Bridging Higher Education and Employment: an Evaluation of the Clinical Facilitator in Nurse Education

This book describes an evaluation of the clinical facilitators who supervise trainee nurses on clinical placement. This is work at the interface between higher education and employment. The literature on university-community collaboration is reviewed to establish the context. The evaluation looked at outcomes, process and stakeholder perspectives. Outcome measures proved difficult to identify. The process was explored through in-depth interviews with the twelve clinical facilitators. This established a two dimensional model of clinical facilitation. The views of stakeholders were sought using interviews and focus groups and a questionnaire for each group. This established the perceived utility of supervisory teaching methods; the relative value of the persons encountered by students and the extent to which the clinical facilitators had met their objectives. Clinical facilitators were ranked second most useful on placement behind the designated assessor mentor but ahead of the university link tutor. The most favored method was demonstration of a skill by an expert. The evaluation concluded with twelve recommendations for future practice.