Health Care in the Community: Developing Academic/Practice Partnerships for Care Coordination and Managing Transitions

The delivery of health care is quickly changing from an acute care to a community-based setting. Faculty development and mastery in the use of new technologies, such as high-definition simulation and virtual communities are crucial for effective student learning outcomes. Students’ benefits include opportunities for hands-on experience in various patient care scenarios, realtime faculty feedback regarding their critical reasoning and clinical performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and access to a nonthreatening learning environment. The results of this study provide some evidence of the benefits of developing faculty and nursing curricula that addresses the shift from an illness-based, acute hospital model, to a community and population health-based preventive model.