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AACN Receives Funding to
Explore the Impact of Simulation Technology on
Nursing Education Quality
WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2004: The American Association
of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) has received new funding to investigate the use
of simulation technology to assess the competency of graduating nurses and enhance
education quality. Funding provided by the Helene Fuld Health Trust will be used
to study and validate a simulation-based training and assessment tool adapted
specifically for nursing by Simulis, a leading developer of simulation-based learning
systems. "AACN is committed to ensuring that new nurses
are well prepared to practice in today's increasingly complex healthcare system,"
said AACN President Jean E. Bartels. "Through this new venture, we will explore
how online learning technologies can be used to measure clinical competency among
baccalaureate nursing program graduates." AACN is working
with the experts at Simulis to develop an online Clinical Reasoning SystemTM (CRS)
to evaluate the preparation of new baccalaureate nurses. This system will assess
how well these nurses have developed the competencies outlined in AACN's landmark
document, The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing
Practice. The CRS captures data on the student's decision-making
process by staging unique patient scenarios that feature simulated vital signs
and complete patient profiles. The CRS provides detailed interventions, including
simulated medical devices that clinicians must operate to complete a patient care
plan. All decisions and actions generated by the student are captured as data
to enable an analysis of student capabilities across many different clinical subjects.
"We believe that the CRS system will help to align the
requirements of healthcare providers with the excellent academic curriculum of
baccalaureate nursing programs," said Simulis President and CEO Mark Winter.
"This alignment will help to ensure a smooth student-to-professional nurse
transition which is key to nurse retention." AACN and
Simulis will initiate the pilot program with a variety of institutions offering
baccalaureate nursing programs in the second quarter of 2005. The project will
begin by testing an already-developed Pain Management module to determine which
elements of the Essentials it measures. Recommendations will also be made
to develop and validate additional modules following the initial testing.
The
American Association of Colleges of Nursing is the national voice for university
and four-year-college education programs in nursing. Representing more than 575
member schools of nursing at public and private institutions nationwide, AACN's
educational, research, governmental advocacy, data collection, publications, and
other programs work to establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement those standards, influence
the nursing profession to improve health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice. See http://www.aacn.nche.edu.
Simulis
LLC is a leading developer and provider of simulation-based learning systems
for risk sensitive industries. Its benchmark Simulated Reasoning Systems©
set the standard for objective measurement of reasoning and skills related to
technical operations in Healthcare, Energy and Manufacturing. These metrics allow
Simulis to drive remedial education and training to users, enabling continuous
workforce improvement while lowering training costs and risk-related liability.
Simulis delivers these programs worldwide over the Internet as part of a comprehensive
learning management solution that provides analytical reports on workforce readiness
and risk profiles. Simulis was founded in 1999, and is headquartered in Los Angeles
with offices in Houston and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. More information about Simulis
can be found online at www.simulis.com.
CONTACT:
Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
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