Collaborative Nursing Education Partnerships: Faculty Experience of Shared Curriculum

Abstract

Collaborative partnerships between universities and colleges represent a new kind of synergism with potential to improve the quality of nursing education and ultimately patient care. These partnerships can also be challenging due to the difference in the respective organizational cultures, institutional mandates, and missions. There is a lack of research investigating the faculty member experiences within collaborative partnerships. In this paper we report on nursing faculty members’ experience of offering a shared integrated context-relevant undergraduate nursing curriculum within one Western Canadian collaborative nursing education partnership. Using a qualitative descriptive research design, we conducted two focus groups, one at the college and one at the university, to discuss their experience of adopting a shared curriculum. College and university nursing faculty involved in teaching year 2 of the new integrated context relevant baccalaureate curriculum were eligible to participate. We audio-recorded the focus groups and analyzed the transcribed data using thematic analysis. We identified five key themes within the broad categories of positionality and perceptions that were critical elements in shaping the nursing faculty experience in both institutions: a) unique institutional culture and norms, b) shared curriculum communication, c) feelings of uncertainty, d) desire for reciprocity among nurse educators within the partnership, and e) vision for a dream team. Ultimately, the nursing faculty at both the college and university were positive in their belief that offering a shared curriculum can contribute to improving the overall quality of collaborative nursing education programs and undergraduate student education.