Sarah Ailey and colleagues show how integrating course work and practice can enable everyone to improve patient care

One of the goals of nursing education is to develop caring and responsible nurses with clinical reasoning skills who are capable of improving outcomes in complex healthcare systems. Using the Model of Situated Learning in Nursing Leadership, generalist entry graduate nursing students at Rush University in Chicago, part of a large academic medical centre with Magnet recognition for excellence in nursing practice, are educated using a curriculum based on the clinical nurse leader (CNL) competencies. This article presents a case study that demonstrates how the model is used to provide experiences for learning the CNL role. The students learn leadership in practice through their involvement in ongoing efforts at the medical centre to improve the care of patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The case study provides lessons in teaching CNL leadership competencies through efforts to improve the quality of care for an at-risk group of patients.