Background: A primary concern in health care is safe delivery of care. The nursing care plan (NCP) is the foundation for safe delivery of health care. There is evidence that new graduate nurses are lacking in this skill. Graduates report their insecurity in delivery of safe care. The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals, 2013 notes the need for standardization of health care. Foreground: The graduate nurses have for some time been reporting in their post-graduation surveys that the lack of consistency in the grading of NCPs has been a stressful, anxiety provoking and confusing experience for them. They report feeling insecure in their ability to provide safe care, and have felt this issue has kept them from experiencing a smooth transition into the workforce. This impacts the faculty’s goal of preparing the students to succeed. EBP Framework: The PICO framework was used along with Lewin’s Model of Change. The Pico framework was use to describe the target population, the interventions, the comparison maneuver and the outcome. Lewin’s theory of change was used because of his three stages of change – freeze, unfreeze, refreeze. Methods: The Project Director (PD) conducted private and individual interviews with the faculty using the grading rubric as the interview tool, review of the interview results by the PD, presenting an instructional module on the use of the grading rubric and proposed change, and asking the faculty to grade the same NCP using the information received during the presentation. The PD reviewed the graded NCPs, and submitted for statistical analysis. Findings/Results: The findings/results were faculty did not grade the NCP in a consistent or similar manner. The statistical analysis showed the grading rubric to not be reliable or valid. Conclusion/Recommendations: There is a need for standardization of faculty education as relates to NCP writing and grading, and a reliable grading rubric.
