National Faculty and Staff Nurse Survey on Collaboration in the Clinical Learning Environment

Background: Evidence from the literature suggests that the responsibility of educating future nurses needs to be fulfilled in a myriad of ways within the clinical setting. Contributions to student learning from both the nursing faculty member and the staff nurse are equally important. Each professional possesses a body of knowledge that is essential to student learning. The ability of the staff nurse and faculty member to work collaboratively is a necessity. All endeavors to promote student learning in the clinical setting are dependent on the collaboration between clinical and teaching staff. Collaboration has been emphasized for many years in the clinical learning environment, yet the construct has never been successfully operationalized. Concern for this issue dates back to the First Position on Education for Nursing which states that “Educating nurses and providing patients with care can only be carried out when nurses in education recognize their interdependence and actively collaborate to achieve the ultimate aim of both”

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the concept of collaboration among nursing faculty members and staff nurses in the clinical learning environment. The literature clearly identifies the benefits of collaboration and the positive impact this has on student learning. Unfortunately, the literature is not up to date and this issue has not been researched in regards to what is currently happening or ways to improve collaboration in the clinical learning environment.

Methods: The design for the study was a non-experimental, descriptive design. Participants included (1) registered nurses and nursing faculty members who practice or teach in a clinical setting and work with nursing students (e.g., medical-surgical, telemetry, maternity, psychiatric, community, rehabilitation and long term care facilities), (2) are able to read and understand English, and (3) willing to participate in research and complete the Qualtrics survey. Quantitative data was collected from 882 participants using an online Qualtrics survey. IRB approval was obtained through XX and the participants acknowledged an online informed consent form prior to filling out the survey. The scale titled Collaboration in the Clinical Learning Environment (CCLE) was developed by the researcher to measure the perception of collaboration between staff nurses and nursing faculty members in the clinical learning environment. Initial reliability testing was done on the 24-item CCLE, which confirmed a Cronbach’s alpha of .97

Results: The participants were broken into three groups: 1) staff nurses, 2) nursing faculty members, and 3) nurses who teach and practice. There were responses from 320 staff nurses, 454 nursing faculty (389 full time and 65 clinical adjuncts) and 108 who work in both academia and practice concurrently. The last group of 108 nurses were comprised of full time staff nurses who teach clinical as an adjunct, full time faculty who also work as per diem staff nurses and nurses who hold full time jobs in non-direct care nursing in addition to teaching clinicals. There were statements on the survey that were statistically insignificant (p > .05) because they were so closely scored between the two groups. However multiple items showed statistical significant (p <. 05) differences when comparing the two groups (nursing faculty members and staff nurses) are presented below.

Conclusions: This study supports the idea that both academia and practice professionals wish to work together, but often have a different understanding of the other side. The number one priority on the clinical units will always be patient care, but student learning should also be a priority.