Georgian College

Sandy Madorin, to explore faculty experiences teaching the two types of nursing students. Schools of nursing right across Canada are recognizing the importance of collaborative education. Dr. Limoges says it's now more common practice within Georgian's curriculum to bring the practical nursing and BScN students together for ongoing types of events. They attend a shared class and are given different tasks to solve, which begins the process of learning the importance of collaboration. "Role clarity between RNs and RPNs is essential to create a cohesive working environment, while keeping patient care as a primary focus," says Caroline Wood, a first-year BScN student. "Patients benefit from nurses understanding their roles and maximizing their scope of practice." The Practical Nursing students agree. "During the class we truly got a holistic view of the nurse's role in different health care settings," says Shaunisty Fournier, a first-year Practical Nursing student. "We looked at different clinical situations with a variety of client needs and collaborated with RN students to determine the best nursing match for each client, whether that be a new RN graduate or a RPN with 15 years of experience." Dr. Limoges says the health care system is introducing these new models of care that require the RNs and RPNs to work together. "So if we're not teaching our students how to work collaboratively, where else would they learn these critical skills. We're ideally situated to offer learning like that?" Initial feedback on the recent publications by these researchers is very positive. "People are citing and reading all of the papers we have published," note Limoges and Lankshear. "We're hitting topics that are resonating with nurses in the areas of practice, education, leadership and research. It gives us a sense that our work is helpful, which is very satisfying to us as researchers." COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLNESS RESEARCH AT GEORGIAN COLLEGE • understanding the healthcare environment - role clarity among healthcare providers and impacts on patient care - quality improvement initiatives - simulated training in healthcare • mental health supports • the intersection of technology and health and wellness - product development - product testing - market research Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and Georgian College Working together to improve healthcare in our community The Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) provides high-quality care for a large geographic region including Simcoe County and the District of Muskoka. The area is home to more than 450,000 residents, with 40 per cent of RVH's patients living outside the City of Barrie. Located just steps away from Georgian's Barrie Campus, RVH physicians and nurses are working on a wide range of research projects with the college. Students from Georgian's Research Analyst and nursing programs are providing research support in the areas of sports medicine, infection prevention and control (IPAC), new in-hospital care models for prematurely delivered babies and oncoplastic breast surgery for patients with breast cancer. The research partnership offers Georgian students unique experiential learning opportunities that help them apply the knowledge and skills they develop at the college. All the research teams are aiming to publish their findings in academic journals and present at academic conferences. GeorgianCollege.ca/CARI 9

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