Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nurse Education in Practice journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nepr Clinical education Impact of the dedicated education unit teaching model on the perceived competencies and professional attributes of nursing students Lorraine M. Rusch * , Kandis McCafferty, Anne M. Schoening, Maribeth Hercinger, Julie Manz Creighton University College of Nursing, Criss II, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178, USA ABSTRACT The Dedicated Education Unit clinical teaching model is a strategy designed to create optimal teaching and learning environments. Evidence is lacking regarding the influence of the Dedicated Education Unit model on students’ specific nursing competencies and professional attributes. This descriptive, comparative study took place in a private baccalaureate nursing program in the United States. The researchers compared evaluations of student competencies and attributes who participated in a Dedicated Education Unit model (n = 163) to students who participated in a traditional clinical teaching model (n = 147) immediately following the practicum in which the Dedicated Education Unit model was used. The Dedicated Education Unit group scored significantly higher in 26 of 33 specific competencies and professional attributes compared to students who participated in the traditional clinical teaching model. These data suggest that the Dedicated Education Unit model promotes knowledge, competency, and professional attribute development more effectively than the traditional clinical teaching model. 1. Introduction Nurse educators use a variety of classroom, laboratory, and clinical teaching strategies to help prepare students for practice. Traditionally, nursing student clinical or practicum experiences heavily rely on the nursing faculty to teach students the multifaceted aspects of nursing care. In the traditional model, faculty typically supervise up to 10 students on a hospital unit and serve as the primary contact for medi- cation administration, skills, and responding to questions. This student- faculty ratio can result in a faculty being partially responsible for the care of up to 20–30 patients. In addition to safety concerns with this model, this patient load often allows little time for meaningful teaching and student assessment (DeMeester et al., 2017). There is little evidence to support the efficacy of the traditional clinical teaching model; however, there is much literature about new nursing graduate knowl- edge deficits upon entry into practice (Del Bueno, 2005; Hezaveh et al., 2013; Hickey, 2009). Nurse educators should strive to develop teaching models that address these deficits. The Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) clinical teaching model is one strategy being used to address the challenges associated with the tra- ditional model and to enhance new graduate readiness for practice. The DEU is designed to create an “optimal teaching and learning environ- ment” (Moscato et al., 2007, p. 32) for students in which staff nurses serve as the primary instructor in partnership with nursing faculty. This partnership capitalizes on the expertise and knowledge of both bedside clinicians and nursing faculty while maintaining safe patient care and a high quality educational experience for the student (Moscato et al., 2013; DeMeester et al., 2017). The DEU model is supported by the Cognitive Apprenticeship model of teaching in which the student is partnered with an expert in a workplace environment (Collins et al., 1991). The expert promotes the students’ development of higher order thinking and by making reasoning and decision making more explicit. In contrast, the traditional model of clinical teaching involves students being more dependent on the faculty and having varying levels of collaboration with staff nurses. The DEU model was first implemented in Australia in the 1990s, and has gradually been adopted in the United States. Most DEU literature supports the value of the model in terms of the positive teaching- learning relationship, the learning environment, and overall student and nurse satisfaction with the teaching model (Rhodes et al., 2012; Mulready-Shick and Flanagan, 2014; Nishioka et al., 2014; DeMeester, 2016; DeMeester et al., 2017). Other research has explored DEU model effectiveness by measuring student performance on standardized tests, course exams following a DEU experience, and the National Council Licensure Examination (Sharpnack et al., 2014; Springer et al., 2012; Moscato et al., 2013). There are no quantitative studies exploring specific nursing com- petencies and professional attributes of students after participating in the DEU model of teaching compared to those in the traditional model. Thus, the aim of this descriptive, comparative study was to compare evaluations of the competencies and professional attributes of nursing students who participated in a DEU model to evaluations of students https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2018.09.002 Received 22 January 2018; Received in revised form 10 September 2018; Accepted 11 September 2018 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: lorirusch@creighton.edu (L.M. Rusch), kandismccafferty@creighton.edu (K. McCafferty), maribethhercinger@creighton.edu (A.M. Schoening), maribethhercinger@creighton.edu (M. Hercinger), juliemanz@creighton.edu (J. Manz). Nurse Education in Practice 33 (2018) 90–93 1471-5953/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T