Innovative Strategies for Maximizing NP Clinical Education

 Various recent reports have emphasized the need to prepare for a future in healthcare that will rely heavily on primary care services (IOM: Future of Nursing is the latest example). A shortage of primary care NPs continues to be predicted. In response, nursing schools nationwide have begun to increase enrollments creating an urgent need to find meaningful clinical experiences for more students, while the existing clinical sites of one-to-one preceptorships are nearly exhausted. Nursing schools will need to develop creative clinical experiences to meet the increased demand. The discussion leaders want to open this for discussion to explore what avenues various schools are taking. We also want to explore the pros and cons of three possible innovations: Simulation, Virtual Reality, and Dedicated Educational Units (DEU) in Primary Care.

ü  Simulation has been incorporated in the teaching of acute care nursing, but has minimal history of use in advanced practice nursing. How much simulation is good? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

ü  Virtual Reality, such as Second Life, is gaining an audience in health care, such as cancer support groups and teaching students about informatics. How helpful could this be in educating APRN students?

ü  Finally, the concept of Dedicated Educational Unit (DEU) is not new to nursing. However its use in primary care is not well described or studied. Are NP programs using such models? How well do they work? Are they cost-effective?

We hope to stimulate a discussion that will help faculty begin to develop and study new models of educating APRN students that are new and creative without using real patients for the entire educational experience.