Leadership in Nursing Education: The Development of a University-Based, Interprofessional, Chronic Wound Clinic Model that Provides Clinical Leadership, Evidence-Based Healthcare and Excellence in Clinical Education

Many clinics develop as student placements across a variety of disciplines on university campuses usually run by students and facilitated by staff. This presentation describes our Wound Solutions Clinic Model, which is a different process of placement development and engagement. The Wound Solutions Clinic is a joint venture between the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and community care service provider Blue Care, in Queensland, Australia. The clinic is staffed by an interprofessional team of Blue Care employees. It is located on the university campus and provides educational placements for USC nursing, occupational therapy, nutrition and exercise physiology students.  In other models, campus-based clinics are managed by university faculty and students. Clinical leadership and responsibility for clinical expertise reside with the service provider (Blue Care) while the university partners with Blue Care to provide clinical placements and cutting edge research into wound healing and management. The objectives of the clinic development were to: increase the number of nursing and allied health student placements in the community; provide high quality learning experiences in a supportive inter-professional environment; improve patient outcomes; establish an interprofessional research community and contribute to the University commitment to community engagement. Aspects of academic and clinical leadership that have ensured the sustainability of this joint venture and data examples from the evaluation project that have been collected from client and student feedback will be presented in detail. This model aims to provide excellent local clinical care and student educational experience  but also through the healthcare provider/university partnership it seeks to transform regional approaches to clinical education and provide robust clinical trial evidence to support the healing and management of chronic wounds globally.