Cooperative Clinical Conferences: Nursing Student Pediatric Clinical Innovation

Background: A gap exists between nursing student classrooms (i.e., clinical training) and newly graduated RNs' real-world nursing experiences. The Cooperative Clinical Conference (CCC) was piloted for prelicensure nursing clinical groups as a vehicle to allow students to reflect on their learning and physiology and disease, as it relates to the pediatric patient in the context of the entire plan of care for pediatric patients. Method: Participating nursing student clinical groups were allotted 15 to 20 minutes to give group case presentations of de-identified patient scenarios, representative of the patient population on the assigned clinical unit. Results: The CCC as a learning opportunity in the clinical area was rated highly on evaluations by faculty and student participants in terms of their achievement of both learning objectives and satisfaction. Conclusion: The CCC represented a feasible and acceptable method of enhanced learning and professional development with and for undergraduate nursing students in the pediatric clinical environment.