Types of Proximity in Collaboration Between Nursing Schools and Hospitals on Clinical Training

Background: Nursing students' learning opportunities in clinical training have received increased attention. The attention might be attributed to an increased demand for trainednurses and a high drop-out rate for nursing students mainly due to difficulties identifyingthemselves within a nursing professional identity. Pointing to a need for a stronger coherence between theoretical and clinical training, and a close collaboration between NursingSchools (NS) and University Hospitals (UH). In 2019, an academic-practice partnershipintervention project in three parts was initiated to improve collaboration on clinical training.In part 1, interviews were conducted focusing on the partners’ experiences of the collaboration. In part 2, findings were used in subsequent interventions inspired by theory of relational coordination. Finally, the interventions were evaluated using program theory. Thispaper presents findings from part 1 exploring dimensions of proximity in the collaborationbetween NS and UH on clinical training. Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviewswere conducted with nursing students (5), clinical preceptors (11), and faculty members (8)to gain insight into the collaborators’ experiences and attitudes. A qualitative directed content analysis was chosen to capture dimensions of proximity in the collaboration. Findings:Different dimensions of proximity in the cross-sectoral collaboration on clinical training wereidentified. Relational proximity facilitated relationship building, shared knowledge, andtimely communication, at times power dynamics challenged the relationship. Lack of Structural proximity challenged and widened the gap between theoretical and clinical training.Finally, geographical proximity influenced collaborators’ knowledge of one another. In conclusion, collaboration was characterized by various dimensions of proximity, which in different ways point to areas for bridging the gap between theoretical and clinical training.