The strength of co-teaching informs educators ' understanding

This article describes the Canadian experience related to the development, implementation, and evaluation of the primary care relationship between community-based physicians and nurses whereby collaboration is the underlying operational basis for their partnerships. Twenty-three family physicians were paired with 21 home health care nurses (RNs) who were responsible for the care and case management of communitydwelling seniors. The evolution of the collaborative partnership is revealed through a quality improvement framework addressing several objectives over a period of 2 years. Essential components of collaboration are identified and the impacts of collaborative practice on health care professionals and consumers are explored.

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Objective: Nursing education institutions globally have called for mentorship to help address the nursing faculty shortage; however, little is known about the current state of mentorship or the barriers and facilitators for implementing mentorship programs in Canadian nursing schools. The objective of this study is to identify the current state of mentorship in Canadian nursing academia and explore factors that impact implementation of mentorship programs.Methods: A sequential-explanatory mixed methods design with 2 phases: (1) cross sectional survey of nursing faculty to identify the current state of mentorship in Canadian schools of nursing and explore facilitators and barriers to implementing mentorship programs; and, (2) qualitative interviews about nursing faculty member’s experiences with mentorship.  Integration occurred when selecting phase 2 participants based on phase 1 results. A web-based survey was developed based on a review of literature; surveys were collected between September 2015 and March 2016 from 935 nursing faculty members.  Survey participants (n = 48) were purposively sampled for maximum variation to participate in qualitative interviews, and data were analyzed thematically.Results: The majority of Canadian nursing schools lack formal mentorship programs with existing mentorship programs varying in scope and components. Factors influencing mentorship program implementation include: mentorship training and guidelines; quality of the mentoring relationships; choice and availability of mentors; organizational support; time and competing priorities; culture of the institution; and evaluation of mentorship outcomes.Conclusions: Our results confirm lack of formalized mentorship programs in Canadian schools of nursing. In developing mentorship programs, academic leaders need to consider multiple barriers and facilitators to ensure success.

Co-teaching has been explored in the field of education but is a relatively new phenomenon in higher education. Its benefits and challenges are well documented; however, what is lacking is substantive evidence highlighting the influence of co-teaching amongst undergraduate students. Particularly, in practice-based professions like teaching, nursing, and social work, active participation in collaborative teams is more the norm than the exception. Undergraduate students need to have opportunities to learn how to be collaborative, as well as observe modeling of collaborative teaching practice. In the article, we report on a two-year mixed-methods research study that investigated students' and instructors' experiences with co-teaching in a Nurse as Educator course. The findings from three cohorts engaged in the research suggest co-teaching to be an effective teaching and learning strategy. However, for co-teaching to be a positive experience for both students and instructors, purposeful scaffolding and supports need to be in place. Also outlined are recommendations for higher education with regard to designing and modeling co-teaching practice.