Establishing a collaborative relationship with a college of nursing

AORN Journal, Nov, 2002 by Laurie Mitchell, Darlena Stevens, Jennifer Goodman, Mary Brown

A recent review of literature suggests that nursing specialty areas are being threatened by the nursing shortage. (1) A major issue contributing to this situation is the difficulty of attracting a sufficient number of people into all aspects of nursing. Recruiting sufficient numbers of nurses appears to be a widespread problem that affects not only the United States but Australia and the United Kingdom as well. (2)

The shortage of perioperative nurses can be attributed in part to a decrease in the amount of perioperative content or its complete removal from the curricula of baccalaureate, diploma, and associate degree programs. As a result, many nursing students receive minimal exposure to perioperative nursing, and this limited exposure does not allow them to develop a true appreciation for the field.

THE NURSING SHORTAGE

Health care journals and other media continue to report on the national nursing shortage. Although nursing professionals from the Baby Boom generation have witnessed four or more shortages during their careers, the current shortage affects all institutions, including major medical centers and small-town community hospitals. The American Organization of Nurse Executives reports that the most sought after specialists include

* perioperative nurses,

* clinical nurse specialists,

* medical-surgical specialists,

* critical care nurses,

* emergency services nurses, and

* obstetric nurses. (3)

Reasons for the nursing shortage have been well documented in health care literature during the past few years. These reasons include

* a rapidly aging workforce,

* other options for professional employment, and

* decreased enrollment in schools of nursing.

The current shortage should be a wake-up call to the health care community. The Texas Nurses Association has reported vacancy rates as high as 18% and projects that by 2007, schools of nursing will need to double the number of graduates from nursing education programs to meet the demand. (4) Additionally, across the nation, nursing education programs are suffering from a shortage of budgeted faculty positions. (5)

Legislative acts, such as the Nursing Shortage Reduction Act of 2001, are being put into place to help address this problem. (6) For their part, health care institutions and colleges of nursing must continue to evaluate new paradigms in nursing education and also should consider initiating programs that will help them "grow their own" nurses to provide quality care to their communities.

ESTABLISHING A RELATIONSHIP

Although most hospital-based nursing schools have closed, nursing programs continue to need hospitals to provide the clinical component of nursing academic programs. Nursing schools usually have affiliation agreements with hospitals to provide clinical experiences for students, so opportunities exist to form other types of collaborative relationships. One such collaborative relationship in perioperative nursing was established between Prairie View A&M University's College of Nursing, Houston, and St Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston. The vice president of perioperative services at St Luke's wanted to establish a collaborative relationship with a college of nursing to recruit and increase the number of perioperative nurses available for hire. The dean of the College of Nursing at Prairie View A&M University was approached with the idea of offering a perioperative elective for which the hospital would provide qualified instructors, students would receive college credit, and the university would receive revenue. The idea was readily embraced.

Prairie View A&M University already had an established affiliation contract with St Luke's that allowed nursing students to rotate through selected services and departments for clinical experiences. Students usually have a two-day observational rotation in the perioperative services department. There was a need to increase student exposure to perioperative nursing and strengthen the content in the curriculum. Two perioperative educators from St Luke's surgical services department already were teaching the perioperative content in the "Adult Health I" nursing course. These OR staff members functioned as guest lecturers and worked closely with course faculty members to ensure that course objectives were met. St Luke's perioperative services department has a long history of providing quality experiences to nursing students, and staff members were committed to extending that experience to a comprehensive perioperative elective.

DEVELOPING THE COURSE

An elective course in perioperative nursing was developed by the St Luke's perioperative education specialist in collaboration with the College of Nursing's adult health course faculty members. Course content was developed using Berry & Kohn's Operating Room Technique and AORN's Standards, Recommended Practices, and Guidelines to build the foundation. (7) Following college protocols, the course was approved by the curriculum committee as a three-credit-hour elective.