Dedicated Education Units: Partnerships that Promote Nursing Leadership Development

Recent recommendations for the development of nurse leaders at every level require that we examine how leadership competencies are most effectively developed in nurses.  Strategies for developing leadership skills in the baccalaureate nursing student include a strong academic foundation and the opportunity to apply classroom learning in the clinical setting.  The dedicated education unit (DEU) model, an academic-service partnership designed to more effectively prepare nursing students to transition into practice, has the potential for enhancing leadership competency development.  A mixed methods study was conducted to explore the relationship between clinical experience in a DEU and the demonstration of leadership behaviors in nursing students and their clinical instructors.  The quantitative strand used the Leadership Practices Inventory to measure leadership behaviors. The qualitative strand used a focus group design. The results of this mixed methods study suggest that the DEU experience contributed to the leadership development of undergraduate students.  While all students in the study showed measurable increases in the frequency of leadership behaviors, the increase in these behaviors was significantly greater in the DEU students.  These findings suggest that the DEU model includes design elements that more effectively support learning and application of certain leadership competencies.

The DEU model incorporates elements of a framework for nursing leadership competency development. There is evidence to suggest that models that incorporate three specific elements have the potential to generate increased leadership competency in nurses. The three elements include:  formal education that is relevant, evidence-based and delivered through optimal learning strategies, guided experiential learning, and the opportunity for application in a healthy, supportive learning and practice environment (Galuska, 2012, 2013a, and 2013b). The DEU model and other educational innovations that emerge from academic-service partnerships should be implemented, studied, and continually improved to optimize the educational preparation of future nurses to lead.