Implementation and Evaluation of Dedicated Education Units in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Implementation and Evaluation of Dedicated Education Units in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

Background of the project:
A clinical practice environment needs to meet the criteria of a powerful learning environment in order to maximize nursing students’ learning outcomes. The traditional clinical education model were academic nursing faculty are typically seen as guests on health care units – possessing the clinical skills and knowledge of the curricula, while nursing clinicians are seen as immersed in the day-to-day care of patients and assisting students by demonstrating skills, is no longer sufficient in competencies based education.
The literature and the perceptions of nurses and teachers notice that nursing graduates are not prepared to adequately assume their role in real practice.
To improve practice education, for the benefit of students, staff and patient, new health care and academic collaboration models are needed. The proposed project commenced from the innovative Dedication Education Unit (DEU) model as introduced by the Flinders University of South Australia (Edgecombe et al., 1999) and further enrolled by the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA, 2004) and the American Associate of College of Nursing (AACN, 2012).
A DEU is a clinical site in the hospital, home or long-term care that is developed into an optimal teaching and learning environment through the collaborative efforts of staff nurses, students and the higher education institute (HEI). In a DEU model, staff nurses provide education, coaching and mentoring of students and the HEI supports the staff nurses in that specific role. Moreover, the staff nurses are responsible for the clinical teaching of students and the HEI is responsible for guiding the staff nurses in the education practice.
The many positive outcomes that have been published have primarily involved DEU implementation outside Europe. Despite the increasingly focus on these types of innovative educational opportunities in European care settings no projects exist specifically describing the modifications of this model to the European higher education framework, the cross-border cooperation between DEU and the specific training that is needed for nurses and teachers.

Aim of the project:
The DEU project will test and adapt a new model for practice-based learning. It will do so throughout various European contexts. Of primary interest are:
1. quality improvement of the educational methods;
2. entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship education;
3. innovative educational methods en training courses;
4. strengthen quality through international cooperation and relations.

Methods:
In the first phase of the project a European DEU model and corresponding guideline, a mentorship train-the-trainer programme for nurses and teachers and related e-learning programme, and an evaluation system for DEU was developed. Secondly, the European DEU model was implemented and evaluated in five different EU countries within the consortium. A considerable amount of senior nursing students were placed at a DEU in their country. Finally, the experiences and recommendations of the implementation led to an improved state-of-the-art European DEU model with teaching modules that was disseminate to a broader network of national and international care and higher education institutions.

Results:
To meet the objectives of the project, we first established five partnerships between the HEI and the clinical training units of the hospitals: UC Leuven vzw with University Hospitals of Leuven, Belgium; UC Limburg vzw with Hospital Oost-Limburg, Belgium; University of Barcelona with University Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain; Polytechnic Institute of Setubal with Centro Hospitalar de Setubal, Portugal; Medical University of Warsaw with Warsaw’s Holy Family Hospital, Poland and Ege University with Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital, Turkey.
The key elements to success of a DEU were: providing high quality of care; no blame culture with open communication; more than eight weeks internship to meet students’ learning objectives; one-on-one teaching (mentor and student) and weekly presence of a link teacher (academic staff). A DEU-team is characterised by four (new) roles: head nurse/midwife; clinical mentor; link teacher; and coordinator. During the implementation phase we were able to set up and run nine dedicated education units in the European consortium.
As evaluation of the DEU implementation 13 focus group interviews were performed with 6 coordinators, 38 mentors, 10 head nurses/midwifes, 40 students and 10 link teachers at the end of the practice placement. The focus group interviews resulted in students and professionals DEU design and implementation experiences and opinions.

In conclusion, we were able to improve the quality of the education method of the HEI for the nursing and midwifery programs in collaboration with the clinical practice places. The new concept of learning environment energizes every actor at the practice place and HEI to entrepreneurial learning and teaching.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 297063 Eur

Project Coordinator

UC LEUVEN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• WARSZAWSKI UNIWERSYTET MEDYCZNY
• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE SETUBAL
• UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
• IZMIR UNIVERSITESI
• UC LIMBURG
• EGE UNIVERSITY