Dedicated education units: 2. An evaluation

This paper reports on an evaluation of a new concept in clinical nurse education: the Dedicated Education Unit (DEU). Developed by the School of Nursing, The Flinders University of South Australia, the DEU aims to optimise undergraduate student learning through enhancement of the clinical learning environment and collaboration between clinicians, academics and students. Three DEUs involving 91 students were evaluated, using primarily summative methods to elicit positive and negative attributes of the DEUs. Outcomes indicated that the DEU is a highly appropriate clinical placement model. (Part one of this paper explained the rationale for the DEU and its key features.)