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Teaching with and about technology: providing
resources for nurse educators worldwide
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AS A
PARTICIPANT AT THE 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON NURSING INFORMATICS, held in
Helsinki, Finland, in late June, I learned that the challenges we face are
universal. These challenges focus on teaching with technology and teaching
about technology. Educators worldwide are struggling with how to use emerging
technologies, particularly Web 2.0 tools, in their nursing courses. As in the
United States, faculty and students are represented on a continuum as digital
refugees, digital voyeurs, digital immigrants, and digital natives.
Elsewhere,
faculty are still struggling to teach nurses basic computer skills, or, as they
say, information and communication technologies (ICT) skills. With more and
more countries implementing information technologies into their health care
systems, there were numerous discussions on how to help faculty integrate informatics
competencies into the nursing curriculum.
I chaired
the education component of the postconference where we talked about the need to
prepare nurses to interact with engaged citizens. We also discussed emerging
models of care, where citizens and their families are collaborative partners in
their health care and partnerships differ according to individual preferences
over the course of the health care continuum. But two topics kept coming up,
time and time again: How should nursing education programs prepare nurses for
new care models? How do we prepare nurses with the necessary ICT and informatics
knowledge and skills?
During
the postconference, I presented the NLN position statement on the informatics
agenda and spoke about the numerous faculty development opportunities we offer
for learning about informatics, e-health, and the use of educational
technologies. For context, I hope that you will read the position statement
(online at www.nln.org/aboutnln/PositionStatements/ index.htm). Then I hope you
will investigate the numerous opportunities available in this country for
teaching with technology and teaching about technology. Many attendees in
Helsinki were envious of the wealth of resources we have available, including
conferences, audio/web seminars, and online courses offered by the NLN and
other professional organizations.
Among the
conferences are the NLN Education Summit 2009 (www.nln.org/ summit/index.htm)
and the 2009 NLN Technology Conference and Pre-Conference, scheduled for
October 29 to November 1 at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (www.nln.org/
facuhydevelopment/workshopsandconf.htm). There is also WINI, the Weekend
Immersion in Nursing Informatics, offered in various locations throughout the
year (www.winiconference.net/).
The
Alliance for Nursing Informatics (www.allianceni.org/default.asp) brings
together more than 25 groups that function separately at local, regional,
national, and international levels and host workshops and meetings on informatics.
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) offers the AMIA 10x10
Program (www.amia.org/10x10), and a website (www2.amia.org/mbrcenter/wg/ni/
education/catl.asp) listing numerous courses and programs, including an
Educators Certificate for HeahhCare Informatics (www.nursing.ucdenver.edu/
grad/off_prof_dev2.htm).
Faculty
in the United States also have the good fortune to take advantage of
opportunities offered by the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA). Several contracts have been funded under HRSA's Faculty Development:
Integrated Technology into Nursing Education & Practice Initiative. Our own
HITS Collaborative, which includes the University of Kansas, Indiana
University, the University of Colorado, Denver, and the NLN
(http://www.hits-colab.org), is a five-year program originally funded in 2007.
Two cohorts of scholars have already benefited from a one-year faculty
development opportunity, completing a series of web-based modules on informatics,
telehealth, simulations, and e-learning, and participating in workshops with
faculty mentors. Online discussion groups and a social network keep scholars in
touch with their mentors and each other.
Following
is a sampling of projects completed in 2008 under the HITS Collaborative. (See
Sidebar.) In 2009, 53 scholars representing 27 schools were selected to
participate. These scholars attended a 2.5-day workshop at Indiana University
and will complete their projects by the end of this year.
Grand
Valley State University A website was developed to connect first-semester
students in obstetrics and final-semester students in community health nursing
clinical courses to four neighborhoods where clients, clinical information,
resources, and learning activities are available. For the obstetrical
experience, students are assigned to care for one of eight clients representing
a variety of ages and backgrounds and different stages of pregnancy.
Hunter
Bellevue School of Nursing The maternal-child practica was transformed, with
simulation now providing hands-on experience with complex delivery scenarios.
Simulation scenarios are also used as a quality improvement tool for assessing
learner competency in a select set of knowledge and skills.
Saint
Francis Medical Center College of Nursing Simulation based on select NLN
scenarios and the electronic medical record (EMR) is integrated throughout the
baccalaureate curriculum in both first-semester junior and second-semester
senior courses. Students complete both the Simulation Design Scale and the
Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Instruments (Jeffries,
2007).
Simmons College
PROJECT 1
A website was created that includes a compendium of resources to be used for
the integration of informatics into the entire nursing curriculum. Faculty were
introduced to the website during a faculty development workshop.
PROJECT 2
A fully online course in informatics was developed for the doctor of nursing
practice program. A new module was created in the capstone Leadership and
Management course for undergraduates.
Texas
Woman's University An online resource of key informatics concepts was created
to serve to increase faculty awareness of informatics and assist in the
integration of concepts in the curriculum.
Maricopa
Community College at Mesa Community College A web-based electronic
documentation system was created that allows associate degree students to
enhance their electronic documentation skills in simulation and clinical. Beta
testing included a pilot group of 30 people, six faculty and 24 students from
all four semesters of the ADN and foreign-educated nurses programs. Ninety-seven
percent of participants felt that this tool would be beneficial to use in
clinical in place of the current documentation system. (Learn about this
project during the NLN Education Summit 2009, Session 3D.)
Villanova
University Oversight for the selection, development, and placement of the EHR
was used as part of a high-fidelity patient care simulation with junior-level
students. Electronic charts are now being adopted in several other courses.
(Learn about this project during the NLN Education Summit 2009, Session 3D.)
Some
comments from 2008 scholars follow: "We are very grateful to all of you
for putting the HITS project together. It has helped us feel much more grounded
in the use of technology in the curriculum, and, hopefully, has improved our program."
"We are so thrilled to be able to be part of this wonderful project and
are invested in successful outcome measures!" "Thanks again for the
stellar job you all did with this project. It is an excellent resource for us.
I feel very blessed to be a part of this great adventure."
And my
parting comment: Take advantage of the wealth of learning opportunities that we
are fortunate to have in the United States. As always, you can contact me at
Diane.Skiba@ucdenver.edu.
Sidebar.
HITS Collaborative 2010
A call
for scholars for 2010 will be issued in September 2009. Two sessions at the NLN
Education Summit 2009 will help you prepare a winning application for the HITS
Program: Workshop Session 3A and the HITS Luncheon Roundtable, both on
Thursday, September 24.
For more
information about the HITS Collaborative, including descriptions of all 2008
projects, visit www.hits-colab.org/.
Reference
Jeffries,
P. R. (Ed.). (2007). Simulation in nursing education: From conceptualization to
evaluation. New York: National League for Nursing.
Skiba,
Diane J.
Source
Citation
Skiba,
Diane J. "Teaching with and about technology: providing resources for
nurse educators worldwide." Nursing Education Perspectives 30.4
(2009): 255+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 May 2012.
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INSIGHT
In
countries where most students are digital natives, it was that the demand is
for more communication and greater interaction via mobile technology. One
example is Finland, where the penetration of mobile technology is staggering
and finding a pay phone is next to impossible. Only 41 percent of Finnish
households had a landline telephone in 2007, while 97 percent had at least one
mobile phone.
The discussions continued in the postconference, where Diana J. Skiba
was one of 32 informatics leaders who participated in discussions on the impact
of personal health information management tools and strategies for the
engagement of citizens. (No one outside the US likes the term health care
consumer.) We discussed how such tools as personal health records, smart
phones, social networks, and ambient computing (sensors in the home or wearable
computers) hold great promise to engage individuals in their health care. As I
mentioned in two previous columns this year (see Nursing Education
Perspectives, January/February and May/June 2009), we need to rethink the
meaning of consumer-centric or patient-centered care in the wired world. The
postconference represented emerging countries (those in the beginning phase,
such as Slovenia) and implementing countries (like the US).
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