LAUSR

There is great emphasis on nurses and healthcare organizations to provide safe, quality care that is within nursing’s scope of practice. Patients expect competent nurses to care for them in times of need. Many healthcare organizations use established programs to ensure competency of novice nurses right out of school. Nurse residency programs (NRPs) or transition to practice programs provide some structure and support for newly licensed nurses (NLNs); however, many of these transition to practice programs are not standardized, thus leaving nursing professional development (NPD) practitioners at potential legal risk. It is imperative that NPD practitioners be knowledgeable about the legal risks of managing or coordinating a transition to practice program for novice nurses. Harper and Holy (2018) highlight general and specific transition to practice legal aspects in their text, Legal Aspects of Nursing Professional Development Practice. This columnwill review some of these aspects, such as responsibility to the learner, precepting, unstandardized program risks, hiring unlicensed nursing graduates, intellectual property, conflict of interest, and incivility.