Hopia, Hanna, Principal Lecturer, Docent, PhD, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Heikkilä, Johanna, Senior Advisor, PhD, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Effective collaboration between nursing practice and medical universities is fundamental to develop evidence-based practices. However, collaboration is not always easy. Collaboration can be something that we do, or it can be observed as a result. Collaboration requires at least two parties who start working together to achieve mutually agreed and defined goals with benefits to all parties. It includes commitment, responsibility, and sharing. That is why we, the work package 2.3 team of the AccelEd project, provide you with five ways to start and develop further collaboration with your colleagues, whether they are nursing personnel or faculty staff members.
These five keys to successful collaboration are based on the following rigorous steps that have been conducted in the project: first, we did a literature review of best international practices that foster evidence-based nursing through collaboration, and then we analysed the collaborative models and processes of the EU partners of the AccelEd project. After that, we examined the current practices of collaboration in nursing at Kazakhstani Medical Universities and, finally, benchmarked and shared the best collaboration practices with Kazakhstani stakeholders. Based on these steps, the five ways to collaborate effectively and efficiently were formulated. Here they are:
1. Identify ways to select new topics for nursing clinical guidelines on a regional level and implement the existing ones.
2. Agree on ways to employ the resources of the Center of Nursing Excellence of Kazakhstan (CNE) in the collaborative development of nursing.
3. Create ways to identify and share research and development topics in nursing.
4. Jointly prioritise and document the regional development areas for nursing relating to the current regional health problems of the citizens.
5. Collaboratively set regional long-term goals for developing evidence-based nursing that will enable positive health-related outcomes for the citizens.
The best part is that all these steps are doable! Every medical university faculty member and every chief of nursing staff is responsible for building fruitful collaboration between institutions to nurture evidence-based nursing practices. The first thing to do is put any possible barriers to collaboration aside for the good of the Kazakh society and specifically the patients. And remember, this concerns staff members from both institutions.
Reference
Meyermanova, I. Saduyeva, F. Kuanysh, Zh. Aytmagambetov, A. Hopia, H. Kangas-Niemi, A. Heikkilä, J. Report on recommendations for collaboration structures and processes development between universities and healthcare institutions 2.3.D1.
Coordinators
Jūratė Macijauskienė, project coordinator
Živilė Kepežinskienė, project manager
Editorial team
Dinara Kozhakhmetova, responsible for WP4 Dissemination
Baituganova Aizhan, responsible for WP4 Dissemination