainly puts us in an uncomfortable realm. This podcast came right on the heels of the ANPD Soundbites podcast episode, NPD Forecast: Getting Involved with ANPD. “All right,” I thought, “this is it!” It’s my time to go outside my comfort zone and massively fail by putting in my name to join an ANPD committee for the first time. Instead of failing, much to my astonishment, I was contacted to be a part of the Implementation Committee. While I wasn’t entirely sure if this meant I was failing at failing or just having a moment of success, I put that aside and happily accepted.

One of the first items I worked on with the committee was updating the Environmental Scanning Toolkit. This toolkit is a robust list of internal and external websites and resources for your professional development or nursing education needs. Thanks to the input of the 2022 Implementation Committee, I’m excited to share that the Toolkit takes on a more visual and user-friendly look this year. Additionally, you’ll easily be able to filter by NPD role or category and quickly peruse various sources. It took me a year or two when I was first starting as an NPD practitioner to become more familiar with these resources. Even today as an expert, there were a few that were new to me. So, whether you are just starting or are seasoned in the NPD specialty, check out this free tool.

I have enjoyed spending time with committee colleagues and love experiencing different perspectives. I also enjoy having an active role in renewing ANPD products I’ve used in the past. Enjoy the new Environmental Scanning Toolkit, and maybe start your own fail quota. You never know where it might lead you!

Dawn M. Nelson, MS, RN, NPD-BC

I have spent the last 12 years as an NPD practitioner, and I have found great value in using environmental scanning to forecast trends and inform my NPD practice. I currently coordinate preceptor and mentorship programs at a large academic multisite medical center. The current healthcare environment has presented many challenges to NPD practitioners, including increased novice nurse turnover, experienced nurses retiring, and the experience complexity gap. The ANPD Environmental Scanning Toolkit provides resources that outline these challenges, contributing factors, and strategies to address them. As I moved quickly to adjust my programs to address these issues and those created by the COVID-19 pandemic, I referenced several tools included in the Environmental Scanning Toolkit to identify effective, evidence-based strategies to transform my programs.  

One resource from ANPD’s Environmental Scanning Toolkit I’ve found very useful is the Advisory Board’s “Win Millennials’ Loyalty” research report. A specific strategy from this report we employed was the use of “Professional Mentor Corps.” We used this strategy’s concepts to support implementing a group mentorship program for novice nurses. By grouping novice nurses in cohorts of three to five mentees per experienced mentor, we were better able to efficiently use resources. In addition, the mentees had built-in peer support, learned from each other, and received needed post-orientation support to become confident and competent practitioners. Additionally, mentors reported professional growth, job satisfaction, and increased employee engagement. Early outcomes demonstrate strong potential for this strategy to impact retention and address the experience complexity gap. Another Advisory Board resource from ANPD’s Environmental Scanning Toolkit that I frequently reference is the “Experience-Complexity Gap” research report. This highlights the importance of fiercely scoping the content we provide novices in their initial months of practice, spreading out needed content over a longer time period, and standardizing preceptor-taught content. Post-orientation novice nurse group mentoring allows mastery of essential nursing role components in the first few months, adding more specialty-specific content later in the group mentoring program. Additionally, we created “Orientation Toolkits” which are teaching guides for preceptors on common orientation topics such as medication administration, infection prevention, and safe patient handling. Preceptor use of the toolkits ensures that all novice nurses garner the same knowledge regardless of the preceptor's experience.

I highly recommend using the Environmental Scanning Toolkit to assist with forecasting trends and identifying evidence-based and practical implementation strategies.

Lyndsay Goss, DNP, RN, CNE, NPD-BC

I have been an NPD practitioner for almost six years at a higher education institution. Creating robust content for both nurse educators and front-line nurses, our team relies on many inputs to understand which topics best serve our profession. We frequently step out of our organization to conduct an environmental scan to understand needs in the community and clinical settings.

The Environmental Scanning Toolkit has been a source of great information. The variety of Toolkit resources has assisted us in developing relevant educational content for our learners. It has ensured our content is evidence-based and addresses a current practice gap. In 2022, the resources in the toolkit assisted us to plan our calendar of educational events for 2023.

I joined the Implementation Committee in 2021 and have now had the privilege of reviewing the Environmental Scanning Toolkit two years in a row. I’m so excited with how it turned out this year and hope you find it useful too!