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NEW
AACN GUIDELINES IDENTIFY ESSENTIAL CLINICAL RESOURCES
FOR NURSING EDUCATION
WASHINGTON,
D.C., June 15, 1999 -- To "survive and flourish" in a dramatically
changing health care environment, nursing schools must redefine
their relationships with hospitals, HMOs, community health
centers, and other facilities to ensure that students and
faculty are not denied sufficient access to clinical training
sites, say new guidelines from the American Association of
Colleges of Nursing (AACN).
The
new landmark publication, Essential Clinical Resources
for Nursing's Academic Mission, defines the clinical elements
vital to supporting the full spectrum of academic nursing
-- undergraduate and graduate education, faculty practice,
and research. The AACN volume identifies the facilitators
and barriers to clinical access in nursing education, describes
essential clinical-site learning experiences for preparing
skilled nurses for basic and advanced practice, and details
the clinical resources needed for faculty practice and nursing
research to develop and thrive.
"To
remain relevant and appropriate, clinical nurse training today
requires even more than providing students with such current-day
skills as case management, interdisciplinary experience, and
access to the latest information technologies. Indeed, the
changing dynamics of health care, especially its financing,
are threatening the conventional means of access to clinical
practice sites and require a re-thinking of how nursing schools
will provide students with clinical learning experiences,"
says AACN President Andrea R. Lindell, DNSc, RN.
"This
vital AACN publication recommends strategies for reshaping
the relationship between education and practice to ensure
that essential clinical resources are accessible and achievable."
AACN's clinical Essentials is the latest in the Association's
series of core standards for higher education for the nation's
largest health care profession. Other Essentials publications
include educational standards for bachelor's-degree nursing
programs and for master's-degree programs that prepare nurses
for advanced practice.
A
Task Force's Response
Produced by an AACN task force of distinguished educators
and nurse executives, the Essential Clinical Resources
for Nursing's Academic Mission provides direction for
the preparation of professional nurses into the 21st century.
The task force was established in 1997 out of growing concern
over changes in health care delivery and health professions
education that significantly altered the number and types
of clinical resources available for nurse training, faculty
practice, and nursing research.
Nursing
schools now must vie for clinical training slots not only
with other area nursing schools, but also with medical and
physician assistant programs that are placing students for
primary care experiences in the same health centers used traditionally
for nursing education. For example, in 1997, an AACN
Issue Bulletin reported that while applications remained
strong, some schools had cut admissions to nurse practitioner
programs because of a tightening supply of training locations.
Last year, 45 percent of schools responding to an AACN survey
reported problems placing undergraduate nursing students for
clinical experiences due to a shrinking availability of training
sites.
"Overall,
the health care system is moving from an array of disconnected
agencies to integrated systems run increasingly by the private
sector with an increasing emphasis on cost and the bottom
line," AACN's clinical Essentials notes. Moreover,
as care has shifted from hospitals to more outpatient treatment,
"the tremendous cost-cutting and re-engineering of acute care
delivery sites have diminished educational support from these
agencies."
A
Resource Listing of Local Partnerships
Throughout
the clinical Essentials, educators, administrators,
and other policy leaders will learn:
- how
the shifting focus of health care delivery has changed the
level of educational support by clinical agencies;
- essential
clinical-site learning experiences for both undergraduate
and graduate nursing students;
- regulatory,
financial, competitive, and other barriers impeding nursing
schools' access to clinical training sites;
- how
nursing's academic culture, including reward systems, must
change to incorporate clinical practice into the faculty
role; and
- funding,
intra- and interdisciplinary, and other resources of clinical
environments that successfully support and foster nursing
research;
In addition, AACN's clinical Essentials features an
extensive resource listing of creative collaborations among
nursing schools, healthcare institutions, and community agencies
to provide on-site clinical nurse training as well as research
and faculty practice opportunities. Among the nearly 50 innovative
programs highlighted are academic-corporate partnerships,
contracts with government agencies and managed care companies,
alliances with academic health centers, partnerships between
communities and local governments to establish nurse-managed
primary care clinics, and collaborations with healthcare institutions
to create joint nursing research centers.
The
American Association of Colleges of Nursing is the national
voice for university and four-year-college education programs
in nursing -- the nation's largest health care profession.
Representing more than 500 member schools of nursing at public
and private institutions nationwide, AACN's educational, research,
governmental advocacy, data collection, publications, and
other programs work to establish quality standards for bachelor's-
and graduate-degree nursing education, assist deans and directors
to implement those standards, influence the nursing profession
to improve health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.
EDITORS:
News media can obtain a copy of the clinical Essentials
by contacting the AACN Office of Public Affairs at 202-463-6930,
x231, or rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu.
CONTACT:
Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
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