Kathryn Shaffer
Thomas Jefferson University, USA
Title: Health care delivery has changed, but has clinical education? A forward thinking concept in clinical education
Biography
Biography: Kathryn Shaffer
Abstract
Nurses’ responsibilities are expanding to include a focus on population health, care coordination, and transitions of care. To keep pace with the ever-changing healthcare delivery system, it is important to transform the way future nurses are educated, both in classroom and clinical settings. Nursing faculty at Thomas Jefferson University, College of Nursing in Philadelphia were motivated by the challenge to design a new baccalaureate nursing curriculum aligned with the evidence of national reports and initiatives, and created a new education paradigm to prepare nurses for 21st century practice. Faculty shifted the paradigm from caring for patients to caring for people and transformed from a diseased-based, acute-care-focused curriculum to one promoting a culture of health and multiple new and emerging roles for RNs. This process required a shift in focus from the current BSN prepared generalist to the future professional clinician who is an anticipatory thinker capable of processing information in multiple directions from a variety of starting points along the life and care continuum, able to understand and implement the quality standards of patient safety, care transition, social determinants of health, and cultural considerations. In response, a concept based curriculum with five immersion practicums were created to provide practice opportunities for students to acquire the skill set that can be applied in any care setting. Each immersion is designed for students to spend time in both an acute care setting and areas where people transition along the life and care continuum all in the same semester. This learning environment allows students to understand population health. This new shift in clinical education also focuses on behavioral health which is integrated throughout the entire curriculum. Students learn and practice the skills central to understanding and coping with both behavioral and mental health crisis events as well as chronic management of care.