Development and Validation of an Operational Model for Nursing Academic-Practice Partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Several definitions and guiding principles for nursing academic-practice partnerships exist. PROBLEM: There remains a gap between academic-practice partnership definitions and practical operational models, thereby limiting schools of nursing ability to engage in productive partnerships. This article describes the development and validation of a novel Operational Model for Nursing Academic-Practice Partnerships. APPROACH: An email survey of all nursing faculty (n = 228) identified quantity and types of faculty-led academic-practice partnerships. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed via thematic analysis conducted by 2 members of the project team and validated by the full project team. OUTCOMES: The Operational Model for Academic-Practice Partnerships was created and is comprised of 8 partnership strategies: innovation, embedded faculty, joint appointment, consultant, independent practice, volunteer, scholarship, and clinical site development. CONCLUSION: We offer this model as a framework to structure the development, implementation, and evaluation of academic-practice partnerships at nursing schools.

Addressing health equity through a telehealth maternal-newborn home visit for nurse practitioner students.

ABSTRACT: This educational innovation describes the implementation and evaluation of a telehealth maternal-newborn home visit clinical experience for nurse practitioner students at an urban, private research university in the Midwest. The visits were conducted using the Family Connects evidence-based universal support program for families with newborns to evaluate each family's unique risks and to align their needs with available community resources. Students were prepared for the clinical experience through advanced practice didactic modules and simulation and then participated in the visits over a 2-week period. After the clinical opportunity, both students and community health nurse collaborators completed a survey about their experiences. The students reported feeling prepared to participate in the visits, that they were able to meet clinical objectives using telehealth, and learned about the community resources available for families with newborns. The nurses reported feeling prepared to collaborate with nurse practitioner students and that they benefitted from having a student participate in the visits. The experience prepared the students to meet the needs of a diverse patient population during the early postpartum/newborn period by providing newborn care advice, addressing access to health, assessing social determinants of health, and considering community resource referrals to reduce disparities and improve health equity. This article describes how a telehealth clinical experience addresses the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials for advanced-level nursing students and provides recommendations for incorporating and evaluating telehealth clinical experiences in pediatric advanced practice education.

Collaborating to Advance Health Equity for Families with Newborns Through Public-Private Partnerships.

This paper describes a health equity-focused partnership between an academic health center and a large metro public health department aimed at improving health care delivery in the postpartum period to reduce maternal-infant mortality. We describe our experience launching Family Connects Chicago at one of four Chicago pilot hospitals across the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases. Key sustainability factors are discussed including cooperative data-sharing, shared funding mechanisms, ongoing engagement strategies across teams, shared leadership, and interprofessional collaboration models. We share implementation strategies to overcome challenges including the commitment of a diverse interprofessional team, a focus on mutual, clear goals, an understanding of shared responsibility and accountability, shared resources, and frequent, open, and honest communication. Successful outcomes including over 1,500 virtual and in-home visits over the first 22 months highlight the need for operational best practice blueprints for meaningful and productive public-private partnerships promoting health equity.

Concerns of Prelicensure Nursing Students Before a Maternal-Newborn Clinical Rotation.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the concerns of prelicensure nursing students before their clinical rotation in the maternal-newborn setting. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive design with one open-ended survey question. SETTING/PROBLEM: A private U.S. Midwest master's entry prelicensure nursing program. Students' concerns before beginning a maternal-newborn clinical rotation have not been fully explored in the literature and may differ from those reported by students in other clinical rotations. If not addressed, these concerns could negatively affect the clinical learning experience and hinder student success. PARTICIPANTS: Prelicensure nursing students enrolled in the Nursing Care of Women and Newborns course at an urban graduate college of nursing. INTERVENTION/MEASUREMENTS: On the first day of the course, students were asked to write on an index card their most pressing concern related to their upcoming maternal-newborn rotation. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. Course directors analyzed the responses for themes and further divided them by setting: labor and birth, newborn, postpartum, generalized (concerns across maternal-newborn clinical areas), and miscellaneous (nonclinical concerns). RESULTS: A total of 130 concerns were reported by 125 students. Of these concerns, 47% (n = 62) were related to labor and birth, and 4.6% (n = 6) were related to caring for newborns; 40% (n = 51) were general clinical concerns, and 8.5% (n = 11) were of a nonclinical nature. No students in this study expressed concern about being assigned to care for individuals on the postpartum unit. Although some concerns were similar to those reported previously in the literature, others were unique to the maternal-newborn setting. CONCLUSION: Prelicensure nursing students have concerns that are unique to the maternal-newborn setting. When student concerns are known before clinical rotations, course faculty, clinical instructors, and staff nurses can adapt strategies to reduce stress and improve the clinical learning environment for students so that they can be successful.

Leveraging a Successful Faculty Practice Model to Recruit and Retain Early-Career Nurse Faculty.

BACKGROUND: The shortage of nursing faculty is well documented as are the challenges of attracting and retaining early-career faculty, in part, due to difficulties transitioning expert clinicians into faculty roles. PROBLEM: There is little guidance in the literature describing successful formal transition models. APPROACH: An urban College of Nursing Faculty Practice (CON FP) underwent an operational redesign beginning in 2014, resulting in an intentional success: a pipeline for attracting and developing early-career faculty. This article describes how the CON FP leverages faculty practice to develop early-career faculty. OUTCOMES: Across a 6-year time span, at least 20 early-career CON FP clinicians have transitioned to full-time faculty roles. In addition, CON FP clinicians provide more than 75 000 direct care nursing services and support more than 25 000 student clinical and project hours annually. CONCLUSIONS: We offer this early-career faculty practice pipeline model as a solution for attracting and growing a contemporary nursing faculty workforce.

Providing a Safe Haven: Staff Response to a Simulated Infant Relinquishment in the Emergency Department.

Every state in the United States has established laws that allow an unharmed newborn to be relinquished to personnel in a safe haven, such as hospital emergency departments, without legal penalty to the parents. These Safe Haven, Baby Moses, or Safe Surrender laws are in place so that mothers in crisis can safely and legally relinquish their babies at a designated location where they can be protected and given medical care until a permanent home can be found. It is important for health care professionals to know about and understand their state's law and how to respond should an infant be surrendered at their facility. No articles were found in the peer-reviewed literature that describe a method to evaluate nurse competency during infant relinquishment at a Safe Haven location. This article will describe commonalities and differences among these Safe Haven Laws, responsibilities of the hospital and staff receiving a relinquished infant, and 1 hospital's experience when running an infant relinquishment drill in their emergency department.

Meeting the needs of the postpartum woman with epilepsy.

Although pregnancy and postpartum are times of emotional and physical change for all women, women with epilepsy have additional concerns and face special challenges. This article describes the nursing care for this special population to help the clinical nurse provide for the safety of these women and their infants. A multidisciplinary approach is essential, and families need to be included in the care planning. Special considerations for medication management, additional rest, seizure precautions, and discharge instructions are described.