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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to describe how technology and information management can be integrated into curriculum to promote patient safety and quality of care.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to recognize the importance of the use of an electronic health record in an academic setting.
It has been recommended by many, including the Institute of Medicine (IOM), that health care professionals such as nurses, need to develop competencies in the use of information technologies, and specifically in the use of electronic health records (EHR's). The use of the EHR is thought to result in documentation leading to safe, quality health care, as well as providing continuity of care. (IOM, 2003; NLN, 2009)
We received a three year HRSA grant for a project entitled, “Using an open-source EHR to integrate informatics in a baccalaureate nursing program”. One of the objectives of this project included the use of the Open Vista clinical information system to document findings in an EHR in our first semester Health Assessment course. Encouraging active learning by having students apply course content to real-world situations, is considered an instructional best practice. We also had the students do some hand written documentation.
The students were evaluated on their ability to document physical findings of their peer “patients” on the electronic health record. All of the students were successful in their documentation. In addition, we asked the students to evaluate the use of the EHR, as an instructional method of the course. The feedback from the students has been overwhelmingly positive. They thought that it was easy to use, saved time in documentation, and that the assessment options were complete, or that they were able to add additional information, if needed. Among some of the comments were: “I think it is great. Plus in an ever increasing shift to paperless documentation, it is an effective, if not prudent, learning tool.”
Institute of Medicine, (2003). Health professions education. Washington, DC: National Academies Press
National League for Nursing. (2009). Position Statement: Preparing the next generation of nurses to practice in a technology-rich environment: An informatics agenda.