Designing a New Model for Clinical Education: An Innovative Approach.

To keep pace with the ever-changing health care delivery system, it is important to transform the way future nurses are educated, both in classroom and in clinical settings, to care for people along the life and care continuum, not only in acute-care settings. The purpose of this article is to describe a new approach to educating baccalaureate nursing students using immersion practicums that expose students to population health, transitions of care, care coordination, and the multiple roles a nurse engages in along the continuum. The curriculum includes 5 immersions, each with a specific life and care continuum focus to develop anticipatory thinkers

Leadership, loss, and healing: A study of women community college leaders who left the presidency

The purpose of this qualitative study was to extend research on female community college presidents by (a) describing and examining the experiences of women who have experienced difficult leadership positions that resulted in departures from community college presidencies; and (b) exploring how these women have made meaning from this experience. Three female community college presidents who had experienced a difficult leadership experience that resulted in leaving the presidency were interviewed to learn about how they viewed their leadership experiences, described what they had learned about leadership, explained about presidential relationships with governing boards, and constructed meaning as a result of leaving a presidency. Using a constructivist framework and feminist methodology, the study data were first analyzed for each president and presented as an individual case study. Next the data were re-analyzed collectively to make interpretations about the shared experiences of all three presidents. The results of the study resulted in six themes. Leadership: (a) transformational-feminist leadership; Loss: (b) challenging situations with board members, (c) dealing with power struggles, (d) commitment to the college; and Healing: (e) spirituality and reflection, (f) continually creating meaning. In addition to describing six troublesome situations that presidents can face when dealing with governing boards and individual board members, the president\u27s career-long leadership experiences, including some difficulties, suggested a style of leadership adapted from existing transformational and feminist leadership approaches. The Transformational-Feminist, with qualifiers, Leadership Model combines the two approaches and proposes limitations to the model\u27s elements suggested by the emergent understanding that resulted from studying leaders who had difficult experiences

Clinical Care Plan, Interprofessional Course

Evidence suggests interprofessional collaborative practice significantly improves patient outcomes, reduces mortality and enhances quality-of-life.1 Person-focused care demands collaboration among professions in a team approach to address multiple issues including illness, prevention, and health promotion activities. Key elements of successful implementation of interprofessional education are supported in Thomas Jefferson University’s Clinical Care Plan, Interprofessional Course (CCPIC) that includes increasing knowledge of the roles, responsibilities, and competencies of other health professions, collaborating in teams, recognizing the patient as the expert, and communicating effectively

In Addition to Checking Out a Book, You Can Check Out Your Health Too: A New Partnership between Jefferson College of Nursing and the Philadelphia Free Public Library

At Jefferson Health is all we do, but at Jefferson College of Nursing (JCN), Health is H.E.R.E (humanistic, evidenced-based, reflective, excellence in clinical leaders). With a redesign of the undergraduate nursing curriculum, Jefferson College of Nursing (JCN) has transformed the way nurses of the 22nd century will practice, with a focus on caring for patients in all areas of the care continuum. The newly designed curriculum centers around four themes that are threaded throughout, Innovation, Practice Excellence, Interprofessional Collaboration, and Population Health. JCN believes that patients are partners in their health and that care is a collaborative effort. To model this new curriculum design, recently JCN entered into a partnership with the Philadelphia Free Library on 20th and the Parkway. This new partnership focuses on educating members of the community on prevention, wellness, and maintenance. Working closely with Dick Levinson, Assistant Director of Central Senior Services at the Free Library, a series of workshops were developed to meet the needs of the senior patrons. Workshop topics are designed from seniors\u27 suggestions of current healthcare issues or concerns they are facing as they age

iPads, iBooks, Apps! What\u27s all the iFuss about?

The iVolution is here. It is iThis and iThat every way you turn. Is this just another iFad, or is it truly revolutionizing education? In a recent survey conducted by EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research on undergraduates and technology, 31% of students reported owning tablet technology a 15% increase from the previous year and 76% of students reported owning smart phones. This finding was a 14% increase from the previous year. Students also reported using smart devices in class to access material, participate in activities, look up information and photograph material as learning strategies. Thomas Jefferson University is riding the iWave and taking strides to better integrate technology at all levels of medical training; leading the forefront of the iVolution, syllabi, course materials, and textbooks are now delivered in some of our courses via iPads. In the past few years, the Jefferson Health Mentors Program has embraced the use of new technologies, including Wikis, online discussion boards, Google docs, and Skype platforms to facilitate asynchronous IPE interactions. These platforms have helped to promote IPE by easing scheduling logistics and by allowing students to collaborate electronically on team-based assignments. Over the past summer, JCIPE, the Jefferson Health Mentors Program (JHMP), faculty from Jefferson Medical College and the School of Health Professions, Academic & Instructional Support & Resources (AISR) and Jeff Information Technology (IT) assembled a working group and developed yet another innovative tool to better integrate technology into our IPE efforts – the product was a new iBook, entitled “Assessing Patient Safety.

Power Dynamics and Sexual Misconduct

Through our inquiry, we sought to delve into the nuances of the cultural and social circumstances within which sexual misconduct is allowed to persist. Through a deconstruction of these circumstances, we worked to make a meaningful contribution toward a solution of this issue. Preliminary research revealed to us that media coverage conflated hundreds of stories into one narrative, which resulted in compartmentalization of what sexual misconduct looked like (Media and #MeToo, 2018). The media’s projection accurately represents a sexual misconduct epidemic, which affects the lives of almost 50% of women and 20% of men in the United States (Quinnipiac University, 2017). Prior to research, most of our team’s knowledge of the subject stemmed from media exposure. In order to deepen our knowledge without specifically defining what our contribution would be, we began individually researching the top industries in which we believed sexual misconduct occurred. Our research focused on the industries of entertainment, government, religion, and sports. However, after initial research, our focus quickly shifted to sexual misconduct and abuse of power in higher education and general corporate environments. Legally, sexual misconduct is defined as: “a range of behavior used to obtain sexual gratification against another’s will or at the expense of another. Sexual Misconduct includes sexual harassment, sexual assault, and any conduct of a sexual nature that is without consent, or has the effect of threatening or intimidating the person against whom such conduct is directed” (Sexual Misconduct Law and Legal Definition, 2018). Through inquiry, our team realized that there is a tremendous amount of complexity in the application of this definition. We began by working backwards, speaking with people who had first-hand accounts with victims of sexual misconduct. We realized a powerful educational experience, much like the one our team was shaping in this project, could be part of our solution. Interviews with thought leaders and experts determined a three-pronged model of causes that were enabling sexual misconduct in the workplace:1) power dynamics built into the structures of these organizations,2)a lack of knowledge or 2 understanding of what sexual misconduct is, and 3) a lack of punishment for perpetrators of sexual misconduct. Looking at a three-pronged model of causation, we developed three possible avenues of exploration to address each cause in the hopes of making a worthwhile contribution toward the issue. Firstly, an awareness campaign, which seeks to increase people’s sensitivity toward sexual misconduct and thus encourage bystander intervention. The second, an educational program within organizations that would rethink how current corporate training treats sexual misconduct, eventually becoming a part of our final design. Lastly, we think that part of the issue might be a lack of training on sexual misconduct and consent training included with elementary health education, and thus discussed the idea of redesigning curriculum aimed at younger students. We eventually decided to pursue the idea of organizational education. Our team designed a program that empowers a dialogue to educate potential perpetrators and victims, and drive an increased cultural pressure to work against sexual misconduct in the workplace. We designed an experience that brings employees face-to-face with the issue, and puts the tools and responsibility in the hands of bystanders, rather than of the victims. This new experiential training witnesses sexual misconduct as it would actually occur in a workplace. Following this, employees are encouraged to partake in discourse around the issue and how we can better create environments where such actions are deemed completely inappropriate

Using Technology to Enhance Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Creating Virtual Clinical Opportunities by Implementing Google Doc and Google Hangout in Clinical Rounding

The delivery of quality care is best done by a group of practitioners who can effectively communicate and utilize the ‘team decision making approach’ to solve patient/client/person care issues. Organizations such as the WHO advise us that “after almost 50 years of inquiry, there is now sufficient evidence to indicate that interprofessional education enables effective collaborative practice which in turn optimizes health-services, strengthens health systems and improves health outcomes” (2010, p18). The need to implement interprofessional team based approaches to patient care is important. What is also essential is the need to provide interprofessional learning opportunities for today’s health care student who will be practicing in teams in an ever changing health care delivery system of tomorrow. Currently the majority of interprofessional activities that students are exposed to are in didactic settings. Although most health professionals spend more than half of their education in a clinical setting, very little opportunity [predominately because of logistics] exists for students to develop interprofessional skills in clinical practice. Thomas Jefferson University is not immune to this challenge. While we have been successful in bringing medical and nursing students together to engage in clinical rounding, we have not been able to engage many of the other members of the health care team because they are simply not physically on the clinical unit

Use of quick response coding to create interactive patient and provider resources.

BACKGROUND: Since their creation more than 20 years ago, the proliferation of Quick Response (QR) codes has expanded tremendously. Little was found in the literature to support the innovative use of QR coding in the classroom or in health care provision. Thus, the authors created a doctoral-level practicum experience using QR coding to create interactive, individualized patient or provider resource guides. METHOD: Short, descriptive surveys were used before and after implementation of the practicum experience to determine students\u27 comfort level using QR technology, their knowledge base, ease of use, and overall satisfaction with the practicum. RESULTS: Students reported high levels of satisfaction with this exercise, and all agreed that use of QR coding could have important implications in the clinical environment. CONCLUSION: This practicum experience was a creative, practical, and valuable example of integrating emerging technology into individualized patient care. [J Nurs Educ. 2015;54(4):224-227.]