Title : Exploring the feasibility of a pathway for nursing students to train in primacy care practices
Abstract:
It is well known that the gap between the population’s need for primary care and the capacity of primary care to meet that need is growing. To respond to the primary care workforce crisis in Rhode Island, Care Transformation Collaborative Rhode Island (CTC-RI) has developed and implemented a number of initiatives. To date, CTC-RI has trained 190 nurses to assume the role of nurse care managers in primary care settings. Given the success of this training, exploring the feasibility of placing senior nursing students in primary care settings was a natural next step. Our primary care sites are well positioned to provide nursing students with an exceptional primary care learning experience. The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice have been revised and now require colleges of nursing to provide clinical practicum in primary care for nursing students. This presentation will describe the collaborative process between a community-based agency and two colleges of nursing in the state of Rhode Island. Four nursing students from the University of Rhode Island (URI) and four from Rhode Island College (RIC) were recruited for this pilot initiative and was implemented in September, 2023. The URI students participated in the fall semester and the RIC students in the Spring semester. Primary care nurse care managers who had completed an online program called G learn, which was developed by Geisinger to train their own nurses to become nurse care managers, were identified as potential preceptors. The students enrolled in the pilot completed modules from the G learn program on a weekly basis and met with a CTC-RI nursing faculty to review the new information learned and discuss application in their clinical setting. In addition, the students met in their clinical groups with their university clinical faculty to share learning experiences. At the completion of each semester, written evaluations followed by telephone interviews with the nursing students, nurse care manager preceptors and university clinical faculty provided valuable feedback on the benefits of the pilot and suggestions for the future. Recommendations will be used to make modifications of this initiative for students who will be recruited for fall 2024 and spring 2025. The presentation will end with a discussion of challenges and lessons learned during the development and implementation of this pilot initiative.
Audience Take Away:
- Describe the process of placing nursing students in a primary care setting
- Describe the benefits of clinical experiences for nursing students in primary care
- Describe challenges and solutions experienced in implementing this initiative
