Amanda Wilde (Host): Welcome to Careers in Care, a Mount Carmel College of Nursing podcast. Today, we're going inside the Dedicated Education Unit to understand how a new model is transforming nurse training. Sabrina Jeffers is an RN CBSN, and Brandon Welch is a nursing student. And I am your host, Amanda Wilde. Sabrina, Brandon, welcome and thank you so much for being here for this conversation.

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: Thank you.

Brandon Welch: Thank you for having us.

Host: You were both part of the first-ever Dedicated Education Unit in the system. Sabrina, can you walk us through how the idea started?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: We've had a lot of vacancies in our unit. And a lot of people start and they really don't have the fundamentals of what they need from nursing school: what nursing really is on the floor, what it's really like to take care of five patients, what the workload is, the different skills, how to organize their day, time management and things like that.

So, they developed this program in Maryland, I believe, and it worked really well for retention. So, what it is, nursing students worked with the nurse on the floor. And it's a one-on-one type thing or two-on-one. It teaches them really the basics of nursing and really how to cope on the floor with five patients.

Host: So, it's very much hands-on. Is that what intrigued you about it, Brandon?

Brandon Welch: Yeah, most definitely. So, it was proposed to us as a class after one day of lecture. I saw it as an opportunity to kind of learn more of the hands-on skills that is required in nursing. As opposed to having a clinical group of, you know, eight to 10 students, which is typically how they are ran. It was more of a, you know, two-to-one, two students to one nurse ratio. And you kind of were able to walk through and see what the day-to-day skills and activities of the nurse really are.

Host: Sabrina, you said you launched the dedicated education unit partially in response to a high nurse vacancy rate. What was the moment you realized something drastic needed to change?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: People would start right out of nursing school and they would leave within a couple months. It was too hard for them. They didn't understand. They didn't know how to prioritize or time manage their day, take care of five patients. Because in nursing school, if you have basic clinicals, you don't really have any patients. You have maybe one; where in real life, you have four to five patients.

Host: And Sabrina, you trained as an adjunct clinical instructor through the College of Nursing. What was that experience like and how did that prepare you for mentoring students on the unit?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: I was also a clinical instructor at another college for LPN students And so, clinical is really kind of my thing. Through the school, we went to the school and we had classes on being a clinical instructor, what to expect from the students, how to prepare the students for the day. We went there three days for eight hours and they gave us basically the plan of what they wanted from the students, and that's how we started.

Host: Brandon, you were one of the first students in the DEU model. From your perspective, what did a typical day look like working one-on-one with an assigned nurse instructor?

Brandon Welch: Yeah. So, I mean it really mimicked what Sabrina would've experienced by herself, taking care of five patients typically. So, we were able to really follow her lead and really care for more and will be more adaptable to, you know, the patients on the floor, caring for five patients as opposed to one or two that you would typically see in a regular clinical group. So, I think it would've prepared me better starting off as a nurse, getting that full experience in school as opposed to the larger clinical groups.

Host: So, shadowing your nurse's exact schedule and taking their patients is a unique approach. And I think you just touched on this a little, Brandon, how that helped you set up and build trust and confidence.

Brandon Welch: Yeah. No, I think it definitely helped to build confidence a little bit better., Like Sabrina kind of touched on. A lot of the new students transitioning into their careers may not have been prepared as well. And I think that this really gave a great insight of what to expect day to day as an RN on the floor that we had worked on.

Host: And then, Sabrina from the instructor's perspective, how did having students working directly with you in this close way impact your workflow or your teaching style, or even your own professional growth?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: I like it. I think they learn a lot. It builds my confidence that, you know, our nurses coming out will be better. They know what to expect. They know how to handle things. It's really enjoyable to see that, when they finish the DEU, they really can handle the five patients themselves. It helps with their orientation to the floor. We're doing it for retention pretty much, but they gain a lot of knowledge and they're much farther ahead than the other students with traditional clinicals.

Host: And Brandon, most new nurses say half the battle is just learning the floor. How did the DEU environment help you get comfortable with the unit, the team, and the day-to-day rhythm?

Brandon Welch: Initially, we had came in on a separate day to get our Sabrina schedule, so that we could kind of mimic and plan out our week. But we also were introduced with a tour of the floor. So, that definitely made it more comfortable, transitioning into a newer environment, so to speak. We were able to kind of see how things operated initially, and then just made it more comfortable starting off during the clinicals.

Host: And now, the program has expanded into the emergency room and Mount Carmel, St. Anne's. What do you think has made this model so successful and scalable and that other places can also pick it up as a teaching tool.

Brandon Welch: Yeah. No, I think it can be adapted to any medical floor including the ERs. I think it's a good experience for the students to be able to see those different types of areas, because not all students necessarily know what type of nursing they want to get into, coming out of nursing. And sometimes they are kind of just thrown into different situations, feeling it out. So, adapting it to different types of healthcare is definitely ideal. And I think it helps a larger part of the students more.

Host: Do you agree, Sabrina?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: I do. And I also believe that this way they find out what nursing is really like. It seems that once they're done and if they take a position, orientation would be shorter for them, because they already have progressed with their skills and managing five patients.

Host: When we talk about retention, one of the big goals of the program, Sabrina, you've had around 12 students come through the DEU. And several have already committed to joining the team. What does that mean to you as a mentor and a colleague on the unit?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: It's exciting. Because we've watched them grow and we know they'll be good nurses. I'm an old-school nurse, so I'm a different nurse than the rest of the ones coming out. So at least they've learned how things really are and how to really do things, and they've perfected their skills and they can actually assess their patients the proper way and take good care of their patients.

Host: That's interesting. You said you're an old-school nurse because my next question's really about the future and looking ahead. What is your hope for the future of DEUs across the health system? And how do you think this model can continue shaping the next generation of nurses? I'd like both your perspectives on that. Maybe starting with you, Brandon.

Brandon Welch: It definitely heightens your skills going into your career. And it is very adaptable. Like we've kind of talked about, you can use it in different areas of healthcare and all types of different nursing. And it really mirrors that ratio that the nurse experiences every day. And it's just really more of a comfort thing.

I think, starting off, we kind of talked about how being ready in orientation and things like that. So, I think it just builds confidence. And I think a lot of that is necessary for the next generation of nurses, so that we can really continue this path and advance healthcare as we go.

Host: Sabrina, what's your hope for the future of DEUs across the entire health system?

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: I think they need to continue them and I think they need to implement them everywhere. I feel that the old-school clinicals of six, eight, 10 students per one instructor with, you know, you might get to take care of one patient, I think that's good for the first quarter, the first semester. But after that, I think they really need to know how to care for five patients and realize that when you come out of school, you will have five patients or more. I feel that with one instructor, they learn the skills that they need so they can perform and adapt and succeed as nurses because a lot of people come out of school and don't like it because nursing school didn't teach them this.

Host: Sabrina Jeffers, Brandon Welsh, congratulations on your success and good luck moving into that future that we envision for this program, and thank you for your insights into this model of training.

Sabrina Jeffers, RN: Thank you.

Brandon Welch: Thank you. My pleasure.

Host: For more information, visit mccn.edu. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it on your social channels and check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Careers in Care, a Mount Carmel College of Nursing podcast.