The Need and Opportunity for Shared Resources: Evidence from Google Analytics

Over the past few years, financial constraints have been especially stressful for nursing programs. With limited resources, a growing number of applicants and an increased need for faculty, many programs have a large number of new educators as well as adjuncts with little to no experience teaching. Preparing coursework can become an overwhelming and time consuming task leaving little energy or time for scholarship and service. A web site was designed to provide course preparation materials for these and all nurse educators in an effort to reduce the workload burden so that both educator and student have a mutually rewarding educational experience. In August 2012, course resources for Advanced Health Assessment, Advanced Pharmacology, Advanced Pathophysiology and Health Policy were posted. Web-based videos and power point presentations were carefully screened for their appropriate use in these specific courses. Current literature, within two years of publication, was also provided as well as the founders personal resources and tools developed over a period of over twenty years. Using Google analytics, evidence emerged quantifying the need for this bank of shared resources. Every state is represented with over 1000 unique visitors per month viewing an average of 3.5 pages per visit. This reach is also demonstrated internationally including countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The analytics provided are remarkably specific and very informative and will be included in this presentation. The web site also serves as an opportunity for educators who are seeking tenure but are more clinically focused and as such, might have difficulty meeting traditional tenure criteria. Using Boyer's Model of Scholarship, clinical case studies can be submitted for peer review and if accepted, be published on this website's case study bank. Course preparation materials, including power point presentations are also open for peer review and publishable on the website. The culture of nursing has not always promoted the sharing of intellectual property. However given the current needs and opportunities, this website provides not only state of the art resources but also the potential for improving the quality of graduate nursing education.