Outcomes of an Innovative Best Practice Clinical Immersion Framework: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Pediatric Nursing
• Clinical Placements

Background:

• Academic nursing historically partners with practice settings for student clinical experiences.
• Securing pediatric clinical placements for nursing students presents significant challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a collaborative pediatric clinical practice internship between an academic hospital and nursing programs.
• To pilot a best practice clinical immersion framework for Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students, integrating academic credit via a shared syllabus and e-learning.

Main Methods:

• A freestanding academic pediatric hospital and three university nursing programs collaborated.
• Nursing students were hired into a practice-based internship program.
• A shared clinical syllabus and e-learning platform were utilized for the immersion framework.

Main Results:

• Sixteen nursing students successfully completed the internship program.
• Pre- and post-evaluations were completed by 11 students (68.7%).
• Significant improvements (P < .05) were observed in 7 out of 20 evaluation questions.

Conclusions:

• The clinical immersion framework successfully provided a strategy for obtaining clinical practice and academic credit.
• This model demonstrates the potential of innovative academic-practice partnerships in nursing education.
• The framework is adaptable for other clinical areas and practice-academic collaborations.