Factors influencing the collaboration between clinical instructors and teachers in nursing practicum

Several ideas based on unification have been proposed for collaboration between clinical practice and education, but as they are difficult to adopt they have not become widespread. It is possible for practicum instructors and nursing school teachers to collaborate even when the practicum take place in institutions other than the nursing school, so an improvement in the quality of practicum can be expected. In this study, 384 practicum instructors in 34 institutions were surveyed to determine the criteria for collaboration between practicum instructors and nursing school teachers. We analyzed the "configuration factors", "characteristics", "influential factors" and "level of influence of the factors". We derived 3 major factors, "decision making", "cooperativeness", and "information sharing" and, 28 items as the configuration factors and found that although there was some collaboration it was insufficient. The factors that have a large influence on the level of collaboration have been suggested: the diverse number of curricula that one post accepts; the frequency of meetings; training that respects the students' understanding; participation and guidance in conferences; participation of practicum instructors and head of ward nurses in meetings; and educators' system of practicum guidance.