Practice Partners Research Articles

75 Do Real Work

Abstract Preparing for a career in the food, agriculture and manufacturing industries involves a combination of academic and practical training, industry partnerships, and professional development opportunities. Building strategic collaborations with industry partners is critical to this equation, as experiential learning programs offer several benefits to both the students and the organizations. Programs such as internships, onsite industry-based research and career development opportunities are valuable to providing practical hands-on experience through observing the application of the theory learned in the classroom to the real world. Students obtain insights through real-world projects, create meaningful relationships in their field of interest and develop skills that are highly valued by potential employers. At Simmons Foods, our journey of building a culture of learning and development has become the cornerstone of our first corporate value of Put People First. Based on the approach called "Do Real Work," the internship program at Simmons is built to not only work on current problems to be solved, but also provide the opportunity for students to focus on their professional development and learn skills that allow them to grow their confidence and sense of accomplishment. Further, as we seek to develop leaders in our manufacturing facilities, Simmons’ Career Leadership Program is a strategic six-month training course investing in the growth and development of future leaders, rotating them through all areas across the business units and manufacturing plants. Both of these programs are equally valuable to the company, as the students often provide a curious and fresh perspective through brainstorming and problem-solving sessions. They are the source of practical training for supervisory employees and they leave with an edge-up on future recruitment opportunities. All in the spirit of developing the next generation of skilled experts and effective leaders!

Tree removals as socioecological experiments in cities

As keystone structures in urban ecosystems, trees are critical to addressing many of the current livability, health, and environmental challenges facing cities. Every day, trees are removed from urban landscapes as part of routine management. These tree removals are an opportunity for implementing manipulative experiments to directly measure the social and ecological functions of trees. Here we review the kinds of tree removals that commonly occur in cities, assess the relevant opportunities that arise for research–practice partnerships, and discuss the challenges posed when implementing experiments of this nature. We argue that experimental studies on the routine removal of urban trees will improve and expand the mechanistic understanding of how trees support biodiversity and human well‐being in cities beyond current knowledge, which is largely based on correlative studies. Finally, we highlight the opportunity for experiments to be co‐designed by scientists and urban land managers, and how “learning while doing” can generate tangible research impacts and improve urban forest decision making.

Twenty Years of Advanced Placement Human Geography: A Program Assessment

This Focus section of The Professional Geographer contains four articles that were prepared for a program assessment of Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography. Using twenty years of AP program data, the authors probe into the participation of students in the course and how they fared on the exam. AP exam data were analyzed at the national, state, and district-level scales as well as for students differentiated by grade level, race, ethnicity, and gender. The Focus section concludes with a commentary that mulls the private and public values of a geography course in the AP program. This introduction presents the rationale for the program assessment, a summary of the key findings, and a call for geographers to improve the effectiveness of AP Human Geography while supporting research–practice partnerships, dual enrollment programs, and other locally conceived and tailored alternatives to corporate authority, prescriptive curriculum, and standardization in public education. An ongoing assessment of AP Human Geography is recommended as part of a broader discipline-based effort to strengthen and secure the status of geography in U.S. education.

The Queensland Virtual Integrated Practice (VIP) partnership program pilot study: an Australian-first model of care to support rural general practice

BackgroundThere is a critical lack of medical workforce internationally, and this is particularly notable in rural and remote Australia where strategies to address workforce shortages are urgently required. This pilot study aimed to implement and evaluate a Virtual Integrated Practice (VIP) Program in the Australian rural primary care setting.MethodsThe VIP model was developed using co-creation methodology and involves an urban GP joining a rural general practice team to provide ongoing care to patients remotely via secure telehealth. The pilot study was conducted in two western Queensland general practices, commencing in October 2021 with one rural practice and extending to an additional rural practice from November 2022. Evaluation included a retrospective review of service, billing and cost data, and an online survey for patients. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (Project number: 2021/HE002434).ResultsThere were 1468 services provided through to December 2022, including general consults (n = 1197), therapeutic procedures (n = 68), mental health treatment plans (n = 68) and chronic disease management plans (n = 59). Patients were predominantly female (73.1%) and did not have their appointment at the practice (57.8%). Among 1282 occasions of service, less than 20% of consultations (n = 224) required support from staff (e.g., a nurse), and more than half were repeat patient encounters (53.0%). Survey respondents (n = 45) indicated that they were satisfied (9.3%) or highly satisfied (90.7%) with the care provided, and importantly, 95.5% of respondents reported that the service improved their access to the GP. More than 20% of respondents indicated that they would attend the Emergency Department if virtual care was not available.ConclusionsData from this pilot study has informed translation to an additional 20 vulnerable rural general practices in three further rural regions in Queensland in 2023 and evaluation is ongoing. This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility and acceptability of an innovative, digitally supported community-focussed, healthcare initiative to arrest the decline in rural general practice workforce, improve patient care access and support rural practice viability.

Bridging the gap between science and care: a qualitative exploration of the role of the Scientific Linking Pin researcher working in research and practice partnerships

Context: The Living Lab in Ageing and Long-Term Care (Netherlands) and Nurturing Innovation in Care Homes Excellence in Leeds (NICHE-Leeds; UK) are partnerships between science and care. The Scientific Linking Pin (SLP), a senior researcher employed by a university, works one day per week in a LTC organization, and has a pivotal role in the partnership.
 Objective: To explore the nature of the SLP role
 Methods: A qualitative approach was used. Fifteen individuals with at least one year’s experience as a SLP in the Living Lab or NICHE-Leeds participated in a semi-structured interview. Data were thematically analyzed. 
 Findings: Participants described how the SLP role gave them insight into what matters to care organizations, and how it enabled them to impact LTC practice. Participants experienced the role to be multifaceted. Goals and activities performed by SLPs included developing relationships, raising awareness of the practice-science partnership, identifying (research) priorities and generating research questions, building committees, brokering knowledge, developing research studies, generating academic output, building links and connections, and assisting with internal projects. Challenges faced were mistrust by care staff and poor engagement, working with staff from different professional backgrounds, research not being a priority, multiple and rapidly changing priorities, and differences in expectations. SLPs addressed these challenges through relationship building, creating a ‘safe’ space for care staff, building engagement, and expectation management.
 Implications: Partnership working in the care sector is gaining international recognition and adoption, and therefore it is useful to capture and share learning about successful implementation of our approach.

Introduction of QR code cards at Staffordshire University: supporting students and practice partners in midwifery education

Introduction of QR code cards at Staffordshire University: supporting students and practice partners in midwifery education

5.O. Workshop: Best Practices against child obesity

Abstract European countries in the field of health promotion and prevention of non-communicable diseases, indicating best practices and specific risk factors from research results on child obesity that have already developed from previous research actions. The overall goal of the JA is to implement two best practices Grunau Moves established in Germany and Smart Family established in Finland in different MS. The implementation process will include the knowledge transfer between best practice owners (Smart Family and Grunau Moves) and partner organisations from the Member States through the implementation of actions, the cooperation and exchange of knowledge between member states, the organisation of meetings, and related technical support. Also important part of the project is to produce policy developments to foster public health investments at community level in each country member on Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases. Scope of the project will be to promote to participating member states healthy lifestyles in families with children to prevent childhood obesity, to increase physical activity and healthy diet in children,families and communities with a focus on social norms, recognition and self-esteem in deprived districts in member states. Also, to study the different prerequisites for member states to implement either Grunau Moves or Smart Family. Finally, to prepare the sustainability of these best practices and transfer to other member states based on the acquired knowledge and experience. The expected results focus on the identification of concrete challenges in the prevention of non-communicable diseases and policy solutions in the form of best practices and innovative solutions for collective action between the Member States and the Commission, to tackle the main public health challenges Key messages • To strengthen a cooperative approach in tackling childhood obesity. • To improve the planning and development of the policies to tackle childhood obesity.

The ACCN Core Essentials’ Impact on Practice Partners and Academia: What Nurse Leaders Need to Know

In 2021, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) released a revision to the competencies for nursing education, which provides a framework for nursing curricula at the prelicensure and graduate levels. This new framework will impact both academia and practice partners. This article provides a general overview of the framework, competency-based education, and the impact on both academia and practice partners so that nurse leaders will understand these changes and their impact on the workforce.

Bridging the Preparation-Practice Gap: Collaboration With Practice Partner in Classroom Simulation.

Bridging the Preparation-Practice Gap: Collaboration With Practice Partner in Classroom Simulation.

Connecting Reading Research on with Educational Practice and Policy

AbstractThere is a well‐known gap between research and practice. While there are investments in some strategies to address this gap, they are often not drawing from the existing research on how to improve research use. This article shares what we understand about the many ways research is used in education, why educators may use research, and under what conditions research is used in policy and practice. If scientists understand the levers that support research use, they may be able to create research that is more useful to decision‐makers and share that research through effective strategies such as using boundary spanners, individuals who straddle both the research and practice worlds. The article concludes by sharing some examples of promising strategies to improve the use of research in education such as research–practice partnerships.

Developing Nurse Practitioners for Hospitalist Roles: Lessons Learned From an Academic Practice Partnership.

Background: There are numerous benefits to academic practice partnerships. While there is great emphasis on the new graduate nurse transition to practice, there is less intention placed on the new nurse practitioner (NP) role transition. In a rural teaching hospital, leadership perceived a need for more support to successfully transition NPs into hospitalist practice roles. Objective: One academic practice partnership developed and implemented a grant-funded program to support advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) transition to practice at a rural teaching hospital. Methods: Informed by the results of a needs assessment, faculty and practice partners delivered lecture content in a face-to-face setting during scheduled hours. Results: Although the content was well received, attendance to and engagement with the program were suboptimal. Conclusions: Upon reflection, the program team gained valuable lessons regarding role expectations, intentional interdisciplinary collaboration, timing, alignment, delivery format, and the need for a dedicated program coordinator. Implications for nursing: APRN transition programs can provide much-needed support with dedicated structure, clear communication, and individualized content. It can also be a recruitment and retention strategy for healthcare organizations.

Do Research–Practice Partnerships Offer a Promising Approach to Producing Research that Improves Social Care Practice and Outcomes?

Do Research–Practice Partnerships Offer a Promising Approach to Producing Research that Improves Social Care Practice and Outcomes?

Theoretical Models of Collaborative Partnerships in Arts-Health Care Practices for Older Adults.

Although research investigating collaborative partnerships with older adults has been slow to develop, promoting user involvement and co-production is gaining interest in aging studies, with the aim of improving interactions between the different stakeholders involved, and toward the more effective delivery of care provisions and better community life for aging people. This is based on existing evidence that improved dynamics within collaborative and mutual learning processes can enhance the integration of new practices at different levels by generating novel creative approaches and practice frameworks for the delivery of quality care for older adults. This article presents the findings from a series of narrative interviews conducted with different stakeholders involved in arts-health practices in Finland and South Korea. Focusing on empirical perspectives of these stakeholders on arts-health practices-from planning to assessment-this study identifies vital components of co-producing and co-delivering arts-health practices for older adults and highlights the importance of utilizing their late-life creativity as active partners in such practices across cultural contexts. In addition to identifying three central stages of developing arts-health practices, two theocratical models are proposed to provide structural support for collaborative partnerships in arts-health practices, with the aim of promoting holistic care provisions for aging people through such practices.

From practice-to-research-to-practice: leveraging reciprocal partnerships to advance racial justice in education across contexts and ecological levels

ABSTRACT African American families face significant racial barriers to their educational attainment. Within the experience of schooling specifically, anti-Black oppressive forces manifest in both structural and interpersonal forms, and existing challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Black families have consistently developed strategies for navigating racialized educational barriers. Moreover, their own agency has been enhanced through engagement with justice-oriented community partnerships. The current study captures how a reciprocal university-community partnership advanced African American parent agency before and during the pandemic. The history of the partnership is first detailed, followed by a qualitative study of data from six parent focus groups regarding parents’ perceptions of barriers to educational success across public and private school contexts, their own efforts to overcome those barriers, and the role of the community university partnership in advancing the families’ educational aims. Findings reveal ecologically distinct racialized barriers in public and private school settings, with economic barriers transcending educational contexts. Black parents navigated these barriers with adaptative strategies across parent involvement domains. Implications for research, practice, and university-community partnerships are discussed.

Anti-racist research practice partnerships as critical education: dismantling the master’s house with their own tools?

ABSTRACT This paper reflects upon “Justice Now Coalition” (JNC), an anti-racist research practice partnership (RPP). The Coalition drew from the Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR) Framework as well as Black feminist, Afro-futurist, and critical race epistemologies to answer two research questions: 1) How can an urban education RPP that includes academic, community, and youth partners engage in a collaborative inquiry process that helps to dismantle the STPP/Nexus; and 2) How does engagement in the collaborative inquiry process influence research projects, group dynamics, and community members? We present a self-reflective, ethnographic case study of an anti-racist RPP that we led. We find that the collaborative inquiry teams’ primary way to dismantle the STPP/Nexus is to center Black children. They approached their work not from a policy change perspective, but in the co-creation of a space where Black youth speak, are heard, and take the agency to reimagine and reconstruct their school environment. Data also show the leadership of Black women who collaborated with partners with the intentionality of demonstrating love and critical care for Black communities. This work extends the vision of RPPs to be explicitly anti-racist and decolonizing by engaging in an Afro-futurist space in the present.

How, and under what contexts, do academic–practice partnerships collaborate to implement healthcare improvement education into preregistration nursing curriculums: a realist review protocol

IntroductionInternationally, healthcare improvement remains a clinical and educational priority. Consensus in Europe, Canada and the USA to implement quality improvement (QI) education into preregistration nursing curricula ensures students become equipped...

Academic Leadership Development: An Exploratory Study on the Impacts at the Institutional Level Based on an Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project

While demands on academic leadership in higher education have been increasing, there has been a lack of empirical studies exploring the effectiveness and impacts of leadership development interventions. In addition, recent studies suggest a model of leadership development based on an international approach. Unfortunately, the evaluation of those programs is limited in the available literature. This study thus presents the results of the impacts of a higher education (HE) academic leadership development program at the international level which consist of 12 universities in China and Europe. The project was implemented over a 4-year period, delivered through workshops, training programs, and exchanges. Following 2 years of project implementation, the mid-term impact was assessed through surveys and semi-structured interviews. Among the participants who had joined the program for more than 12 months, 51 Chinese participants and 41 European participants voluntarily took part in the online survey; of those, 21 participants were involved in the semi-structured interviews. Ultimately, the findings indicated that the program has had positive impacts on a variety of aspects, including cross-institutional networking, collaboration, partnership, and HE-related policy development and practices. Furthermore, this study has provided empirical evidence on how an academic leadership development program contributes to assisting academic institutions in broadening their connections, networking, and partnerships in order to achieve their institutional goals of development and innovation. As such, the research findings are useful for policymakers, university administrators, and related stakeholders. Lastly, the approaches taken by the academic leadership development program utilized in the current study can be applied widely in different contexts.

Young Nurse Leader Program: Inspiring the Next Generation for Formal Nursing Leadership Roles

Recruitment and retention of strong nurse leaders is essential to our health care delivery system, highlighting a need for early career engagement and mentorship. Combining experiential and didactic learning through an academic–practice partnership facilitated the creation of a 1-year leadership program for prelicensure nursing students, highlighting nursing leadership as a future career specialty. The Young Nurse Leader program combined educational sessions, precepted experiences, and self-reflection to enhance student nurses’ leadership knowledge and skills, while providing professional enrichment of the practicing nurse leaders who precepted, coached, and mentored the students.

Academic and Clinical Nurses’ Perceptions and Experiences on Academic-Practice Partnership in Evidence-Based Practice: An Interpretive Description

Aim. To explore academic and clinical nurses’ perceptions and experiences on academic-practice partnership in evidence-based practice. Background. Academic-practice partnership could promote evidence-based practice which is crucial for high-quality care. Academic and clinical nurses are the foundation of the partnerships; however, there is little knowledge of their perceptions and experiences on academic-practice partnership in evidence-based practice. Methods. This is an interpretive description study. Twenty-two eligible participants were interviewed through face-to-face or online videoconferencing meetings. Guiding questions for the interviews focused on the perceptions and experiences of academic-practice partnership in the context of evidence-based practice. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and checked verbatim. We used constant comparative analysis to analyze the qualitative data. Results. Four themes with fifteen subthemes were generated: necessities, modes, challenges, and benefits of the academic-practice partnership in evidence-based practice. Participants believed that academic-practice partnership was a necessary strategy to promote evidence-based practice and could be built through different modes. Nevertheless, most academic-practice partnerships were superficial because of specific types of challenges. However, a good academic-practice partnership could create a win-win situation for both nursing academia and clinical practice. Conclusion. Academic-practice partnership is a win-win strategy for both the academic side and clinical side to promote evidence-based practice. Different modes of academic-practice partnership provide academic and clinical nurses with more opportunities to promote evidence-based practice with a higher likelihood of successful implementation. However, related challenges require multilevel measures to provide better environments to initiate, build, and maintain intensive collaborations between academic and clinical nurses. Implications for Nursing Management. Academic and clinical organizations, leaders, and individuals should take multilevel measures to initiate, build, and maintain a close academic-practice partnership to promote evidence-based practice, which is crucial for high-quality nursing care, patient safety, and nursing discipline development.

Co-Teaching Goes Online: The Impact of Virtual Co-Teaching on the Practices of a Co-Teaching Partnership During COVID

ABSTRACT This study implemented a self-study design to examine the researchers’ own experiences of transferring in-person co-teaching in teacher education courses into a virtual setting during COVID-19. Multiple qualitative data including planning and reflection discussions for each co-teaching session, students’ exit notes, and focus group interviews were collected and analyzed to identify the themes of the experience. Five themes emerged from the data including preparation, technology, instructional management, student engagement, and co-teaching strategies. These themes are described in ways that address how we navigated the transition of co-teaching from in-person to a synchronous virtual setting, steps we took to improve the learning experience of PSTs, and adjustments we carried forward to improve teaching and learning in an in-person co-teaching setting. Related to these themes, we share five lessons we learned about virtual co-teaching and how this experience has also impacted our co-teaching that has returned to in-person. The lessons include depth vs. breath, explicitly detailed planning, maximizing interactions with digital Active Student Response strategies, flexibility, and affordances and constraints of virtual settings for co-teaching strategies.