BACKGROUND: This presentation concerns the evaluation of an additional clinical experience in case management for senior baccalaureate students. During their final leadership course, nursing students can elect to do an additional 80-hour precepted clinical experience focusing on case management in primary care clinics. As part of that experience, they rotate through seven nurse-managed rural primary health clinics in Tennessee. METHOD: As part of the evaluation process, students and preceptors were asked to review the experiences that students had participating in the clinical. RESULTS: For the most part, students were highly satisfied with the case management experience and thought it provided an additional skill set for them as they were completing their final year in nursing school and preparing to enter the nursing workforce as graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. CONCLUSION: A community case management clinical opportunity in primary care allows a community experience for students that provides them with an opportunity to witness an RN practicing to the full scope of the license.

The critical shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States has led to increased enrollment in nursing schools, but the number of graduates is still decreasing, as nursing students struggle and fail in upper division courses. There is a significant gap in knowledge concerning students' self-efficacy (SE) as a factor directly influencing students' academic performance. The problem examined in this correlational study was the impact of collaborative learning in an innovative classroom setting on Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students' SE and academic performance. Framed by Bandura's theory of SE, the research questions examined the relationship between students' SE scores at the beginning and end of the innovative course, and their end-of-course grade. The sample included 22 students from one nursing class (N = 22) in an undergraduate-level nursing program in Texas. Data sources included disaggregated student grades and an anonymous, online survey. Analyses included Chi-square and Pearson's r correlation of the data. Results indicated SE scores at the end of the course were higher than they were at the beginning of the course, which provided an initial understanding of the impact of the innovative learning environment on BSN students' academic performance, but were not statistically significant and could not, therefore, disprove the null hypothesis. This study indicates that student nursing courses could increase student self-efficacy, which would result in a positive impact in hospital and clinic support for United States citizens.