Educating next generation nursing leaders and enhancing education-practice partnerships: The role of quality improvement projects

Abstract

<p>Session presented on Saturday, April 9, 2016, and Friday, April 8, 2016:</p> <p>The healthcare crisis in the United States requires new approaches and continuous improvement.&nbsp; Nursing has the unique opportunity to champion grassroots efforts to enact change through their immersion in and direct influence on patient care.&nbsp; As educators, our job is to prepare the newest members of the profession with the tools, skills, and motivation to carry out these efforts.&nbsp; Indeed, fundamental nursing skills are expanding to include quality improvement, interprofessional teamwork, and systems thinking (Irondside &amp; McNelis, 2011).&nbsp; The acquisition of these essential skills requires, however, developing didactic and experiential learning opportunities that bridge the classroom and practice contexts.&nbsp; Service learning, built upon strong academic-practice partnerships, provides the mechanism for successful implementation (Voss et al., 2015).&nbsp; The purpose of this research project is to examine the impact of an educational innovation bringing pre-licensure nursing students and practice partners together to execute a quality improvement project using a service-learning framework.</p>