A Student Nurse Externship Program: Academia and Service Collaboration

Kaiser Permanente Southern California recently began an innovative student nurse externship program to maximize students' clinical experience before graduation. The program consisted of content and exercises to transform knowledge into practice. The strategies included integrating quality and safety competencies into practice, self-reflection for clinical judgment, role-based nursing practice, SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) standardized communication, and ongoing support. This program demonstrated service and academia's ability to work together on a mutually beneficial goal: narrowing the preparation-practice gap.