Dedicated education unit: nurse perspectives on their clinical teaching role.

AIM: The study compared the perceptions of nurses who participated in the clinical education of students using traditional and dedicated education unit (DEU) models. BACKGROUND: In the traditional model, faculty are the primary clinical instructors for students. In a DEU, nurses provide clinical instruction with faculty support. METHOD: This mixed-methods study used surveys and interviews. RESULTS: Compared to nurses on traditional units, DEU nurses were more likely to agree that their unit welcomed students, had a strong commitment to teaching, and received professional development from clinical faculty. The nurses rated the learning gains of students as greater on DEUs than traditional units and viewed the leadership of the nurse manager and the quality of patient care as similar. CONCLUSION: The study provides evidence that, from the nurses' perspective, the DEU faculty-nurse partnership provides students with superior clinical education experiences and may improve nurse work satisfaction.

Dedicated education unit: student perspectives.

AIM: The study compared students' perceptions of their clinical learning experiences in a dedicated education unit (DEU) with their experiences in traditional clinical education. BACKGROUND: Unlike traditional academic-instructor models, expert nurses in the DEU provide clinical education to students with faculty support. METHOD: This repeated measures design used student surveys, supplemented by focus group data. RESULTS: Students were more likely to agree that their clinical learning experience was high quality and they had a consistent mentoring relationship during DEU rotations. Students also reported the quality of the unit's learning environment, the leadership style of the nurse manager, and the nursing care on the unit was more favorable in DEUs than traditional units. Consistent with their changed role in DEUs, faculty members were less active in helping students integrate theory and practice. CONCLUSION: These findings provide additional evidence of the value that the DEU model contributes to high-quality clinical education.

Dedicated education unit: implementing an innovation in replication sites.

An important measure of an innovation is the ease of replication and achievement of the same positive outcomes. The dedicated education unit (DEU) clinical education model uses a collaborative academic-service partnership to develop an optimal learning environment for students. The University of Portland adapted this model from Flinders University, Australia, to increase the teaching capacity and quality of nursing education. This article identifies DEU implementation essentials and reports on the outcomes of two replication sites that received consultation support from the University of Portland. Program operation information, including education requirements for clinician instructors, types of patient care units, and clinical faculty-to-student ratios is presented. Case studies of the three programs suggest the DEU model is adaptable to a range of different clinical settings and continues to show promise as one strategy for addressing the nurse faculty shortage and strengthening academic-clinical collaborations while maintaining quality clinical education for students.