Generation Y nurses born between 1980 and 2000 are expected to comprise 50% of the nursing workforce by 2020 (AHA, 2014). As retiring nurse leaders are replaced, it is critical to have a cadre of emerging leaders who are well prepared to assume these roles (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2014). Additionally, to meet the complex needs of patients in our rapidly changing healthcare system, nurses are expected to take on greater leadership roles (IOM, 2010). They must “be full partners on the health care team” and therefore need to practice and refine skills in interprofessional collaboration (IOM, 2015, p. 2). Routinely, students identify the need for increased face-to-face collaborative experiences throughout their nursing curriculum; however, in the clinical setting they are uncomfortable sharing their unique perspective with members of the interdisciplinary healthcare team. More opportunities are needed to develop the essential competency of collaboration as part of student nurses’ leadership skills. Skills of open and respectful communication with healthcare team members are best learned through coaching, practice, and self-reflection, and the use of standardized patient experiences can be an effective pedagogical strategy to provide such opportunity (MacLean, Kelly, Geddes, & Della, 2017).
Methods:
A web-based toolkit with integrated Standardized Patient Experiences (SPEs) was developed to enhance leadership concepts of interprofessional collaboration and ethical considerations in an end-of- life scenario. Initial implementation of this SPE was piloted as part of the clinical curriculum with second semester senior leadership students. This innovative approach to help students prepare for an interprofessional workplace incorporated several components into the toolkit to help engage students during their simulated activity. This included learning objectives, pre-and post-activity assignments, video vignettes utilizing standardized patients, activities to encourage practice and refinement of new skills, as well as a simulated SPE activity involving other members of the healthcare team. Resources were also provided to prepare educators to facilitate and debrief each student experience. Students and educators provided feedback focused on their SPE experience after each simulated activity for the purpose of process improvement.
Results:
Overall, summative feedback was extremely positive, with senior students and educators identifying benefits of using the toolkit earlier in the curriculum. In response to the feedback received, the interprofessional collaboration toolkit was concurrently utilized in the clinical curriculum with second-semester junior students. Student and educator feedback was collected after each simulated activity to determine if the junior level experience would be as valuable or advantageous as senior students identified. Feedback from junior level students and educators fully supported this curricular change with suggestions to include more SPEs throughout the curriculum focused on essential competencies that develop leadership skills.
Conclusion:
Use of the interprofessional collaboration toolkit is now fully transitioned into the junior level clinical curriculum. Students are gaining irreplaceable experience using this essential leadership competency earlier in the curriculum than originally anticipated. Integration of SPEs throughout the curriculum afford students increased confidence and experience to draw upon in future clinical settings.