Benchmarking best practices in Web-based nursing courses.

This article describes the framework and process to determine best practices in online learning communities for Web-based nursing courses. The benchmarks for best practices were determined based on evidence-based research in higher education. These quality indicators were then used to develop and pilot test a benchmarking survey across three state schools of nursing. The results of the pilot test, as well as the applications and implications for benchmarking best practices, are discussed.

Health professionals' views of informatics education: findings from the AMIA 1999 spring conference.

Health care leaders emphasize the need to include information technology and informatics concepts in formal education programs, yet integration of informatics into health educational programs has progressed slowly. The AMIA 1999 Spring Congress was held to address informatics educational issues across health professions, including the educational needs in the various health professions, goals for health informatics education, and implementation strategies to achieve these goals. This paper presents the results from AMIA work groups focused on informatics education for non-informatics health professionals. In the categories of informatics needs, goals, and strategies, conference attendees suggested elements in these areas: educational responsibilities for faculty and students, organizational responsibilities, core computer skills and informatics knowledge, how to learn informatics skills, and resources required to implement educational strategies.

Case management and technology: a necessary fit for the future.

We now reside in a data-driven health care environment and methods for gathering, presenting, and evaluating relevant data about health care systems are paramount. This article expands on the importance of evaluating the outcomes of case management and how collecting relevant clinical and cost data can provide an infrastructure on which to base future decisions. Data-based decision making in case management is crucial for ensuring quality of care and the appropriate management of patient outcomes, and it underpins the viability of this delivery model of care.

Nursing education to celebrate learning.

Institutions of higher education currently face a number of challenges, from the increasing diversity of students, a growing disparity between what society and what the university defines as its core mission, and society's transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. As part of such institutions, schools of nursing will need to consider a new "business design," which may include: new course formats that will keep groups of students together for several years in the same "learning communities"; use of Internet communications for projects and public exhibitions and defenses of results instead of the regular weekly scheduled class; offering programs for learning entrepreneurship, business practice, management, and leadership; and establishing programs for working professionals that promise, deliver, and certify specified competencies.

Intellectual property issues in the digital health care world.

The digitization of health care information presents a troublesome challenge to the two core principles of copyright: the expression of an idea should be rewarded and protected for a certain period and the user should be allowed the right to fair quotation during that period. The debate about intellectual property in a digital world will be a major focus over the next few years. Nursing administrators need to become copyright savvy to voice their concerns, protect nursing's works, and ensure that health care information is accessible for the public.

The learning collaboratory: a knowledge-building environment for nursing education.

As we approach the 21st century, higher education must face many challenges. One challenge is the transformation of education from a teacher-focused to a learner-centered model. To accomplish this learner-centered model, several learning strategies are proposed to create socially relevant, distributed, and modular courses. This project creates a Learning Collaboratory whose overall goals are to build a knowledge-building environment for students to learn about nursing and to serve as a future global model for nursing education and interdisciplinary coursework. To begin this transformation, the research sequence for the graduate program was selected as the first pilot. This paper describes the analysis, redesign and implementation of the existing research courses during the 1996-1997 academic year.

Computer mediated learning experiences spanning the globe: a pilot study between schools of nursing in the United States and the Netherlands.

The use of telecommunications in health care, education, and our daily lives has become a popular topic in both the professional and lay literature. The promise of the "Information Superhighway" and the expanded use of the Internet by other professionals have precipitated the examination of computer mediated communication as an instructional tool that transcends geographic boundaries and time barriers. This paper will discuss the development and implementation of a pilot project to foster collaborative learning experiences for nursing students between two schools of nursing in two different countries. The pilot is framed within the context of a Global Collaborative Learning Project in Nursing Informatics. A pilot project was initiated between the Schools of Nursing at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Hogeschool Holland during the 1994-95 academic year. Each school taught a nursing informatics course and assignments were designed to allow students from each school to participate in a collaborative learning experience. The presentation will highlight the outcomes of this pilot project and project future plans.

Interactive computer experience. The missing ingredient.

Interactive computer experiences are an integral component of a computer literacy course. Examples of computer exercises are provided for faculty to adapt for computer literacy courses for nurses.