Dedicated Education Units: Partnerships for Building Leadership Competency.

Background: To enable nurses to lead in health care transformation, nursing education must include opportunities for developing leadership, as well as clinical competencies. Dedicated education units (DEUs) provide supportive environments for competency development in undergraduate students. This study's aim was to explore the effects of a DEU experience on the leadership development of baccalaureate nursing students.

Method: A mixed-methods design included a quantitative strand, using a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, multisite design with control groups and a qualitative strand using focus groups.

Results: Students in the DEUs demonstrated significant increases (p < 0.01) in leadership behaviors, as measured by the Student Leadership Practice Inventory. Focus group themes illuminate how the experiences of the students contributed to their leadership growth.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that the DEU experience may promote enhanced undergraduate leadership competency development.