“EHR Go met our needs well with integrating the program into daily use in skills and also an on-campus clinical with the use of Standardized patients.”

NURSING

Course description:
Skills is integrated throughout the nursing program in all levels. There are a variety of schedule skills starting in Fundamentals and then in the student’s 2nd and 3rd semesters as well. The students are also obligated to complete required practice time in the skills lab with varying hours per course, from 2-4 hours throughout a semester.

Simulation is also integrated throughout the program and the students complete a simulation experience 1-2 times each semester.

Instructor:
Kerry Allen MSN, RN Skills Coordinator

“Our program had been using another EHR in the past for several years but had difficulty integrating it into skills practice. We were prompted to change companies to better accommodate our needs with skills utilization and also simulation. We wanted a “live” option for use with group work and simulating a day at the hospital.

We also wanted to incorporate documentation into the simulation sessions.”

IMPLEMENTATION

EHR Go is pretty straightforward with the use of the patient files. It is great that there is a lot of content already built in and customizable to meet the course objectives. Although the biggest obstacle that I have encountered is the editing of patient files and understanding the timeline and event timing, in order for it to show properly for the student when they complete an assignment.

EHR Go met our needs well with integrating the program into daily use in skills and also an on-campus clinical with the use of Standardized patients. The group work option has allowed us to simulate true time documentation with the ability to enter orders as the students receive new orders from a provider. They are entered into the patient file and the student is able to see the addition of new orders and implement them in a timely fashion to emulate real practice.

EHR Go is also heavily used in the skills lab with scheduled skills instruction and also individual student practice time. The students are obligated to document nursing procedures and medication administration, to include barcode scanning, anytime they are in the skills lab. The objectives of using EHR Go is to provide the students with the most realistic experience while they are in the skills lab. As students practice, the students are instructed over and over: “if you will do it in the hospital, do it here as well”. This applies to all skills and documentation. The overall objective is the goal of making each step in nursing practice comfortable or “2nd nature” for the students. In addition to the skills, the multiple opportunities for documentation on EHR Go, increases the students exposure to medical terminology/nursing lingo through specific documentation flowsheets and drop-down boxes with assessment options. This type of documentation emulates what the students are seeing in the hospital settings.

EHR Go is also used during the simulation settings for medication documentation and barcode scanning.

“The students pick it up quickly.”