Background
The DEU Program and History at the CNHS
Dedicated Education Units were implemented in January, 2008, between the Undergraduate Nursing Program at the CNHS and two agency partners, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) after two years of planning, and learning about DEUs from the University of Portland in Oregon and Flinders University, Australia.
Program Goals
This clinical education partnership fosters a collaborative relationship, allowing nursing education to inform nursing practice and patient care delivery. In turn, nursing practice informs nursing education, enhancing professional practice and nursing education in an ever-changing health care environment.
This academic–service partnership supports the college's vision: to improve the health of diverse urban populations through the integration of teaching, targeted research, service, practice, and health policy in partnership with others.
Program Benefits
Students participating in the partnership benefit from:
- Clinical rotations with practicing nurses providing clinical expertise and instruction
- Clinical instruction by the same staff nurses on the same units for their adult health or pediatric clinical experiences and senior preceptorships
- Access to patient care assistant positions during nursing school
- Access to potential positions as new professional nurses following graduation
- Utilization of the College’s Center for Clinical Education and Research (CCER) for additional simulation experience during the senior preceptorship
- Leadership opportunities in conducting and presenting quality improvement teaching projects and presentations on DEUs at our partnershing hospitals
Program Statistics
In January 2008, we began the DEU program with 18 students. In 2011, over 200 students have participated in DEU experiences.
The DEU helps us graduate a significant number of racially and ethnically diverse baccalaureate-prepared nurses (approximately 40%) in Massachusetts by utilizing staff nurses as our clinical instructors.
Accomplishments/Implications
In 2009, CNHS received a $300,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN) grant to conduct a two-year rigorous evaluation research study of the school’s use of the “Dedicated Education Unit” Model for providing clinical education to nursing students. The college’s study, Project PDQ: Partnering for DEU Development and Quality, examines retention, satisfaction, and productivity rates, teaching capacity, costs and benefits, and education outcomes.
The first students to graduate under the DEU model who were hired by the institutions they served in as student nurses report decreased transition time to professional practice, thus producing more experienced nurses faster, and likely reducing institutional costs. At the same time, staff nurses on dedicated education units report returning to school to pursue graduate nursing education.
DEU Faculty and Administrators
The CNHS DEU Team in the DEU Partnership includes JoAnn Mulready-Shick, EdD, RN, CNE, Undergraduate Nursing Program Director, and Clinical Faculty Coordinators Kathleen Kafel, MS, RN, Lisa Caravaggio, MS, RN, Martin Lantieri, RN, BSN, and Esther Seibold, PhD, RN, with full administrative support from Dean Greer Glazer.
