What Are Dedicated Educational Units In Nursing Education
What Is Dedicated Education Unit
The dedicated education unit (DEU)
is a collaborative clinical learning environment for nursing students that
takes advantage of an existing nursing setting by a specific school of nursing.
A specific school utilizes the DEU during established hours or days. It
involves a commitment by all stakeholders in the academic setting, the clinical
setting. and the students.
The traditional roles of clinical faculty and staff
nurses are revised on the DEU to allow for utilization of the unique expertise
of both, specifically the clinical expertise of the staff nurse in the clinical
setting and the educational expertise of the clinical faculty to promote
clinical reasoning and reflection (Edgecombe, Wotton, Gonda , & Mason,
1999; Moscato , Miller, Logsdon, Weinberg, & Chorpenning , 2007) DEUS
enhance student learning through the application of theory to clinical practice
while under the supervision of both expert staff nurses and clinical faculty (
Ranse & Grealish , 2007). DEUs are built on mutual respect, open
communication, and collaborative relationships, and represent a partnered
commitment to student learning ( Moscato et al., 2007).
Implementation of Dedicated Education Unit In Nursing
The DEU was conceived and first
implemented in Australia, and subsequently described in the literature
(Edgecombe et al. 1999). The DEU has been the solution to a nursing shortage, a
nurse faculty shortage, the dissatisfaction with clinical education on the part
of students, as well as the solution to a discrepancy between employers’
expectations of newly graduated nurses’ skill sets and the new graduate nurses’
actual readiness for practice (Edgecombe et al., 1999; Miller, 2005; Moscato et
al., 2007; Pappas, 2007).
The DEU has been used primarily as a clinical setting
for nursing students. Several settings have been utilized as DEU. An acute care
setting was the location of the original Australian DEU, and acute care
settings continue to be the primary locations for DEUS. DEUS also have been
located in inpatient psychiatric units, skilled nursing facilities, and with
school nurses in an educational service district. As DEUs are developed in new
settings, the essential elements remain intact: The nurse or health care team
in the setting is the expert in the type of care provided and the clinical
faculty member is the expert educator.
Schools of nursing anticipated that
utilizing a DEU as a clinical setting would maximize the transfer of knowledge
from the classroom, to the clinical setting, and back to the classroom
(Edgecombe et al., 1999). Research conducted around the implementation of the
DEU model has provided qualitative and quantitative data that suggest that
transfer of knowledge does occur. Additional outcomes include the following:
Both students and nurse clinicians prefer the DEU placement to traditional
clinical learning scenarios; nurse doctors report being challenged in their
role, which results in improved practice; there is an overall sense of improved
relationships, both between the academic and health care institutions, and
between students and the nursing doctors; and students report a stronger sense
of inclusion in the DEU ( Gonda , Wotton, Edgecombe, & Mason, 1999).
The initial DEU settings also
yielded some areas for improvement Students found that the time commitment of
the DEU along with other course work allowed little time for reflection ( Gonda
et al, 1999; Moscato , Kaakinen , Mitchell, Gatlin, & Miller, 2004). Nurse
clinicians reported being challenged to adjust to the role of teacher and to
learn the language of the evaluation tools ( Moscato et al, 2004). These
challenges were eagerly met by the academics and the nurse clinicians, with
solutions from both parties, as the overall positive experience by all resulted
in a desire to continue with the DEU model.
Impact of Dedicated Educational Unit on Nursing Education
The DEU is a collaborative learning
model that uses existing clinical settings as an optimal learning environment
for nursing students. The expertise of the academic faculty and nurse clinician
is maximized in this model to allow for improved knowledge transfer for
students from the classroom to the clinical setting. Nurse clinicians report a
preference for the model as they have a stronger relationship with the student
and the academic faculty, and they are more familiar with a specific school’s
goals and outcomes.
Students report a stronger sense of belonging to the unit,
allowing them to learn the work of the nurse and grow in their role. The DEU
utilizes existing clinical settings and established relationships with service
partners to enhance nursing and student satisfaction in the education of
nursing students.
While the current literature
indicates that the DEU is an innovative and collaborative way to address the
pending nurse faculty shortage, additional research in this area is needed.
Evidence in support of improved student learning remains mostly qualitative and
anecdotal. Further research into the learning benefits of a DEU is recommended.