Out With the Old, In With the New, It Is the DEU (Dedicated Education Unit)

The Institute of Medicine’s report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2010) states that “the ways in which nurses were educated in the 20^th century are no longer adequate for dealing with the realities of healthcare in the 21st century”. The IOM report recommends that nurse faculty critically examine the structures and processes for clinical education and to consider the extent to which current clinical experiences are preparing students for future practice. The AACN 2010-2011 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing reports that thousands of qualified applicants are turned away due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints. These reports challenge educators and service providers to seek models of clinical learning that meet the goals of the academic unit and the care and concerns of the practice setting, resulting in optimized patient outcomes.

One model that has been shown to support education of nurses that are perceived to be “employment ready” is through the establishment of a model, school-specific dedicated education unit (DEU). Working together is a hallmark of nursing. Both education and practice have tremendous strengths and resources to bring to the healthcare environment. The aim of this presentation is to describe the development of a partnership between a major academic tertiary care medical center and the department of nursing at a large, public university to create a Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) in order to provide maximal achievement of student learning outcomes grounded in current clinical reality.

Academia and service providers are being challenged by both the IOM and AACN to critically examine the structures and processes for clinical education and consider the extent to which current experiences are preparing students for future practice. This presentation will describe the development of an academic-practice partnership resulting in the implementation of a Dedicated Education Unit to provide maximal achievement of student learning outcomes grounded in current clinical reality.