Interdisciplinary collaboration and interprofessional education (IPE) are essential for transforming health care. Students in nurse practitioner (NP) programs have limited exposure to IPE. Simulated clinical experiences, based on social learning theory, provide a safe and realistic environment to expose NP students to interdisciplinary collaboration as a step toward developing IPE. Faculty at a large university school of nursing developed a formative standardized patient experience to provide NP students with two opportunities to synthesize a patient assessment, to share patient problem-solving strategies, and to succinctly communicate with other health care professionals. This pilot project provided insight to better develop IPE and identified a growing interest to collaborate in future projects with faculty from other health care disciplines.
Background: A final culminating project that is derived from a practice immersion experience is a critical part of a doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program. Problem: Many schools use well-designed quality improvement (QI) projects to meet this requirement, but there is no consensus on which QI methods and tools are the most effective for DNP students to demonstrate before graduation. Approach: One Mid-Atlantic public university began using QI process models, one of which was a logic model, to guide their DNP projects. This led to subsequent changes in the curriculum, faculty preparation, and practice partner responsibilities. Outcome: Many benefits and challenges were identified during the logic model implementation that may benefit other schools seeking to increase consistency and rigor. Although the learning process for students and faculty may be challenging, the outcomes included improved project conceptualization, clarity, concision, and feasibility of goal attainment. Conclusions: Use of logic models expands DNP students' skills to develop and implement a successful project and supports clinical scholarship.
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