Partnering for health

Stacy Chapman and Carol Flaten

Beginning in the spring, students in the Master of Nursing (MN) program will have the opportunity to experience an intensive clinical placement at Children’s Minnesota. The new opportunity is the result of ongoing partnership between the School of Nursing and Children’s Minnesota through its nursing collaboratory, or academic-practice partnership.

Traditionally, students complete clinical placements once a week over the course of five weeks with a new preceptor each week. With the new intensive model, students will complete their clinical placements at Children’s Minnesota over a condensed period of time — three consecutive days over the weekend. The timing allows students to be paired with the same clinical nurse, or preceptor, over the course of the clinical placement.

“The preceptor can assess their student’s abilities early on and then be able to carry that over into the next day when caring for the same patients,” says Stacy Chapman, MSN, RN, CMSRN, Children’s Minnesota clinical education specialist. “The goal is that the students will have a better clinical experience with more participation and less observation. Preceptors will have the gift of a little continuity and can make a more intentional plan for how to progress through the weekend. Ultimately, patients are going to benefit from a more cohesive partnership between the student and preceptor.”

The new model aims to improve relationships between students and preceptors while at the same facilitating additional clinical placements as the number of MN students in a cohort recently increased.

“We are grateful for our ongoing partnership with Children’s Minnesota and the shared commitment that led to this innovative new clinical education model,” says Carol Flaten, DNP, RN, PHN, assistant dean for Pre-licensure Programs. “Co-creating this intensive clinical placement opportunity ensures our Master of Nursing students receive exceptional training, ultimately preparing a future nursing workforce that is ready to deliver the highest quality of care to children and their families.”

The new intensive model will be trialed for one semester with a subset of the cohort and then will be assessed to determine the satisfaction for students and preceptors.

Partnering for health is a recurring feature that highlights a school partnership working to advance health care to improve the health and wellbeing of all.