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ABSTRACT
Today's clinical nursing education challenges center around managing complex issues related to clinical placements. The increased numbers and varying levels of nursing students, acuity and intensity of the clinical setting, and rise of regulatory and accrediting mandates provided impetus for the establishment of the Alliance for Clinical Education (ACE). This article describes community standards established by partnering educational programs and clinical agencies in the Denver, Colorado, and surrounding areas. ACE is successfully confronting the challenges of effectively using scarce clinical placements, validating student orientation mandates, and facilitating the availability and development of qualified clinical faculty. Examples of tools and resources created by ACE to provide uniformity in meeting mutual expectations and requirements are described. The power of collaboration and sharing expertise is described by current initiatives, which reflect the ability to influence policy and shape community standards to support excellence in clinical nursing education.
The value of structured, well-supervised clinical experiences in the educational preparation of prelicensure nursing students is affirmed by the American Organization of Nurse Executives (2004) and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (2005). Although new models of clinical education are evolving, typically a group of students is accompanied by a clinical instructor for a scheduled clinical experience in a health care facility. Educational programs and clinical agencies within large urban areas encounter numerous clinical placement issues when determining clinical schedules. Definitions of appropriate clinical experiences vary among multiple educational programs with differing levels of student learning within specific courses. Frequently, expectations and policies for student and clinical faculty orientation are inconsistent, with potentially a negative effect on student learning, staff productivity, and patient care delivery. Consistent compliance and verification of regulatory and accrediting agency requirements is becoming progressively more challenging due to increasing mandates to assure safe, quality care and security. Resulting legal implications, safety concerns, and strained working relationships between the educational program and the clinical agency are barriers that must be addressed if excellence in clinical education is to be mutually supported. The challenges of managing clinical placements are increasingly complex, time consuming, and problematic.
This article describes the early beginnings, development, challenges, and ongoing initiatives of an education-practice collaborative in metropolitan Denver, Colorado. The Alliance for Clinical Education (ACE), is a collaborative organization, cooperatively...