Building Clinical and Academic Staff and Student Capacity in Dedicated Education Units

Abstract

This chapter describes examples of the opportunities afforded to clinical and academic staff and students in Dedicated Education Units to participate in ‘capacity building’ activities, also referred to in other chapters as ‘preparation’ for the Dedicated Education Unit, ‘staff development’ or ‘faculty development’. The authors explore capacity building in terms of curriculum, formal and incidental capacity building strategies, and formal and incidental learning outcomes, including graduate attributes and competencies, with a major focus on clinical and academic staff capacity building in assessment of, and feedback to, students. They detail a University-run clinical and academic staff Dedicated Education Unit workshops designed to inform staff about how a Dedicated Education Unit works in different clinical settings, the undergraduate nursing programme, and teaching, assessment and feedback strategies. The authors also describe how the Dedicated Education Unit’s support structures and peer teaching and learning provide inbuilt capacity building for clinical and academic staff and students. The chapter concludes with a call for research into interprofessional Dedicated Education Units and into the impact of Dedicated Education Units on international nursing students’ clinical learning experiences.