Nursing to Expand Role of Clinical IT
School and Eclipsys form unique academic
partnership
By Lynn Writsel School of Nursing
Underscoring the growing role that information
technology plays in the delivery of health care, the Johns
Hopkins School of
Nursing and Eclipsys Corp. have signed a letter of
intent to launch a unique academic partnership. The goals
are to increase the health care information technology
competence of nursing graduates and to design new ways of
delivering safe and efficient health care utilizing health
care information technology.
Johns Hopkins nurse educators plan to use the
partnership to develop and implement a curriculum that
incorporates Eclipsys' advanced information technology
solutions, hardware and expertise. Through the curriculum,
their students will have access to the company's
information technology and will use a wealth of
evidence-based, best practices clinical content and
knowledge-management tools. During their learning process,
Hopkins nursing students will experience the use of
clinical information systems in simulated, but realistic,
health care situations. Graduate students and faculty will
study the impact of the technology on the nursing workflow,
efficiency, error prevention and the educational process
itself. Eclipsys, in turn, will benefit from access to
Hopkins' intellectual capital, collaboration on research
studies and Hopkins' contributions to Eclipsys' ongoing
product design and innovation.
According to Martha N. Hill, dean of the School of
Nursing, "The impetus for this partnership is the growing
national nursing shortage and our resultant concerns over
patient safety, all of which are driving the redesign
nationwide of how patients will be cared for and how
nursing students and nurses will be taught." Hill said that
she sees the partnership as "a cutting-edge response by
Hopkins Nursing to the nationwide patient safety and
quality-of-care crises."
"Via the use of enabling information technologies,"
she said, "we can superbly prepare our students and study
and re-engineer processes to improve the efficiency,
appropriateness and safety of health care."
Patricia Abbott, the catalyst behind the partnership
and the Hopkins project lead, noted, "We at Hopkins are
acutely aware of how health care is changing. Our patients
are sicker, there is an acute nursing shortage, and reports
from the Institute of Medicine show that medical errors are
far too common. Information technology is essential in our
battle to address the critical issues of patient safety and
quality of care."
Jim Cato, Eclipsys chief nursing officer, said,
"Hopkins Nursing will serve as a proving ground for ideas
as we continue to develop information technology tools to
improve the way that nurses and other clinicians deliver
patient care. The School of Nursing will provide a
world-class forum to teach and demonstrate health care
information technology to faculty, students and staff and
to drive forward the knowledge base."
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2004
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