Collaboration between the community and tertiary nurse education in bridging the gap between theory and practice

Nursing students must be prepared to practice safely, accurately and compassionately in a myriad of health care settings. Nurse educators are continually challenged in seeking strategies to facilitate students’ transition to the practice setting. A quality improvement project conducted by final year, undergraduate nursing students, provided a unique opportunity to collaborate with the community. This paper will elucidate the sequence of events which took place from a teaching and learning perspective, including the partnership between the community and the nurse educators on the Broome campus of the University of Notre Dame Australia.