33^rd Nursing and Healthcare Congress

Biography

Biography: Nan Smith-Blair

Abstract

With major changes proposed by health care reform the impact on the environment in which nurses and other health care disciplines practice will certainly be impacted and changed. There is an emerging focus on primary care, transitional care and accountability by healthcare organizations which will impact nursing education. The traditional nursing educational model in which clinical training is focused in the acute care setting may not prepare our students adequately for future practice arenas. The IOM’s Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) clearly outlines changes that need to occur in nursing education if we hope to prepare nurses with the competencies and skills required to practice in the future health care system. Traditional clinical education delivered in a “silo” will not serve the profession well. An innovative clinical education model will be presented that diminishes fragmentation of the clinical education model and provides the student a focus on the transition of patients throughout various healthcare environments. The transitional care model implemented in this project spans three semesters in which students are exposed patient’s care which shifts from one setting of care to another. This presentation will discuss this novel model that provides students with learning experiences in patient-centered environments spanning the care continuum. It will explore how inter-professional collaborations in health professions education and partnership building with healthcare providers can provide a rich educational experience for nursing students which has impacted patient care outcomes. These unique partnerships will become increasingly important to leverage the expertise and resources of both academic and practice settings required to address the complexity of patient care needs faced in our country.