Educating neonatal nurse practitioners in the 21st century.

The purpose of this education project is to prepare neonatal nurse practitioners using a nonlinear (random exposure to information delivered in context rather than abstracting information as is done in a traditional lecture), asynchronous approach. The Internet-based 3-dimensional virtual "living world" classroom will have a living textbook and a virtual neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Deploying the program within a virtual living world will enhance program accessibility and overcome the challenges of nurses returning to school. Greater accessibility can help to alleviate the shortage of neonatal providers, which are needed to meet the needs of the growing population.A Neonatal Curriculum Consortium comprising expert neonatal nurse practitioners and faculty are developing multimedia learning modules for core content defined by national organizations and certifying bodies. Our Internet-based, multisite, nonlinear, asynchronous universal neonatal curriculum has at its core a 3-dimensional virtual "living text book" for didactic instruction and a "living world" NICU for "deliberate practice." The NICU will feature an interactive virtual infant patient. Our "Virtual NICU" will assist students to transition from the classroom, to the simulation laboratory, and ultimately to the clinical area. Providing clinical learning experiences in the virtual NICU will enhance the students' opportunities to learn to care for the culturally diverse populations they will serve as neonatal nurse practitioners.

Advocacy: it is what we do.

Our nation is on the verge of change in the healthcare system. Although we do not yet know how this change will affect our patients, our practice, or us, we do know that with change comes opportunity. We have the opportunity to become more involved in health policy and advocacy than ever before. Many nurses are already taking the first steps, which are recognizing the importance of advocacy and articulating the issues that they believe are of greatest importance. To communicate their views to the right elected officials, nurses need to be aware of how government operates and how legislation is created and shepherded through the legislative process. Nurses must learn the fundamental principles of expressing themselves and making clear requests for what they want of their elected officials. With these skills, every nurse can become an advocate in the political arena and partner with other individuals or groups to facilitate change. Nurses who find this experience rewarding and exhilarating can pursue additional education in health policy and advocacy.