Redesigning clinical education for nursing students and newly qualified nurses: A quality improvement study

Rising numbers of students are required to address the forecast nursing shortage. Health services are challenged to release experienced nursing staff to become supervisors in clinical supervision models and preceptorship models require significant investment in registered nurse education for effectiveness. One health service in southeast Queensland, Australia, developed an innovative clinical education model that draws upon the strengths of supervision and preceptor models, and is consistent with the Dedicated Education Unit model, without the dedicated university and prescribed attendance requirements. Using an iterative qualitative approach and learning circle methods, the aim was to determine feasibility of the model, using information gathered from clinical facilitators, who were the key implementers. Model feasibility was found to be dependent upon three key activities undertaken by the facilitators: align stakeholder expectations with the new model, clarify roles and responsibilities within clusters, and develop strategies for collecting information about student performance. The experience of implementing the model has raised further questions about how students, newly qualified nurses and registered nurses learn in localised work units and what practice pedagogies can be developed to support learning from, as well as improve practice.