Synergy model in clinical teaching of critical care among MSc students of nursing and patients with cardiovascular diseases

Background: one of the ways to modify education is to design clinical education courses based on advanced learning models and systematic collaboration between variables of different fields of clinical practice. nurses and academic members in nursing and medical schools play a key role in professional and personal promotion of nursing students. this study adopted the synergy model to determine and assess the characteristics of patients and nurses. methods: in an action research, the synergy model was performed among 12 msc students of nursing who were selected by convenient sampling. the study was carried out during the second semesters of two academic years (2008-9 and 2009-10) in the coronary care unit (ccu) of nour hospital and cardiac surgery intensive care unit (icu) and cardiac surgery ward of chamran hospital, both affiliated to isfahan university of medical sciences, isfahan, iran. after collecting the characteristics of patients and nurses by a questionnaire, a valid and reliable standardized questionnaire was used to classify the characteristics based on the synergy model. the mean scores were then judged.results: classification of characteristics of nursing students made by instructors and nurses showed the mean scores of the students' function in clinical judgment, caring practices, interdisciplinary collaboration, systematic thinking, and facilitation of learning to be 3. the students scored 1 (minimum) in advocacy and moral agency response to diversity, and clinical inquiry.conclusion: the findings of this study showed the need to promote mutual cooperation between nursing and medical schools and hospitals in education of nursing students. it also highlighted the necessity of developing care for clients and their families in a systematic planning framework. the synergy model is a functional approach to planned education. it can be used to help students acquire the ability to respond to the needs of patients and their families in the form of a learning system.