As we are closing in on the end of the student/faculty year, the Project Team has completed 14 presentations to various student, faculty, and nursing leadership stakeholders with the most recent one being UMPNC and UMHS Nursing Leadership Negotiating Teams, in addition to the work that has begun with the pilot units.

The Project Team is developing an Orientation and Training program for clinical team members (faculty, clinical mentors, and students) in the fall 2008 pilot. The Simulation Task group has completed over 20 clinical scenarios and has identified relevant teaching strategies, e.g., lab simulations, case study format. A Clinical Skills group is meeting to share best practices in the current UMSON skills lab preparation and the UMHS Assistive Personnel and new RN orientations to better prepare students as contributing members of the clinical team. Presentations by vendors of electronic portfolios and clinical data management are continuing.

The Initiative remains forward moving and exciting work. To celebrate our progress, a celebration is planned for May 27th for all those nurses, faculty, and students who participated in the kick-off Whole Scale Change event one year ago which laid the foundation for subsequent work of the Initiative.

The Project Team has presented to multiple groups on the status of planning for the pilot of the Initiative to begin fall 2008. These stakeholder groups include School of Nursing faculty, honors nursing students, Student Nurses Association, the UMHS Nursing Executive Council and UMHS Nursing Leadership Forum. While this project seems to be on a fast track, with the pilot for clinical education (Phase I) beginning this fall, the full implementation of the Initiative including Phases II (Clinical Practice) and III (Scholarship) will occur over the next few years.

The beginning implementation of the Initiative will involve one-half of Junior students enrolled in pediatrics and medical-surgical nursing courses, who will receive their clinical education on 8A, 8B, 8C and 6 Mott. In the winter term of 2009, the implementation will extend to incorporate students from Psychiatric and OB nursing courses. Clinical education will occur within the concept of the clinical team, including student, staff nurse mentor and clinical faculty. We anticipate designated clinical mentors (staff nurses) will work with students with the support and oversight of a clinical faculty. Additional members of the clinical team may include a unit based leader as a clinical resource and the course coordinator. Managers and staff of the pilot units will continue to assist the Project Team in further developing and refining role definitions, the selection processes for mentors, and designing orientation sessions for staff and faculty.
 
We hope you have had a chance to view the Initiative poster presented at the Nurse Faculty -Nurse Executive Summit in Scottsdale recently posted in the Towsley triangle. A copy of the poster can also be viewed in the lobby of the School of Nursing building. Watch for information about the Initiative in Marge Calarco’s monthly update and information sessions about the Initiative.

The Advisory Committee to the Initiative supported the continued development of one model for undergraduate clinical education. The Project Team has shared this model with the Dean, the Faculty Administrative Group, the Executive Committee in the School of Nursing, and the Faculty. Presentations are scheduled for the UMHS Nursing Executive Council  and UMHS Nursing Leadership Forum. Marge Calarco will continue to include new information in the monthly UMHS nursing update.

Feedback received from these and other groups will be used to continue the detailed planning for pilot implementation in fall 2008. Task forces will be formed and charged to define roles, integrate innovative teaching strategies including simulation, and develop the educational sessions for preparing staff, students, and faculty for the new roles in the model. These groups will begin to meet in January.

A poster presentation of the Whole-Scale Change process used to initiate the planning for changing undergraduate nursing clinical education was presented by Project Team members Marilyn Svejda and Judy Sadler in Phoenix at the Nursing Economics Summit on November 29-December 1. Plans are to display this poster in both the SON and UMHS.

The first meeting of the Advisory Committee was held October 11, 2007. Dr. Marilyn Svejda, Project Director gave an update on the work of the Project Team. Members reviewed initial drafts of three models for clinical education developed by the Project Team. The Advisory Committee members recommended continued development of one of the models presented. This model exemplifies student placement within an organizational division in the health system, embraces conceptual teaching, and invites units to maximize the student clinical practice experience in a different way. Ongoing updates will occur throughout model development in the weeks ahead.

The Project Team held a conference call with Dr. Susan Moscato and her team from the University of Portland to learn more about using the "dedicated educational units" concept and the University of Portland's experiences in using this model of clinical education. This conversation was most useful as we move to meet our charge to develop a model and implementation plans for a new approach to undergraduate clinical education using a faculty-clinical partnership perspective. Dr. Moscato and her team's article in Nursing Outlook provides more information about this model of clinical partnerships.

Moscato, S.., Miller, J., Logsdon, K., Weinberg, S., & Chorpenning, L. (2007). Dedicated education unit: An innovative clinical partner education model. Nursing Outlook, 55, 31-37.]

Five task forces are identified to continue the development work of the project - 1) simulation & educational activities; 2) role/team training; 3) student orientation; 4) passport/portfolio course expectations; 5) marketing/communications (internal first - external later). Participants from the Whole Scale Change event for planning the Initiative who volunteered to continue the work will be invited to form these task forces. Others who were not participants in the event, who would also like to work on one of these task forces, please contact Marilyn Svejda at svejda@umich.edu.

The Project Implementation Team is underway with weekly all day meetings. Nursing representatives from both the SON and UMHS have been identified to form an Advisory Committee to the Project Team. Meeting dates with the Advisory Committee for 2007 are set for October 11, November 15, and December 13. In addition, Jole' Mowry (UMHS Clinical Nurse Specialist) and Carlotta Beebe (Lecturer, School of Nursing) will serve as consultations to provide additional ongoing review and feedback to the Project Team as the model for undergraduate clinical education is developed. Communication to both SON and UMHS beyond the webpage is planned to engage all stakeholders in the unfolding of this bold initiative. Forward comments or questions to Judy Sadler at jjsadler@umich.edu or Marilyn Svejda at svejda@umich.edu .

At the meeting of the Design Team on July 12, 2007, Dr. Marilyn Svejda led the review of the work of the subgroup. The subgroup met for a total of six 8-hour days to analyze and synthesize the data from the two-day event. [See the "Flow chart of process" after this login. ] The purpose of this work was to capture all key elements, be reflective of the intent of the participants, provide key principles for the next implementation step and develop the document that will provide the foundation and guidance for the development of the model. [See the "Model elements" document after this login. ] The Design Team enthusiastically acknowledged and endorsed the work of the sub group .

Dean Potempa presented an implementation plan to the group based on the work of the subgroup and provided the rationale for providing more "traditional" structure to the implementation phase of this work. She and Dr. Calarco discussed the formation of a project group to be led by Marilyn Svejda and to include Maureen Belden and Janet Goldberg with staff support from Judy Sadler. The project is funded beginning September 1, 2007 by both the School of Nursing and the Health System and will have a duration of 2-3 years. The Project Team is charged with recommending a model by December, 2007 with a pilot targeted to be implemented fall of '08. Evaluation of the model implemented is projected for June, 2010. The Design Team endorsed this approach.

Discussion was generated related to the need and value of an Advisory Team to support the work of the Project Team as the Design Team work is completed. The Dean and CNO along with the Project Team will define the role, participants, and functions of the Advisory Committee in September. The implementation design phase is anticipated to begin in January, 2008. The Project Team will engage participants from the two-day event who volunteered and other interested individuals to continue to work on task forces to develop more detailed plans for this initiative.

The Design Team met on May 17th to hear the report of the work of the sub-group charged with analyzing the actions placed under each of the 6 model elements (condensed from the 16 themes with goals/actions/outcomes) developed by groups at each table at the two-day event. The sub-group met for two full days and reduced redundancies, coded all actions into the appropriate model element, and synthesized the actions for model element one: teams. They condensed actions into categories for model element two: innovative teaching strategies. [NOTE: you can view a flow chart of this process under the internal resources page.]

The Design Team accepted the work and charged the sub-group with finishing the analysis of the actions for each model element. The outcomes with metrics will be analyzed separately. The goal is to for the Design Team to receive a report of this analysis by the sub-group in June or July and then hand over the model elements to an implementation process by the beginning of fall semester.

The lead team met on April 2 and 9 to debrief and analyze data from the two day "Initiative for Excellence in Clinical Scholarship and Teaching" event. Participant evaluations from both days, the flip chart data of themes, goals, actions, timeline, metrics, and responsibility have been typed. The design team will be reviewing these documents at a meeting on April 23 and making recommendations for next steps.