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The Impact of Implementing the Hawaii Statewide Nursing Consortium Curriculum on Faculty Work Life, Teaching Productivity and Quality of Education

Principal Investigator: Alice M. Tse, Ph.D., APRN
Program Evaluator: John Steffen, Ph.D., MS, AB, Social Science Research Institute, U. of Hawaii at Manoa

The project will implement a controlled evaluation of the Hawaii Statewide Nursing Consortium Curriculum, a single baccalaureate nursing curriculum implemented for university as well as community college students throughout the state, patterned after the Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE). The program incorporates new approaches to competency-based, student-centered learning and redesign of clinical education. Dr. John Steffen and his team at the Social Science Research Institute will conduct the evaluation that will assess the impact of implementing the new curriculum on nursing faculty work life, teaching productivity and quality of education relying upon a quasi-experimental design, collecting outcome data on appropriate intervention and comparison schools.

Using a Simulation Clinical Teaching Model to Increase Faculty Capacity in an Undergraduate Nursing Education Program

Principal Investigator: Hila Richardson, R.N., Dr.PH, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Program
Program Evaluator: Lloyd Goldsamt, Ph.D., National Development of Research Institutes

The project will evaluate the impact of substituting clinical simulation experiences for half of the traditional clinical days in the hospital for the medical surgical rotation for all nursing students at NYU (approximately 200 per year). Dr. Lloyd Goldsamt of the National Development of Research Institutes will conduct the mixed quantitative/qualitative evaluation to assess the overall impact of simulation on teaching productivity, quality of faculty work-life, and student educational measures. An appropriate university nursing school has been incorporated as the comparison group in the quasi-experimental design.

Evaluation of State-Based Support-for-Service Programs Targeted at Nurse Faculty

Principal Investigator/Evaluator: Jennifer Craft Morgan, Ph.D., Associate Director of Research, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill UNC Institute on Aging
Co-Program Director: Marilyn H. Oermann, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, ANEF, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing, Professor and Chair, Adult/Geriatric Health

The project will evaluate the impact of state-based support-for-service programs on recruitment, retention, and work-life of nurse faculty.  The evaluation includes programs that support graduate students pursuing nursing degrees as well as those providing loan repayment for recently prepared nurse faculty members.  Data will be collected on participants in programs in several states and appropriate comparison groups of non-participants will be incorporated in addressing key evaluation questions.   Dr. Jennifer Craft Morgan of the UNC Institute on Aging will lead this evaluation project.

Dedicated Education Unit: Evaluating Innovation in Clinical Education

Principal Investigator: Susan R Moscato, Ed.D., RN
Program Evaluators: Vicki Nishioka, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Education Northwest; Michael Coe, Ph. D., Cedar Lake Research Group

The University of Portland (Oregon), School of Nursing will evaluate the “Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) Model.” The DEU is a hospital teaching unit designed to expand teaching capacity and improve clinical education for nursing students. The DEU reorganizes the roles of staff nurses and academic faculty to increase both the quantity and quality of faculty supervision and clinical education available to students. Practicing nurses receive additional professional development and support to become the primary teachers of students during clinical rotations; academic faculty members provide education and coaching for DEU nurses to increase their clinical teaching skills. The evaluation of the DEU model at four schools of nursing and their acute care hospital partners that operate both DEUs and traditional teaching sites will be conducted by Education Northwest’s Senior Research Associate Dr. Vickie Nishioka, who is working on the project with Dr. Michael Coe, President, CedarLake Research Group. Data gathered from student and nurse faculty surveys will be used to compare teaching capacity, faculty work satisfaction and quality of clinical learning environment at DEUs and traditional clinical education sites.

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This EIN “Grantee Spotlight” features an interview with team members who are evaluating the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh College of Nursing’s ACCEL program, a 12-month accelerated bachelor’s to BSN program that uses a technology-rich model. EIN interviewed co-principal investigators Dawn Pope, BSN, MS and Jaya Jambunathan, PhD, RN, along with program evaluator Chere C. Gibson, PhD, and Terry L. Gibson, PhD, professors emeriti of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As one of its technology tools, the ACCEL program utilizes the virtual world of Second Life as a means to provide experiential learning to their students. We’ve included two short video segments to illustrate how ACCEL has integrated Second Life as it is used by faculty and students.

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The Effect of a Virtual Community on Work-life, Recruitment and Retention among Nursing Faculty

Principal Investigator: Jean Giddens, Ph.D., RN
Program Evaluator: Linnea L. Carlson-Sabelli, Ph.D., Rush University, College of Nursing

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative teaching application known as The Neighborhood (NBH), is a Web-based virtual community featuring the stories of fictional characters who live within households in the “neighborhood” and are served by various community agencies. Their stories unfold over three semesters and are recorded on web pages that contain text, video vignettes and medical records, which form the basis for student instruction by faculty. Dr. Linnea L. Carlson-Sabelli and her team from Rush University will evaluate the impact of NBH on faculty work-life, faculty recruitment and retention, and student graduation rates. Data collection will include surveys of students and faculty, program records, interviews and focus groups; comparisons of outcomes will be made between seven intervention schools and seven control sites. Items from the NPO-provided breadth of education measure will be included in student surveys.

Project PDQ – Partnering for DEU Development and Quality

Principal Investigator: JoAnn Mulready-Shick, Ed.D., RN, CNE
Program Evaluator: Kathleen M. Flanagan, Ph.D., FBJ Consulting

This project will evaluate the “Partnership for Dedicated Education Unit Development and Quality (PDQ)” program, an intervention implemented in 2007 by the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Partners Healthcare. The PDQ relies on a dedicated hospital unit in which staff nurses and nursing faculty take on new educational roles to deliver more efficient and effective clinical education to nursing students. Dr. Kathleen M. Flanagan from FBJ Consulting, will lead the evaluation, employing a randomized design to assess the impact of the PDQ on faculty productivity, teaching capacity, work-life, institutional costs, and quality of education (including the breadth of education measure provided by the NPO); outcomes associated with the PDQ will be compared to those achieved by the traditional clinical education units.