Faculty and Staff Nurse Perspectives on Collaboration in Clinical Learning

The benefits of collaboration between nursing faculty members and staff nurses in the clinical learning environment are well established. Unfortunately, little is known about improving collaboration to benefit student learning. Descriptive methods were used to examine perceptions of faculty and staff nurses’ collaboration in clinical environments. Data was collected from 497 participants via online Qualtrics survey. Participants were divided into three groups: staff nurses, nursing faculty members, and nurses who worked concurrently in academia and practice. Content analysis procedures were used along with NVivo Pro (Version 11, www.lumivero.com). Four themes were identified: expectations, coordination, communication, and courtesy. Results support that academia and practice professionals wish to work together, but often have different perceptions of each other’s roles. Implications for faculty and staff nurses to improve collaboration are discussed.