Functional clinical placements: A driver for change

Accepted 24 September 2009. published online 02 November 2009.
Corrected Proof

Summary

The aim of the project was to create a supervised professional experience placement model involving undergraduate nursing students, families of children with intellectual disabilities and nursing lecturers. Action research provided the methodological framework for developing a new placement model. Five families with children with disabilities, nine nursing students and two nurse academics worked together through the cycles of the action research process to develop a family health promotion intervention to improve the health and wellness of the family members and reduce risk for illness. Awareness, valuing and understanding were key themes derived from the qualitative data. Findings of this project indicate that this model of university-initiated, community-focused professional experience placement is effective in achieving the competency-based learning outcomes required of undergraduate nursing students and is worthy of ongoing exploration.

Keywords: Families, Health promotion, Intellectual disability, Mentoring, Professional placement, Action research

a School of Nursing and Midwifery, Charles Sturt University, P.O. Box 789, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia

b Curtin University of Technology, Faculty of Health Sciences Curtin House, 39 Regent St., Chippendale, Sydney 2008, Australia

c University of Western Sydney, Australia

d Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Block E3A, Level 3, 7 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117574, Singapore

Corresponding author. Address: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Charles Sturt University, P.O. Box 789, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 60 516875, +61 414 811577 (mobile); fax: +61 2 60 516 870.

1 Tel.: +(65) 6516 8686; fax: +(65) 6776 7135.

2 Tel.: +61 2 83997831, +61 (0) 414674134 (mobile); fax: +61 2 83997834.

PII: S0260-6917(09)00186-5

doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2009.09.012