The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing has launched an innovative model that will better prepare students once they graduate, help reduce the nursing shortage, and benefit hospital staff nurses and nurse faculty.
The dedicated education unit, which is the first of its kind in Nebraska, is used in some areas on the east and west coasts. The project is funded by a $833,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
The new model enlists the help of hospital staff nurses as clinical staff instructors who will mentor and supervise two students in the hospital. In traditional clinical education experiences, one faculty member supervises eight students.
“This offers students a much stronger clinical education,” said Louise LaFramboise, Ph.D., project director of the grant and director of the UNMC College of Nursing baccalaureate program. “Students will receive more knowledge, experience and confidence in patient care and their nursing role by having more ready access to the instructor and more learning opportunities.”
UNMC nursing faculty in Omaha and The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC’s hospital partner, kicked off the project this month. The project also will be launched this fall at Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln. Plans are in the works for other hospitals across Nebraska.
The grant will enroll 16 additional students in the accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing program and will ultimately expand into the traditional bachelor’s in nursing program.
Dr. LaFramboise said the model also will enable clinical staff to further cultivate their development as mentors for new hospital nurses. “Our job as faculty will be to provide the academic mentoring and feedback to clinical staff instructors,” she said.
One student who participated in the pilot project described the experience as being in a “cocoon” of education. “The student found a greater learning experience since she had more time to interact with patients, the clinical staff instructor and other health care providers,” Dr. LaFramboise said.
She said one of the benefits to clinical staff instructors who like to teach is they can teach without having to get a master’s degree or work as a full-time faculty member. Instructors also can apply two free credit hours for select graduate courses whether or not they are enrolled in UNMC’s master’s in nursing program.
The grant brings to six the number of active, externally funded training grants underway at the College of Nursing.
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