Educators are concerned about Generation Z's inexperience with higher order critical thinking and tendency to give up or move on when faced with challenges. While acknowledging that this generation brings technological skills and an inclusive mindset that will enhance our profession, educators are challenged to adapt teaching strategies to promote critical thinking and foster perseverance. This manuscript will recount the attributes of Generation Z and describe problem-based learning as a strategy to enhance critical thinking and perseverance.

The aims of this study were to implement and evaluate an innovative collaborative event with hospitalized patients to help develop dental hygiene and nursing students' interprofessional competence. The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) was used to assess the students' perceptions of interprofessional skill acquisition. Participants were 24 dental hygiene and 25 nursing students at the University of Southern Indiana in spring 2016. The results showed that all students had statistically significant improvement on the ICCAS items from pretest to posttest. There were no significant differences in improvement between the two groups on any single posttest item as the impact of the responses was similar. These results suggest that incorporating collaborative experiences in hospital settings can be an effective means to develop students' skills in interprofessional competence.

This analysis informed the decision to use a healthcare community of practice framework for an interprofessional dedicated education unit.

Dedicated Education Units optimize the expertise of staff nurses to provide clinical instruction to nursing students, thereby creating a need to prepare staff nurses for the teaching role and educate them about clinical teaching strategies. A curriculum to educate Dedicated Education Unit staff nurses in the art of clinical instruction was created to fill this gap in staff development. This article describes the development of an innovative, interactive, evidence-based curriculum to prepare Dedication Education Unit staff nurses and strengthen an academic-practice partnership.

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