Nursing Student Perceptions of Nurse-to-Nurse Collaboration in Dedicated Education Units and in Traditional Clinical Instruction Units

Changes within the health care system have created opportunities for emerging models of care delivery, including collaborative nursing teams. Collaboration between RNs and interprofessional teams supports improved care delivery outcomes. One promising strategy to enhance collaboration is the use of dedicated education units, which are academic-clinical partnerships that facilitate nursing student learning. This descriptive, quantitative study described and compared perceptions of nursing students about nurse-to-nurse collaboration witnessed in dedicated education units and traditional clinical units. Data gathered with the Nurse-to-Nurse Collaboration Scale (NNCS) were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t tests. Findings demonstrate a significant difference on the visual analogue scales for nurse-to-nurse and nurse-to-nursing student collaboration, by type of unit. The NNCS findings indicated differences in the shared processes, coordination, communication, and conflict management subdomains. Further research in the area of collaboration among nurses and dedicated education units is recommended.