A school of nursing-wellness center partnership: creating collaborative practice experiences for undergraduate US senior nursing students

Abstract

As there is a global drive for schools of nursing (SONs) to increase enrollments and as there is a strain in the number of placement sites available to nursing students, SONs need to think innovatively about creating new collaborative partnerships that can serve as placement sites. A collaborative US intrainstitutional partnership was developed between an urban college wellness center (WC) and a SON that met the following needs: (1) it provided a community/public health nursing clinical practice site for undergraduate, senior-year baccalaureate SON students and (2) it enhanced and expanded WC services for the college community. During 7-week clinical sessions, nursing students provided holistic nursing care through screenings, health promotion activities, and educational meetings. Having the WC as a clinical site allowed the students to assess, integrate, and synthesize didactic knowledge and critical thinking skills into the clinical setting while providing critically needed holistic nursing services to their college community. Further, the collaboration created an ongoing partnership that bridged the service and academic needs of both entities.