A Commonly Overlooked "Piece" Regarding Education Technology

In my new capacity of Clinical Educator for a Dallas area inpatient facility, one of my many duties in the near future will be to instruct new employees at various levels how to use the hospital electronic medical record systems. I did say systemS. There are 3 systems that I'm currently learning to use and none of these systems interface with each other. It's no wonder everyone at every level within the hospital complains about how one surgical patient's medical record is completed.

As I interact with my fellow employees within the various sub-departments of the department as a whole, I am surprised by the lack of confidence so many of the employees have regarding their IT skills. I have been shock to discover that this facility has been electronically documenting for many years, but the employees are extremely vocal about any change. They know exactly how to do what they've always done and God-forbid you ask them to even consider looking at any changes even if it makes them more efficient. I've been silent about possible changes at this point but at a recent department head meeting it was announced that system wide, there would only be only EMR within the next year.

My interactions have revealed without asking that the vast majority of department employee "working" computer skills are very basic. They use wordprocessing programs like typewriters and can do some very basic "surfing" on the Internet. That's it. This is a problem that I've seen for many, many years. My skills are only intermediate at best, but I was giving and have continued to be given the opportunities since the beginning of computers as office equipment to learn and to continue learning IT skills. I do consider this one of my many blessings. Those of you who know me, know that one of my biggest fears is that the nursing profession is holding itself back from accomplishing so much more because we fail to include in our education programs real computer literacy.

The following is an excerpt from a paper I wrote about on the topic of virtual reality:

There is an interesting information technology problem within nursing. It has nothing to do with currently available software. The problems have been determined to be the users; the vast majority of educators, students, and public assuming that because they know how to “access” or create entries on BlackBoard©, internet sites such as MySpace©, YouTube©, blogs, or use instant messaging, they are “computer literate.”

Using computers for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, and downloading files for entering data or manipulation of data is considered by those in the information technology industries as “working” utilizing a computer. The other is “just playing.” Current and future students do not possess the proper computer skills to “work” when utilizing current and potential computer programs. Nursing programs should provide students with the skills to utilize all software capabilities available through computers to be a vital member of current and future professional interdisciplinary teams.

“those of us in education do our students an injustice when we assume that our familiarity with traditional library research methods translates to their experience using a mouse and looking at a computer monitor”
(Jenson, 2004).

“Until high schools have a defined set of computer skills that students must have for graduation, incoming students will have varied skill level. Today's nursing students are a diverse group. The group varied in age from 19 to 50 years but age did not correlate to computer competence” (Tarnow & Mayo-Rejai, 2005).

“. . .undergraduate deans and directors of 266 programs in the U.S., it was reported that computer and information literacy skills were expected of graduates at 80% of the schools surveyed. The integration of basic computer skills rather than more advanced informatics content and the absence of formal evaluation of student competencies were found. Faculty members were rated at the “novice” or “advanced beginner” level in teaching informatics content” (Fetter, 2008).

The sequential dates of these studies show the continuing delays of integrating information technology and nursing. As these problems continue, technology rages ahead. Rapid changes and capabilities in information technology is evident in our daily lives.

Fetter, M. (2008). Enhancing baccalaureate nursing information technology outcomes: faculty perspectives. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 5(1), 1-15.

Jenson, J. (2004). It's the information age, so where's the information? College Teaching, 52(3), 107-112.

Tarnow, K. & Mayo-Rejai, R. (2005) Quick assessment of computer skills: Setting the bar. Nurse Educator, 30(2), 50–51.

An Educational Technology Predicition by a Nursing (Wantabe) Geek

There are ennumerable websites today that provide significant insight into currently available virtual reality training, excellent demonstrations of the power, versatility, and distance/online capabilities. If you take the time to thoroughly explore even a handful of the available websites, it is an easy prediction that nursing education and programs regardless of size and reputation will not survive beyond the next 15-20 years without changing the direction of funding, attitudes and technology skills of faculty toward full immersion into the technology available today. The end results of the newer educational technologies have provided overwhelming evidence that investments in these technologies is minimal in relation to the benefits and outcomes of not only the abilities of healthcare professionals but to the safety and improvement of patient care (Bloom, Rawn, Salzberg, & Krummel, 2003; Cosman, Hugh, Shearer, Merrett, Biankin, & Cartmill, 2007; Felsher, Olesevich, Farres, Rosen, Fanning, Dunkin, & Marks, 2005; Gallagher, & Cates, 2004; Seymour, Gallagher, Roman, O'Brien, Bansal, Andersen, & Satava, 2002; Saied, 2005).

Bloom, M., Rawn, C., Salzberg, A., & Krummel, T. (2003) Virtual reality applied to procedural testing: the next era. Annals of Surgery, 237(3), 442-448.

Cosman, P., Hugh, T., Shearer, C., Merrett, N., Biankin, A., & Cartmill, J. (2007). Skills acquired on virtual reality laparoscopic simulators transfer into the operating room in a blinded, randomized, controlled trial. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 125, 76-81.

Felsher, J., Olesevich, M., Farres, H., Rosen, M., Fanning, A., Dunkin, B., & Marks, J. (2005). Validation of a flexible endoscopy simulator. American Journal of Surgery, 189(4), 497-500.

Gallagher, A., & Cates, C. (2004). Virtual reality training for the operating room and cardiac catheterization laboratory. Lancet, 364(9444), 1538-1540.

Saied, N. (2005). Virtual reality and medicine - from the cockpit to the operating room: are we there yet? Missouri Medicine, 102(5), 450-455.

Seymour, N., Gallagher, A., Roman, S., O'Brien, M., Bansal, V., Andersen, D., Satava, R. (2002). Virtual reality training improves operating room performance: results of a randomized, double-blinded study. Annals of Surgery, 236(4), 458-463.