Teri A. Murray

Building bridges: an innovative academic-service partnership.

Academic and service entities can create sustainable models of collaboration that realign relationships and resources to enhance the critical competencies essential for entry into practice. Our hospital and school collaborated to implement an innovative academic-service partnership model in which the academic and the care delivery enterprises intersected to accomplish goals of mutual interest and enhance and enrich the practice environment. Two existing resources-the staff nurse and faculty-were used to realign the educational process with the realities of nursing practice in an interpretive, contextual, live unfolding clinical environment that was relevant and memorable. The students were better integrated into the clinical operations and showed increased levels of critical thinking, clinical decision-making, and clinical inquiry skills. The model holds promise to improve transition to practice, make better use of existing resources, and foster collaborative relationships among the academic, practice, and regulatory enterprises.

AN ACADEMIC SERVICE PARTNERSHIP TO EXPAND CAPACITY: WHAT DID WE LEARN?

This article highlights the educational needs that emerged when an academic institution and a hospital partnered to produce more nurses in response to the registered nurse shortage. The partnership proposed to offer quality clinical experiences for students by having the hospital-paid nurse clinicians serve as faculty. This would enable the academic partner to increase enrollment amid limited faculty resources. The qualitative feedback received may prove useful in (1) guiding the professional development activities of future nurse clinicians who participate in education-service partnerships to expand educational capacity; (2) assisting academic nursing program administrators and faculty to expand capacity without compromising quality; and (3) assisting hospital nurse administrators to weigh risks and returns to pursue mutually beneficial outcomes.

Using Role Theory Concepts to Understand Transitions from Hospital-Based Nursing Practice to Home Care Nursing.

BACKGROUND The phenomena experienced by professional nurses who make practice-based career changes are seldom addressed in the literature. Nurses changing from a hospital-based practice to a home health care setting report feelings of anxiety, incompetency, and lack of the necessary skills to care for clients in the home. METHOD An integrative review of the literature on role theory can provide the conceptual understanding of the transitional experience of nurses whose roles change when they move from hospital-based practice to a home health care setting. RESULTS A model of the role transition process is helpful in identifying the transition experienced by nurses new to the home health care setting. Experiences during the initial transition period are critical in shaping the nurses understanding of the role. CONCLUSION Educators can play a key part in assisting novice home health care nurses with role enactment by developing comprehensive orientation and education programs aimed at minimizing role strain.

Common themes in clinical education partnerships.

The concurrent nursing and faculty shortages continue to be critical issues for the nations health care system. As academic nursing programs struggle with maintaining and increasing enrollment in the midst of a faculty shortage, one solution is to expand the facultys capacity through innovative academic-service partnerships. Schools and clinical partners identified as having implemented innovative partnerships were invited to participate in this descriptive study. Site visitations to schools in Florida and Texas were conducted to gain in-depth knowledge of the clinical education model, the academic-service partnership, and the strengths and challenges associated with planning, implementing, and sustaining programs. Four underlying features were common across the successful implementation: supportive relationships, goodness of fit, flexibility, and communication. Consideration of the four features will be useful as nursing programs and their clinical partners are developing, implementing, and evaluating new models for increasing educational capacity and lessening the nursing shortage.

Evaluation of an academic service partnership using a strategic alliance framework

Strategic alliances involve the sharing of resources to achieve mutually relevant benefits and they are flexible ways to access resources outside of ones own institution. The recent landmark report from the Institute of Medicine, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, called for academic and health care organizations to strategically align around the future registered nurse workforce to improve the quality and safety of patient care. The dedicated education unit (DEU) is one practical way for 2 entities to align so that students can learn to administer safe, quality care. Because DEUs have great potential, it is critical to evaluate the alignment between the academic and service partner for appropriate fit, mutual benefit, and long-term success. In this article, we analyze the effectiveness of the Saint Louis University School of Nursing (SLUSON) and Mercy Hospital, St. Louis (MHSL) DEU project, an alliance between a medical center and school of nursing, using the Single Alliance Key Success Model.

A Community-Wide Academic-Service Partnership to Expand Faculty and Student Capacity

This article describes a unique academic-service community collaborative aimed at increasing student and faculty capacity. The state hospital association held a series of community-wide meetings with health care organization and academic leaders to discuss the growing RN and faculty shortages. Collectively, schools of nursing experienced a 70% increase in qualified applicants and could not admit all qualified applicants due to faculty constraints. A unique Workforce Collaborative Pilot Project was formed to address student and faculty capacity issues with three primary objectives: expand the pool of educators involved in preparing the next generation of nurses, increase nursing school enrollments by 335 additional nursing students each year in the metropolitan area for the next 5 years, and implement an innovative educational model that could be sustained or replicated. As a result, area schools of nursing have expanded enrollment by 1,046, and overall quality measurements and evaluative feedback remain positive.

Innovations in Nursing Education: The State of the Art

This article provides an overview of the innovative pedagogic practices in nursing education published between 2009 and 2012. Four distinct categories emerged from the literature review: calls to action for reform or educational redesign; the use of technology; partnerships; and innovative curricular, clinical, and classroom teaching strategies. The publications provide clear evidence of the high capacity for creativity and innovation in nursing education.

Role orientation in novice home healthcare nurses.

The focus of healthcare delivery continues to shift from hospital-based nursing practice to care in the community, which includes home health care. Many basic nursing education programs provide home healthcare clinical experiences for students. However, this may not be enough to assist nurses in achieving home health nursing competency. Most nurses recruited into home health care worked exclusively in hospitals. Many nurses are employed in a practice environment for which they lack the necessary education and skills. As the practice environment for the nurse changes, so does the role of the nurse. Nurses are having difficulty adjusting to changing roles and responsibilities. This cross-sectional research study was conducted to evaluate the extent that new home healthcare nurses understand their role. This study reveals that nurses employed in home health care for 24 months or less continue to have only a moderate degree of understanding of their new role. These data suggest that educators critically evaluate the effectiveness of orientation programs for novice home healthcare nurses.

Innovation in nursing education: which trends should you adopt?

The author identifies trends that challenge the status quo in academic nursing education. She further provides a theoretical framework that can be used by nursing program administrators to determine the potential adoptability of the trend in nursing education programs. Leader behaviors that are crucial in leading and managing change are highlighted.

Factors That Promote and Impede the Academic Success of African American Students in Prelicensure Nursing Education: An Integrative Review.

BACKGROUND The aim of this review is to identify factors that impact the academic success of African American nursing students in prelicensure nursing education programs, given the need for RN health care workers to be more reflective of the general U.S. METHOD A literature review was conducted to integrate the findings of the research related to African American nursing students in entry-level nursing programs to identify perceived barriers and supports to their retention and graduation. RESULTS The review revealed alienation, isolation, and being different as barriers to success. Academic support, mentoring, and integration and inclusivity were factors that helped promote success. CONCLUSION Recommendations for the establishment of diversity and inclusivity plans, structured enrichment and academic support services, mentorship, and activities that fostered student engagement and integration were actions that could contribute to the academic success of African American nursing students.