Blending technology in teaching advanced health assessment in a family nurse practitioner program: using personal digital assistants in a simulation laboratory.

PURPOSE: This article describes the development and implementation of integrated use of personal handheld devices (personal digital assistants, PDAs) and high-fidelity simulation in an advanced health assessment course in a graduate family nurse practitioner (NP) program. A teaching tool was developed that can be utilized as a template for clinical case scenarios blending these separate technologies. DATA SOURCES: Review of the evidence-based literature, including peer-reviewed articles and reviews. CONCLUSIONS: Blending the technologies of high-fidelity simulation and handheld devices (PDAs) provided a positive learning experience for graduate NP students in a teaching laboratory setting. Combining both technologies in clinical case scenarios offered a more real-world learning experience, with a focus on point-of-care service and integration of interview and physical assessment skills with existing standards of care and external clinical resources. Faculty modeling and advance training with PDA technology was crucial to success. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Faculty developed a general template tool and systems-based clinical scenarios integrating PDA and high-fidelity simulation. Faculty observations, the general template tool, and one scenario example are included in this article.

Promoting collaboration in nursing education: the development of a regional simulation laboratory.

This article describes a collaboratively developed plan for a regional patient simulation laboratory for nursing education. The Western North Carolina Regional Simulation Laboratory will be located at the Enka Campus of the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College at the Department of Nursing of Western Carolina University (Candler, NC). A proactive collaborative consortium has been established to help meet the demand for nursing education in the 13 most rural mountain counties of western North Carolina. Through a 2-year process with regional networking, the nursing administration of Western Carolina University, Mission Hospitals, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and affiliated community colleges, consortium hospitals, and emergency care services developed a vision and a proposal for an innovative program for the nursing education of the future. The consortium proposed the establishment of a 3-year integrated educational program utilizing state-of-the-art simulation manikin technology. Financial resources were obtained from a charitable grant from The Duke Endowment (Charlotte, NC). Sustainability of funding will be ensured through university, hospital, and community college collaboration.