NONPF 40th Annual Meeting

The College of Nursing’s (CoN) vision statement is: Through the creative leveraging of technology, the CoN will lead the transformation of health care in partnership informed by the people we serve.  Several innovations occurred so that this vision could be realized. The CoN provides several distance learning opportunities for the nurse practitioner (NP) student and a variety of hybrid courses and programs including the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) program.  Faculty and staff embrace technology as a means to provide education and preparation of our future leaders, practitioner and care- providers.

One of the largest challenges for faculty is providing comparable experiences for on-campus and distance learners. Education at a distance renders the use of many teaching strategies commonly used with face-to-face students difficult, if not impossible.  Professional role modeling becomes problematic when students are not physically in the classroom. To meet this dilemma an interactive case study in first person was developed, implemented, and evaluated.

To prepare faculty for the challenges of utilizing the technology that today’s students are accustom to and are currently using, a novel approach was taken.  Faculty Ipad Institutes were launched to promote innovation in nursing education in and outside of the classroom.

NP students will be facing numerous challenges providing healthcare due to changes instituted by the Affordable Care Act, the limited availability of primary care providers and specialists, and the lack of access to care in remote areas.  To prepare our Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP students for alternative methods of providing care, they have been introduced to TeleHealth.

To prepare our DNP students to be leaders, Ipad technology implementation took place the fall of 2013. Our curriculum is grounded in advanced applications of informatics, leadership and program development including evaluation.  These competencies allow students to engage in the application of knowledge.  This program hallmark necessitates the cultivation of nursing leaders through the use of technology such as the iPad.   Faculty is able to engage students in application level activities and allow them to explore these applications as a tool for exploration and problem solving in their work environments.