Using Contemporary e-Learning Tools to Teach Staff How to Use New Online Documentation Systems.

Medical centers, hospitals, and health care practices are implementing electronic documentation systems and regularly adding new features to these systems. Training users to effectively use these systems in a scalable way has been a challenge. Learners learn at different rates and have different needs. While traditional face to face instruction has been the gold standard, eLearning technologies can provide acceptable alternatives. This poster will demonstrate three eLearning methodologies for training.

Distance Education Programs: The Technical Support to Be Successful.

Academic success requires support on a variety of levels as well as access to contemporary tools and services. Supporting students enrolled in a successful higher education distance learning program, requires a strong, properly trained IT support staff in addition to a stable IT environment. Our distance education program began with a regional market but has grown significantly over the past few years. This is primarily due to the success of our distance education tools and support which have contributed to achieving a ranking of eleventh of best graduate schools in nursing according to the U.S. News and World Report. The entire student population is "Bring Your Own Devices" (BYOD). Critical to this support is the initial configuration and loading of needed software during the first week of orientation. All of this success requires a robust team of members prepared in a range of skill sets from networking to instructional design.

Altering the Function of the Electronic Medical Record: Creating a De-identified Database for Clinical Researchers and Educators.

The electronic medical record (EMR) can be an excellent data source for creating real case based discussion, patient simulations for high and low fidelity simulators, and datasets for retrospective studies and quality improvement trend analysis. Faculty can use cases based on real data, not contrived data in their classrooms. Faculty and doctoral students can perform retrospective studies exploring treatment modalities without being encumbered with the actual processes of collecting and storing data, and quality improvement specialists can look at trending data to improve outcomes. The big problem with using general EMR systems as they are out of the box is patient identifiers need to be scrubbed from the record so it can be used for these purposes. This paper discusses the uses of de-identified datasets and gives an example of how this has happened at one university.

The utility of providing automated medication dose reminders to young children on chronic medication.

We investigated the effect of text message reminders about medication administration. The study concerned children with cystic fibrosis. We provided 20 children (aged 5-12 years) with pagers that they could customize. For the first two weeks, we sent friendly text messages (non-reminder content) near medication times to acquaint them with the use of the pager. For the second two weeks, we sent messages reminding children to take their medications. The parents completed a survey to assess the child's overall use of the pager and degree of participation in medication management. Sixteen out of 20 children completed the study. Of these, 14 children (88%) were able to help notify parents when medications were due. Children as young as seven years of age may be able to receive reminders about medication administration events. The pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of involving younger children in pager technology related to medication adherence.

Two complementary personal medication management applications developed on a common platform: case report.

BACKGROUND: Adverse drug events are a major safety issue in ambulatory care. Improving medication self-management could reduce these adverse events. Researchers have developed medication applications for tethered personal health records (PHRs), but little has been reported about medication applications for interoperable PHRs. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to develop two complementary personal health applications on a common PHR platform: one to assist children with complex health needs (MyMediHealth), and one to assist older adults in care transitions (Colorado Care Tablet). METHODS: The applications were developed using a user-centered design approach. The two applications shared a common PHR platform based on a service-oriented architecture. MyMediHealth employed Web and mobile phone user interfaces. Colorado Care Tablet employed a Web interface customized for a tablet PC. RESULTS: We created complementary medication management applications tailored to the needs of distinctly different user groups using common components. Challenges were addressed in multiple areas, including how to encode medication identities, how to incorporate knowledge bases for medication images and consumer health information, how to include supplementary dosing information, how to simplify user interfaces for older adults, and how to support mobile devices for children. CONCLUSIONS: These prototypes demonstrate the utility of abstracting PHR data and services (the PHR platform) from applications that can be tailored to meet the needs of diverse patients. Based on the challenges we faced, we provide recommendations on the structure of publicly available knowledge resources and the use of mobile messaging systems for PHR applications.

MyMediHealth - designing a next generation system for child-centered medication management.

BACKGROUND: The last mile of the medication use system requires tools to help patients comply with medication administration rules and monitor for side effects. Personal health records (PHR) and emerging user-adopted communication tools promise to change the landscape of medication management; however, no research has been done to demonstrate how these tools might be constructed to support children with special healthcare needs. The overarching goal of the MyMediHealth project was to investigate ways in which PHRs and supported applications can improve the safety and quality of medication delivery in this population. DESIGN APPROACH: This project employed user-centered design to identify requirements for a child-centered medication management system. We collected information through site visits, facilitated group discussions, and iterative design sessions with adult caregivers. Once design requirements were articulated and validated, we constructed an initial prototype medication scheduler, which was evaluated by 202 parents using scripted activities completed using an online interactive prototype. The results of this analysis informed the development of a working prototype. STATUS: We have completed a working prototype of a scheduling system, a text-message-based alert and reminder system, and a medication administration record based on web-entered patient data. IMPLICATIONS: Pilot testing of the working prototype by stakeholders yielded strong endorsement and helpful feedback for future modifications, which are now underway as a part of an expanded project to test this system in a real-world environment.

An analysis of nursing education's immersion into Second Life, a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE).

Second Life (SL) is a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) using 3-D modeling to replicate real world settings and experiences. However, little is known of the extent to which nursing education is involved in SL activities. This study used four different search strategies to conduct a comprehensive review of print, blog, web and media sources. Twenty-nine unique nursing communities, groups or educational activities were identified. This study identified a number of barriers identified that made the analysis both difficult and time-consuming. Two main categories emerged: explorers and developers. The explorers used SL for a support group, networking, and uncovering health-related sites. The developers were associated with land ownership and were involved in distance learning and simulation activities. Seven unique simulations for nursing education were identified. Given the number of registered users, the number of universities currently involved in SL, the availability of health-related sites for consumers, and the emerging interest in telehealth in SL substantial growth in the use of SL in nursing education is likely.

Developing the online survey.

Institutions of higher education are now using Internet-based technology tools to conduct surveys for data collection. Research shows that the type and quality of responses one receives with online surveys are comparable with what one receives in paper-based surveys. Data collection can take place on Web-based surveys, e-mail-based surveys, and personal digital assistants/Smartphone devices. Web surveys can be subscription templates, software packages installed on one's own server, or created from scratch using Web programming development tools. All of these approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. The survey owner must make informed decisions as to the right technology to implement. The correct choice can save hours of work in sorting, organizing, and analyzing data.

The development of an online clinical log for advanced practice nursing students: a case study.

Three years ago at the Medinfo conference a prototype version of a clinical log for nursing students at Vanderbilt University was demonstrated. The purpose of the log is to document the types of clinical experiences the students are participating in as part of their academic program. We collected log data during that first year and received ongoing formative feedback from both students and faculty regarding its current feature set and desirable features for future implementations. Most of the requested new features have now been implemented. This paper describes some of the latest features of the clinical log, the advantages and disadvantages of ongoing development versus acquiring commercial products, and the procedures and results we have put in place to gather from faculty and students the features they want to see in the log. This paper also documents some of the data from early data mining.

PDA application for collecting patient encounter data for Advanced Practice nursing students in a clinical setting.

UNLABELLED: Three years ago we developed a web-based clinical log for Advanced Practice nursing students to record patient encounters. Although it solved many problems, students complained about the time it would take to complete each encounter since they actually entered the data twice, once immediately after seeing the patient and later on the web. THE SOLUTION: Create a PDA version that students populate with data during the day and upload to the main database at night.