Collaborating With Rural Practice Partners to Provide a Primary Care Experience for Prelicensure Nursing Students

Abstract

Background: Prelicensure nursing education has generally emphasized acute care; however, as primary care changes in the United States, academia must transform. The national call for transforming primary care requires innovation in the education of prelicensure nursing students.

Problem: To ensure future RNs can function in the primary care setting and assume enhanced roles within the interprofessional team, prelicensure nursing students need to be exposed to primary care. A key barrier to providing this essential education is the lack of partnerships with primary care facilities.

Approach: The purpose of this project was to collaborate with rural practice partners to provide a primary care clinical experience for prelicensure nursing students.

Outcomes: Collaboration between academic-practice partners to develop a clinical experience for prelicensure nursing students allowed exposure to the role of RNs in rural primary care.

Conclusions: By sharing the process for planning the clinical experience, other interested academic institutions may replicate similar opportunities.