1102 - Meeting Educational Needs of Associate Degree Nursing Programs: Innovative Clinical Sites

Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) programs search for clinical sites to meet the student’s educational needs. With several facilities setting restrictions to access, ADN educators need to be creative and utilize innovation to meet curricular needs. Through this presentation, participants will look at other settings that may be available and beneficial to offer alternative and active learning strategies.

The need to meet the classroom and clinical requirements for nursing students can be a daunting activity for nursing program directors. Unfortunately, some facilities only permit Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs to be allowed admission for clinical learning experiences. This often contradicts the fact that these restrictions will not allow for pre-licensure training but will allow for post-licensure hiring. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity (2021, p. 200) calls for increasing the proportion BSN nurses in the workforce. Some facilities have responded to this recommendation by requiring that ADN graduates earn a BSN within a certain timeframe following their hiring.

ADN educators need to be creative and utilize innovation to meet curricular needs especially with clinical sites. As ADN programs do not include lengthy content on community and public health, that does not mean that these areas cannot be seen as effective learning sites. As educational population-based opportunities are available, health promotion and disease prevention knowledge can be presented allowing a higher level of critical thinking and clinical judgement (Dong et al., 2021). Using different clinical sites, the use of active learning strategies can promote improved engagement of meaningful experiences and could lead to a deeper learning of caring for patients of all ages, ethnic groups, and cultures. Several areas can support this direction such as the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials, and the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) Competencies to prepare future graduates for the changes in the Next Gen for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Through this presentation, participants will look at other settings that may be beneficial to offer active learning strategies, provide student-centered approaches by utilizing community and public venues.