Strength of cross‐sector collaborations in co‐designing an extended rural and remote nursing placement innovation: Focusing on student learning in preference to student churning

Abstract

Aim: To describe the strength of a cross-sector and multi-university collaboration in co-designing an extended nursing placement innovation in rural and remote Australia.Context: Registered nurses are Australia's largest health workforce. Shortduration placements can limit nursing student exposure to rural and remote practice, impacting student capacity to tailor and contextualise their practice, navigate complex inequities, establish a sense of belonging and consider rural practice post-registration. Extended nursing placements have been recommended to address these challenges, but there are no guidelines governing their development and limited resources to support implementation.Approach: Methods adopted in program development included the following: (1) collaboration establishment; (2) co-defining challenges confronting nurse education in these contexts; (3) co-developing guiding principles; (4) co-designing a new approach to nurse education, the Extended Nursing Placement Program (ENPP); and (5) the co-contribution of stakeholders to program design, implementation and evaluation. Regional stakeholders include a NSW and Victorian Local Health District/Service, three Aboriginal health services and the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. University participants include two metropolitan universities, a University Department of Rural Health and final-year Bachelor of Nursing students. Program implementation in Semester 1 of 2022 with seven final-year nursing students. Conclusion: The authors propose that the adoption of collaborative approaches can contribute to re-framing student nurse education and the development of a rural-ready nursing workforce. These approaches can provide regions and universities with the opportunity to avoid student churn whilst promoting the attainment of skills required to work, live and thrive in these locations. How to cite this article: Jones D, Randall S, Williams A, et al. Strength of cross-sector collaborations in co-designing an extended rural and remote nursing placement innovation: Focusing on student learning in preference to student churning.

Competition or collaboration in regional Australia? A cross‐border and multi‐university approach to maximising rural health investments, community health and health workforce outcomes

“…In addition to these principles, the following community engagement principles were also considered to be of importance given the context in which the collaboration was formed. These engagement principles focused on: active engagement with communities to identify unmet health and health workforce needs and solutions co‐design; respect for community leadership, autonomy, voice and choice; development of flexible strategies to align to local context, needs, relationships and resources; a focus on establishing and maintaining university–community trust and respect; the need for the collaboration to work with and alongside, communities/agencies in preference to doing things to or for them; and knowledge sharing to inform community and university decision‐making 14,17 …”

“…The interrelated nature of this footprint is reflected in family and social networks, cultural identity, organisational relationships, economic connectedness and existing health workforce flows that occur between the two States. 14 A longstanding relationship had previously been established between strategic leaders from both organisations. This informal relationship provided a foundation to support the delivery of shared health workforce strategies that initially targeted regional secondary school student consideration and uptake of health career pathways.…”

“…Whilst these organisations are located in separate States, they share a similar geographical footprint. The interrelated nature of this footprint is reflected in family and social networks, cultural identity, organisational relationships, economic connectedness and existing health workforce flows that occur between the two States 14 …”

Rural health service leaders co‐design state‐wide research addressing an emerging health issue: A case report

“…Co‐design is described by Vargas et al 15 as ‘active collaboration between stakeholders in designing solutions to a prespecified problem’. Research co‐design includes the meaningful involvement of research users during the study planning phase and is an increasingly adopted strategy to avoid or limit such research waste 16,17 …”

“…Research co-design includes the meaningful involvement of research users during the study planning phase and is an increasingly adopted strategy to avoid or limit such research waste. 16,17 This commentary describes how an embedded rural health service research unit co-designed a translationfocused project with health service leaders to successfully respond to an emerging health priority.…”