Effective Dedicated Unit for Students' Practice: An Evidence Based Review

Effective Dedicated Unit for Students’ Practice: An Evidence Based Review

Preparing new nurses to practice independently and more important to practice safely has been a priority for nurse leaders in academics. The Institute of Medicine (2011) has recommended that nursing leaders improve how nurses are prepared and educated. The gap between classroom teaching and clinical teaching needs to be closed. Nursing leaders and Educators need to utilize the available resources and partnerships with health care facilities. The development of a dedicated education unit is one strategy to address this gap.

Clinical learning encompasses learning experiences that occur in an environment where healthcare is delivered. It also includes the development of critical thinking around experiences to help students uncover the link between theory and practice (NENZ/NETS, 2007).  According to Glazer, Erickson, Mylott, Mulready-Shick, & Banister (2011), creating a vision to engage in a partnership between academic and healthcare facilities would be the start of the process. Furthermore, the nurse leaders would agree to create a cross-institutions task force charged with examining the dedicated unit concept.  Although it will require roles’ adjustment from both parties in implementing the new designed dedicated unit module, there was no significant different in the care from client perspective (Castner, Ceravolo, Tomasov, & Mariano, 2012)

This poster presentation will illustrate a part of a collaborative project between PennState Mont Alto nursing program and a local hospital in development of a dedicated unit for pre-licensed nursing students’ practice.  Following the initial dialogues with nursing administrators at the local hospital, an evidence based review of literature was conducted to be a guideline for the dedicated unit creation. The PICO was used to identify the core elements for the project. A systematic review, suggested by the Johns Hopkins Evidence Based Model (Dearholt, & Dang, 2012) provides framework in this review. Results from the review will be proposed to the collaborative team for the dedicated unit pilot project. The results will assist in conceptualization an evidence based framework for creating an effective dedicated unit.  The framework will also be rendered in the poster in addition to the highlights from systematic review.