Dr. Susan James and Assistant Professor Cathleen Santos have been accepted as faculty scholars for the Health Information Technology Scholars (HITS) program beginning in January 2009. This project is supported by a five-year, $1.5 million grant provided by The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr) in partnership with the Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) and is designed to facilitate faculty development in integrating information technologies within nursing curricula. Selection was competitive among colleges and universities nationwide.
The plans for this grant award include: 1) developing and implementing a demonstration and practice electronic medical record for both the traditional and MSN students programs, and 2) developing and implementing the use of unfolding cases, interactive clinical scenarios and/or virtual nursing communities in the laboratory, clinical and classroom settings. Goals are to prepare students to understand and demonstrate the basic principles of using computerized documentation and introducing informatics in a practical way that focuses on the relationship of informatics to quality and safety and to nurse sensitive patient outcomes. Additionally, competency in informatics has been identified as an essential competency for the beginning practitioner, both by the Massachusetts "Nurse of the Future" project and in the revised AACN Baccalaureate Essentials document.
Dr. James and Professor Santos have worked together teaching Community Health Nursing, and recognize the need to incorporate interactive technologies into the teaching of this specialty. They will work collaboratively to implement new simulation technologies for the Community Health Nursing course and will work with colleagues to assist them with integration of simulation technologies into their specific courses.