| Learning Objective #1: Appraise the diffusion possibilities of the Magnet Nursing Service Recognition Program through service learning partnerships between schools of nursing and hospitals | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Discuss the costs and benefits of experiential learning in clinical nursing education and practice |
Hospitals continue to be the focal point of healthcare delivery in most countries and the site of comprehensive quality efforts. One international effort to enhance quality is the Magnet Nursing Services Recognition Program (MNSRP), a systematic approach to assessing hospital work environments and patient outcomes. Despite the scholarly research demonstrating the benefits of MNSRP designation, only 51 hospitals across the United States have been successful in achieving Magnet designation. Teaching Nursing Administration Masters students about MNSRP broadens their perspective on international quality initiatives. The opportunity to participate in a simulated MNSRP application is a natural extension of the experiential nature of problem-based learning, the teaching method used in the Nursing Administration MSN program. The MNSRP mock application experience is considered a service-learning project because the semester-long group project has explicit learning objectives and involves partnering with a community hospital, analyzing "real world" data, and writing and defending the application at the hospital in the presence of the hospital's chief nurse and nurse managers. Later students write answers to an open-ended reflection tool, and subsequently engage in a group debriefing session with the faculty. This presentation will describe the qualitative analysis of 25 Masters students' written reflections based on three different MNSRP group projects conducted over three different semesters in three different hospitals. Categories from preliminary data analysis are: recognition of MNSRP complexity, insights into hospital's obligations to internal and external stakeholders, lessons from chief nurse's leadership for their own leadership development, attitudes and feelings about the group project, and a sense of self and personal core values in relation to contemporary Nursing Administration. The findings will be interpreted in relation to several contexts: project and course objectives, Masters program competencies, the school of nursing's engagement in service-learning, and community-campus partnerships for health. Implications and recommendations will be delineated.
Back to Partners in Service Learning
Back to 37th Biennial Convention - Clinical Sessions
Sigma Theta Tau International