Thirteen years and counting: Outcomes of a concurrent ASN/BSN enrollment program.

In their 2011 report, The Future of Nursing, the Institute of Medicine called for 80% of the nursing workforce to be comprised of baccalaureate prepared Registered Nurses by the year 2020. One suggested approach to achieve this goal is the creation of programs that allow students to progress through associate and baccalaureate nursing preparation simultaneously. This paper describes the University of Central Florida's 13-year experience after implementing a Concurrent Enrollment Program. Development and structure of the program, advisement and curriculum details, facilitators and barriers are described. Data on National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses pass rates, completion rates, comparison with traditional RN-BSN students, and progression to graduate school are also included. The Concurrent Program model described here between a specific university and state college partners, demonstrated positive outcomes that support achievement of the Institute of Medicine's goals.

Multiagency Online Preceptor Education: Design, Implementation, and Outcomes.

This article describes the design, implementation, feedback, problems, and solutions of a fully online Preceptor Development Program designed to help nurses acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills key to the preceptor role. This program uses a variety of active learning experiences that support preceptor development.

Twitter: An Application to Encourage Information Seeking Among Nursing Students.

Twitter is a social networking application that has seen limited evaluation in nursing education. The aim of this study was to determine if Twitter could be used to stimulate further exploration about current clinical and professional topics with nurse practitioner students. The students used Twitter to receive tweets on clinical and professional topics from the instructor throughout the semester: 75% demonstrated willingness to follow the links in the tweets to seek more information, and 87% expressed a desire to receive the tweets even after the semester was over.

Nurse Practitioner Students Learning From the Medically Underserved: Impact on Attitude Toward Poverty.

BACKGROUND: With no antecedent in the literature, this project examined the effects of exposure to clients living in poverty on nurse practitioner (NP) students' attitude toward poverty. METHOD: Students participating in adult health courses completed the Attitude Toward Poverty Scale at the start and end of the course. Eight students were immersed for a minimum of 32 hours with a faculty preceptor in a clinic caring for low-income, uninsured patients. These students also responded to open-ended questions regarding their experience. RESULTS: NP students had an increase in positive attitude toward impoverished patients after the course (p < 0.001). Themes that emerged from the immersion experience were (a) misconception, (b) lack of knowledge about cost and access to care, (c) importance of the clinical environment on learning to be an NP, and (d) empowerment. CONCLUSION: Planned clinical rotations with medically underserved populations may serve to dispel misconceptions about low-income patients.

Beyond Google Docs.

With this article, Dr. Diane Wink's long-running authorship of this department comes to an end. Diane made a significant contribution to the journal; her articles were always interesting and informative, helping to advance our thinking. Thank you, Diane! Your department articles will be missed. Suzanne P. Smith, EdD, RN, FAAN, Editor-in-Chief. Many course management systems lack the social atmosphere and interactivity of face-to-face classrooms that are essential for developing communication and collaborative skills in nursing students. Creating a sense of community online not only facilitates collaboration but also increases student satisfaction and perceived learning. In this article, the authors describe free Google tools that faculty can use to foster communication and collaboration among students in online, blended, and face-to-face learning environments.

Cloud computing.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes how cloud computing can be used in nursing education.

Digital books.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use the Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes digital books.

Teaching with technology: free Web resources for teaching and learning.

In this bimonthly series, the department editor examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, collaborative writing tools; social networking, and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. In this article, the department editor and her coauthor describe free Web-based resources that can be used to support teaching and learning.

Optimizing use of library technology.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use the Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes optimizing the use of library technology.

Impact of double testing on student knowledge in a professional issues course.

Collaborative testing, allowing students to work together on the completion of an examination, is used in a wide variety of disciplines. This study examines the impact of this testing technique on knowledge of students in an undergraduate Health Care Issues, Policy and Economics course. Results indicate that although this approach does not increase student knowledge to a statistically significant level, it does increase individual student scores. This increase in examination scores may be of significance to the learner.

Optimizing use of course management systems.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. The focus of this article is optimizing the use of a course management system.

Virtual learning environments: second life.

In this bimonthly series, the authors examine how nurse educators can use the Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. The editor of this column and her coauthor describes how the virtual world of Second Life can be used in nursing education.

Teaching with technology: automatically receiving information from the internet and web.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use the Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools, social networking and social bookmarking sites, virtual worlds, and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article presents information and tools related to automatically receiving information from the Internet and Web.

Online lectures.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes the creation of lectures that can be embedded in Web-based courses and presentations.

Social networking sites.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use the Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools, social networking and social bookmarking sites, virtual worlds, and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes social networking Web sites and techniques to increase their safe use.

Web-based collaboration tools.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes Web-based collaboration tools and techniques to increase their effectiveness.

Communication tools.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes Web-based communication tools and techniques to increase their effectiveness.

Sources of fully developed course materials on the Web.

In this bimonthly series, the author examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, and collaborative writing tools; social networking and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. This article describes sources of ready-to-use teaching-learning materials available free on the Internet. Techniques to find and evaluate these resources are discussed.