The dedicated education unit in nursing as a community of practice

This chapter provides an historical analysis of the pedagogical imperatives and priorities for nursing education that triggered interest in the Dedicated Education Unit. The authors discuss how the transition from hospital to university nursing education demanded new partnerships between universities and healthcare organisations, a variety of new student clinical learning models and research into students’ clinical learning. They use a theoretical framework for workplace learning to discuss the Dedicated Education Unit in terms of concepts such as the invitational quality of the learning environment, student agency and identity and the pedagogies of teaching and assessment in clinical education, focusing on curriculum design, feedback and meeting competencies. They also explore the value of community of practice theory to promote knowledge learnt through experience in the Dedicated Education Unit. The chapter ends with identification of four key areas for further research: curriculum design, pedagogies, stakeholder engagement and the Dedicated Education Unit as a learning organisation.