​The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), and eight other professional nursing organizations have endorsed a proposed model of practice- academic partnerships between hospitals and pre-licensure nursing students. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has developed a video to explain the partnership. The partnership would allow students to work as paid employees, supporting nursing services in hospitals and healthcare systems in this time of crisis while earning academic credits and gaining clinical experience. In the practice/academic partnership model, nursing students, whose skills and progress would be monitored and evaluated by a faculty member, would have opportunities to learn about emergency management, population health and interdisciplinary teams.

Benefits

This opportunity will not only provide much needed clinical education to assist in meeting program requirements, it is an unparalleled opportunity for nursing students to assist the nation in a time of crisis and learn the principles of population health and emergency management. This academic-practice model demonstrates that in the midst of a periling disruption in the environment, such as COVID-19, continuous innovation can occur.

Recommendations

1. Health care facilities and nursing programs are encouraged to promulgate plans to take advantage of this opportunity and make every effort to reach out to eligible nursing students and inform them of the opportunity.
2. Health care facilities and nursing programs are encouraged to collaborate to identify ways to accomplish appropriate faculty supervision of the nursing student-employee to achieve the final learning outcomes of the nursing program. For example, the health care facility could hire the nursing program faculty to oversee the nursing student-employee, the nursing program faculty could hold joint appointment by the college/university/school and the health care facility, or the health care facility-employed preceptors could oversee the nursing student-employee with nursing program faculty oversight.
3. Nursing program leaders/faculty are encouraged to work with health care facility representatives to align clinical skills and competencies with the nursing student-employee work role/responsibilities.
4. Nursing student-employees must have planned clinical practice experiences that enable the students to attain new knowledge and demonstrate achievement of the final learning outcomes of the nursing program.
5. Nursing programs should consult with their State Board of Nursing to ensure clinical requirement regulations would be met with this opportunity and experience.
6. Nursing programs are responsible for informing nursing students of the risks and responsibilities associated with working in a health care facility at this time. ​Additionally, nursing programs are responsible for communicating with students about their rights to be protected from infection and their options for completing the clinical practice requirements of the nursing program.

Endorsement

• NATIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE BOARDS OF NURSING (NCSBN)
• NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR NURSING (NLN)
• AMERICAN ORGANIZATION FOR NURSING LEADERSHIP (AONL)
• ACCREDITATION COMMISSION FOR EDUCATION IN NURSING, INC (ACEN)
• ORGANIZATION FOR ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING (OADN)
• NLN COMMISSION FOR NURSING EDUCATION ACCREDITATION (CNEA)
• AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES OF NURSING (AACN)
• COMMISSION ON COLLEGIATE NURSING EDUCATION (CCNE)
• AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION (ANA)

Excerpted from AONL (American Organization for Nursing Leadership).

Additional information available here:

Policy brief: U.S. nursing leadership supports practice/academic partnerships to assist the nursing workforce during the COVID-19 (2020).

Practice/academic partnership: One answer to prelicensure clinical placements during COVID-19. (July 2020). Leader to Leader (special issue).

Chenot, T.M. & Christopher, R. (2019). A statewide initiative integrating quality and safety education for nurses (QSEN) through academic-clinical partnerships to improve health outcomes. Journal of Professional Nursing, 35, 282-292.

Sebastian, J.G., Breslin, E.T., Trautman, D., Cary, A., Rosseter, R.J. & Vlahov, D. (2018). Leadership by collaboration: Nursing's bold vision for academic-practice partnerships. Journal of Professional Nursing.34, 110-116.

Kelly, U., Abraham, C., Muirhead, L. & Shapiro, S.E. (2018). Growing a robust academic practice partnership in an academic health system. Nursing Administration Quality. 42(4), 331-342.

Latest Research in Nursing Education

NSP II supports research in nursing education and encourages all principal investigators or project directors of funded NSP II grants and faculty awarded fellowships, grants and scholarships to engage in and disseminate their research findings.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) started with the question, “Are there other evidence-based metrics that individually or together might amend or replace the current regulatory standards in each state?" (Spector et al, 2020). In 2017, the NCSBN began a three-year research agenda to answer this question. The research study was published in the Nursing Journal of Regulation in July, 2020. There were certain quality indicators and warning signs of nursing programs in trouble, which are detailed in the study.

Spector, N., Silvestre, J., Alexander, M., Martin, B, Hooper, J., Squires, A., Ojemeni, M. (2020) NCSBN regulatory guidelines and evidence-based quality indicators for nursing education programs. Journal of Nursing Regulation. July. 11(2) S1-S64.

Advance emphasizes grant programs - RN-BSN, RN-MSN (HSLM), and Health Services Leadership & Management MSN specialty - and highlights grant partnership activities, academic information important to our participating students and hospital-based education coordinators, and accomplishments of nursing staff who are in our academic programs.

Maryland Nurse Residency Academic Credit Toolkit

According to CCNE (2015), Nurse residency programs (NRPs) are: “a series of learning experiences that occur continuously over a minimum of 12 months through a collaborative partnership between a healthcare organization and one or more academic nursing programs. They serve to foster the process of professional role socialization, which involves the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and roles associated with the practice of a profession. Nurse residency programs involve a two-staged process: role transition and role integration. The transition phase bridges the gap between academia and practice and focuses on skill competency through situated learning and guided practice by a more experienced nurse (preceptor). The role integration phase involves development of competent, autonomous practice, assimilation into the work group, and demonstration of a professional identity by taking on the norms and values of the nursing profession" (p.5). NRPs facilitate the transition of the newly licensed registered nurses (NLRNs) from advanced beginners to competent professional nurses. NLRNs develop clinical leadership skills; gain effective clinical reasoning skills and performance; incorporate the best available research evidence into practice; practice collaboratively with the interprofessional healthcare team members; and create an individual career plan for life-long commitment to professional nursing (CCNE, 2015)(Jenkins, et al., 2018, pg. 9 & 10).

Jenkins, L. ,Warren, J. & Martin, K. (2018). Academic Credit for Nurse Residency Program Completion Toolkit*, accessed at
https://nursesupport.org/assets/files/1/files/nspii/academic-credit-for-nurse-residency-program-completion-toolkit.pdf​