By Olga Mosiychuk
The University of Portland's School of Nursing received a grant of nearly $300,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate the effectiveness of the Nursing School's innovative Dedicated Education Unit clinical teaching model.
"We are very excited," said Susan Moscato, the School of Nursing associate dean.
First implemented by the University in 2002 to address critical shortages of nurses and nursing educators, the model has become an integral component of the School of Nursing's clinical teaching success.
"The DEU as designed is a collaboration between administrators, nurse-clinicians and faculty to create an optimal and efficient learning environment for students," said Joanne Warner, dean of the School of Nursing.
On the DEU, nurses are the instructors of the students. The university faculty member's role is to work with the nurses to support their clinical teaching of students, facilitate transfer of classroom learning and assure that students learn what's expected, according to Moscato.
A key component of the model is the belief that the nurses' clinical expertise and educational role is vital to the development of students' professional skills and knowledge, according to Moscato.
The DEU system provides opportunities for nursing students to grow under the guidance of a single teacher. They follow the same nurse for six weeks.
"This gives the nurse the opportunity to get to know the students' strengths and what they need to work on," Moscato said. "When they have that continuity you can see the progress. The collaborative partnership is what makes it work."
Senior nursing student Haylee Goode has been on two DEUs, one at Providence St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center and one at Providence Portland Medical Center.
"It was really fun," Goode said. "The nurse that you follow has a class that they go to and they learn how to teach a student how to be a nurse. It's kind of like an education for an educator."
Because an entire unit is dedicated to teaching, students get to experience a rich array of hands-on situations.
"I have not experienced a non-DEU but I know that both of my experiences have been incredible," Goode said.
The grant will publicize the effectiveness of the DEU model to other institutions and help other colleges in the nation better their programs.
"We know anecdotally and from the experience of the students that it is successful," Moscato said. "With this grant we will be able to evaluate the outcome of this clinical teaching model."
Junior nursing student Erin Kozlowski recently started her DEU clinical.
"It's nice because everyone is there to help you and you literally work side by side with a nurse," she said. "They push you and walk you through stuff. It's so nice to have them there."
Kozlowski also appreciates the "I learn just as much as you learn" mentality of her instructing nurse, and is excited to work through her clinical in this manner.
"The University can be proud of the leadership that has been provided to implement this innovated clinical teaching model around the country," Moscato said. "If you go around to different nursing schools, you can see that the University of Portland is known for this and that's kind of neat."
