Archives: Resource

EHR: The Importance of Documenting Nursing Assessments

A difficult challenge for nurse educators is ensuring that students understand the importance of  accurately documenting assessments in the age of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

Nursing students may observe nurses who have grown accustomed to documenting assessment results in electronic health records (EHRs), rapidly clicking responses to assessment checklist questions. However, it is important that students understand the importance of completing the documentation accurately.  Failing to properly document nursing assessments can put nurses and patients at risk. This article is an excellent resource to help students understand the importance of documenting assessments in the EHR.

Documenting nursing assessments in the age of EHRs By: Georgia Reiner

Leadership Webinars

Monkey Business:  The Fine Art of Mentoring – Click Here for Recording (presented live July 27, 2021)

All of us can think of at least one or two people in our past who have had a mighty and positive impact on us; it may have been a parent, a good friend, a teacher, a supervisor or team member.  As you perform a forensic examination of yourself, you observe their fingerprints all over the professional you have become.  Reflect for a moment on those individuals who have contributed most to your professional development.   Who were they?  What positions did they hold during the season they influenced you most?  How did they impact you personally and professionally in a meaningful way?  How does your practice now reflect the contributions they made in your life.  Research from the 1960s taught us that monkeys kept in isolation fared far worse that their counterparts who were allowed to share a cage with a monkey “buddy”.  What lessons can we learn from the “business” of these clever primates that could inform a robust model of mentoring?   We learn that humans are better together than alone.  From this, a leap can be made in recognizing the value of the mentoring relationship.  In this dynamic time in the healthcare arena, there is a growing need for strong and qualified nursing professionals to provide direct patient care, step into leadership roles in clinical settings, and to effectively educate those new to our profession.  Please join us for a lively discussion of the art of mentoring.  We will take a brief look at the literature to learn about the definition of mentoring as well as the barriers and benefits of mentoring.  Most importantly, we will begin to identify practical steps to develop and maintain an effective mentoring program.

Speakers:  Karen LaMartina, PhD, MSN, RN &  Janalee Isaacson, PhD, RN

 

Engaging in Critical Conversations – Click Here for Recording (presented live August 3, 2021)

Nursing educators are called on to engage in critical conversations on a regular basis with students, faculty, administrators, and practice partners. Because some of these discussions can be difficult makes it even more important for you to possess the tools and strategies to handle these discussions with more ease and positive results. A discussion of the different types of communication styles to assist in approaching conflict is a focus of the presentation and why avoidance is not a helpful strategy. Exploring your feelings and reactions to difficult conversations will be a crucial aspect of communication with students and faculty. The takeaways for the webinar will focus on identification of ways to practice and apply these tools and strategies in your own environment.

Speakers: Shelly Malin, PhD, RN & Catherine Miller, EdD, MS, RN, FAADN

 

OADN Joins Major Organizations in Support of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for All Workers in Health and Long-Term Care

Due to the recent COVID-19 surge and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, our health care organizations and societies advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This is the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all health care workers to put patients as well as residents of long-term care facilities first and take all steps necessary to ensure their health and well-being.

Because of highly contagious variants, including the Delta variant, and significant numbers of unvaccinated people, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are once again rising throughout the United States.1 Vaccination is the primary way to put the pandemic behind us and avoid the return of stringent public health measures.

Unfortunately, many health care and long-term care personnel remain unvaccinated. As we move towards full FDA approval of the currently available vaccines, all health care workers should get vaccinated for their own health, and to protect their colleagues, families, residents of long-term care facilities and patients. This is especially necessary to protect those who are vulnerable, including unvaccinated children and the immunocompromised.  Indeed, this is why many health care and long-term care organizations already require vaccinations for influenza, hepatitis B, and pertussis.

We call for all health care and long-term care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

We stand with the growing number of experts and institutions that support the requirement for universal vaccination of health workers.2,3 While we recognize some workers cannot be vaccinated because of identified medical reasons and should be exempted from a mandate, they constitute a small minority of all workers. Employers should consider any applicable state laws on a case-by-case basis.

Existing COVID-19 vaccine mandates have proven effective.4,5 Simultaneously, we recognize the historical mistrust of health care institutions, including among many in our own health care workforce. We must continue to address workers’ concerns, engage with marginalized populations, and work with trusted messengers to improve vaccine acceptance.

As the health care community leads the way in requiring vaccines for our employees, we hope all other employers across the country will follow our lead and implement effective policies to encourage vaccination.  The health and safety of U.S. workers, families, communities, and the nation depends on it.

 

SIGNATORIES (Listed Alphabetically)

Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP)

American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN)

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)

American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

American Academy of Nursing (AAN)

American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)

American Academy of PAs (AAPA)

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

American Association of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI)

American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE)

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP)

American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN)

American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP)

American College of Physicians (ACP)

American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM)

American College of Surgeons (ACS)

American Epilepsy Society (AES)

American Medical Association (AMA)

American Nursing Association (ANA)

American Pharmacists Association (APhA)

American Psychiatric Association (APA)

American Public Health Association (APHA)

American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP)

American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)

American Society of Hematology (ASH)

American Society of Nephrology (ASN)

American Thoracic Society (ATS)

Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC)

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)

Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN)

Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS)

HIV Medicine Association

Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)

LeadingAge

National Association of Indian Nurses of America (NAINA)

National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)

National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)

National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA)

National League for Nursing (NLN)

National Medical Association (NMA)

National Pharmaceutical Association (NPhA)

Nurses Who Vaccinate (NWV)

Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN)

Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS)

Philippine Nurses Association of America, Inc (PNAA)

Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO)

Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)

Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)

Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR)

Texas Nurses Association (TNA)

The John A. Hartford Foundation

Transcultural Nursing Society (TCNS)

Virgin Islands State Nurses Association (VISNA)

Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN)

OADN Position Paper on Racial and Social Equity

Preamble to the OADN Position Statement on Racial and Social Equity

The 1,200 Community Colleges in the United States have a long history of providing relevant education responsive to the needs of its local and regional residents and employers. For many, the Community College is a life-altering portal for earning a degree or certificate in wide-ranging fields of study, which lifts graduates out of poverty through respectable employment. Minoritized communities comprise nearly one-half of our enrollees, giving dedicated educators unique experiences in designing programs, courses, and support services that promote student success.

Perhaps because of these collective experiences, our awareness that Community Colleges are not panaceas for resolving all issues and concerns related to racial and social equity. Despite this awareness, faculty do not reflect the diversity of the student body they serve. In addition, success and completion rates lag for non-white identifying students, reflecting that the full potential of non-white students is sub-optimized. Complicating the matter, racism and social injustice that is both structural in nature and personal in practice infiltrates the lives of those attending Community Colleges, including but not limited to those who are disproportionately Black/African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and LatinX peoples.

OADN continues to bolster its awareness of and sensitivity to the multidimensional realities faced by students. This was evident when OADN call out and examined various forms of racism (that has led to violence and death), poverty as a social determinant of health, and other factors that unfavorably impact living and learning in safe and nurturing learning communities. OADN seeks to elevate learners so they can thrive and enjoy the liberties tied to human acceptance in their own communities and beyond.

The OADN Board developed its Position Paper on Racial and Social Equity with bold action steps. Philosophically, we believe the journey to racial and social equity is a lifelong endeavor that unfolds through human connections and shared experiences. Each of us privileged to teach and interact with learners must continuously evolve to appreciate the context and needs of our learners’ journeys.

Structural biases, whether intended or not, must be challenged and eradicated. State and Federal policies that influence social justice require nursing voices at policy tables. While some high-impact actions require swift responses, others will unfold by co-creating shared learning opportunities. OADN recognizes the achievements of Community Colleges and the faculty, but more importantly, the urgent role that each of us paves for all higher education to advance a socially just and harmonized nation.

 

OADN Position Statement on Racial and Social Equity

Racism and health inequity present a serious public health crisis in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). Health inequities related to race, ethnicity, disability, gender expression, and sexual orientation are well documented in the literature (Bailey et al., 2017; Institute of Medicine, 2003; Krahn et al.2015; Restar et al., 2021). For many decades, nursing and health care publications have illustrated the connection between race and health disparities. The relationship between racism and other forms of oppression and adverse health outcomes is not a new concept. Over 20 years ago, Dr. Camara Jones (2000) authored a framework for understanding racism using a gardener’s metaphor explaining that health disparities are not a result of race, but rather, they are a result of the social determinants of health that result from structural, institutional, and individual racism. However, this knowledge about the causes and solutions to health inequity have not resulted in substantial improvements in health outcomes.

Additionally, despite the knowledge that a diverse nursing workforce is needed to improve health outcomes, little progress has been made in the demographics of nurses in the United States (Aragon et al., 2020; The Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, 2003). A diverse nursing workforce is key to impacting future health outcomes and providing culturally informed care for increasingly diverse communities and patients. OADN is committed to addressing the public health crisis caused by racism, structural inequities, social injustice, and implicit and explicit biases.

Recent disturbing events have raised awareness of the impact that racial and social injustice have on Americans’ health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the severe toll that structural racism has on health outcomes and nurses with diverse ethnic and racialized backgrounds. Black/African American, Indigenous, and Latinx people have disproportionately experienced higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death when compared with white Americans (CDC, 2020; Khazanchi et al., 2021).

Hate and violence directed towards Asian and Pacific Islander populations have increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

These inequities remain present in all aspects of healthcare and society at large in the United States. Inequities and injustices based on racism, ableism, gender expression, sexual orientation, residency status, religion, and a socio-economic system continue to persist and are dominating features of American society. The collective power and unified voice of over four million nurses provide an opportunity for leadership to influence meaningful change and dismantle systems of oppression.

OADN recognizes that the need for action goes beyond vows of commitment to achieving health equity. We understand that genuine commitment will necessitate a combination of leaning into discomfort, inviting, and listening to historically excluded voices, and dismantling and reimagining present systems to improve our communities. We support meaningful change in nursing programs, schools, communities, and healthcare systems.

OADN is committed to taking the action needed to address racial and social injustice across the healthcare system and in nursing education. To accomplish this mission, we must engage in challenging conversations and transformational work. To that end, OADN is taking the following immediate actions:

  1. The OADN Board has appointed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Task Force that is charged with assessing the current state of Associate Degree Nursing education and proposing strategies to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in nursing
  2. OADN leadership and task force members are engaging in critical conversations between and among stakeholder groups with the specific aim to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce and address health
  3. OADN will curate and share educational resources and tools for nursing faculty to support the development of antiracism and social justice competencies in nursing
  4. OADN actively participates in the American Nurses Association National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing and is collaborating with other professional nursing organizations to adopt antiracist policies and
  5. OADN enhances the quality of nursing education by providing learning opportunities for nursing faculty and students that critically examine the social determinants of health, the social mission of nursing, and the needs of under-resourced communities.

 

Position Paper Authored by:

Dr. Anna Valdez, Patrick McMurray, Dr. Angela Millan, Dr. Justin Fontenot, Dr. Tyler Sturdivant, Dr. Sharon Goldfarb, Lorrie Davis-Dick. Deonna Thompson

 

 

Unanimously Endorsed by the OADN Board of Directors

June 8, 2021

 

Download a PDF of this position statement.

 

References

Aragon, S., Beauvais, A., Friday, V., Green, C., Kiger, A.J., King, S., Lear, T., Mahowald, J., McGuill, G., Perkins, D., Valdez, A., Velasco, B. & Wangerin, V. (2020). Equity, achievement, and thriving in nursing academic progression. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 15(4), 255-261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2020.06.002

Bailey, Z. D., Krieger, N., Agenor, M., Graves, J., Linos, N., & Bassett, M. (2017). Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: Evidence and interventions. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1453-1463. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30569-X

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Racism and health. Racism is a serious threat to the public’s health. https://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/racism-disparities/impact-of-racism.html.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). COVID-19 racial and ethnic health disparities. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/racial-ethnic- disparities/index.html.

Institute of Medicine. (2003). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care. The National Academies Press.

Jones, C. P. (2000). Levels of racism: A theoretic framework and a gardener’s tale. American Journal of Public Health, 90(8), 1212. 10.2105/ajph.90.8.1212

Khazanchi, R., Evans, C. T., & Marcelin, J. R. (2020). Racism, not race, drives inequity across the COVID-19 continuum. JAMA network open, 3(9), e2019933-e2019933. 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19933

Krahn, G. L., Walker, D. K., & Correa-De-Araujo, R. (2015). Persons with disabilities as an unrecognized health disparity population. American Journal of Public Health, 105(S2), S198-S206. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302182

Ndugga, N., Pham, O., Hill, L., Artiga, S., Alam, R. & Parker, N. (2021, Apr. 21). Latest data on COVID-19 vaccinations race/ethnicity. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid- 19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/.

Restar, A. J., Sherwood, J., Edeza, A., Collins, C., & Operario, D. (2021). Expanding gender-based health equity framework for transgender populations. Transgender Health, 6(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2020.0026

The Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce. (2003). Missing persons: Minorities in the health professions. SullivanReport-Diversity-in-Healthcare-Workforce1.pdf

 

Netiquette for the Classroom

This video provides quick focused tips to help create welcoming and productive online classroom environments.  Specifically, the video discusses the importance of establishing netiquette rules when teaching online.   The video also reviews two infographs that can be used to create respectful and effective online classroom. One infograph describes five simple steps that educators can use to develop classroom netiquette.  The second infograph highlights the dos and don’ts of virtual communication.

 

Testing Next Gen NCLEX®

These resources are made possible through OADN’s ongoing collaboration with NurseThink®, leading the way in Next Gen Teaching and Testing. Learn More.

 

 

 

 

Next Gen NCLEX® test items will include 6-question case studies and stand-alone items the measure the students’ ability to apply the CJMM. Students must be exposed to this item style with repetitive practice and assignments before being tested in this format. Here are some samples that show how the items vary from the current NCLEX® style.

 

Next Gen test item development takes time, practice, and creativity. Consider using a template to organize your thoughts as you build an NGN case. Have campus “NGN writing” workshops, or team up with a colleague and commit to co-writing a case a month. Policy development and scoring guidelines are critical in providing a fair student exam. Consider how to meet these programmatic changes, so there is fairness and consistency.

  • Building a Next Gen Clinical Case Item (In production – Coming Soon!)
  • Next Gen Testing (In production – Coming Soon!)

 

Teaching Next Gen NCLEX®

These resources are made possible through OADN’s ongoing collaboration with NurseThink®, leading the way in Next Gen Teaching and Testing. Learn More.

 

 

 

 

Teaching clinical judgment and preparing our students to take Next Gen style exam items can be challenging. Learn how to move imbed the Clinical Judgment Measure Model into your classroom, lab, simulation, and clinical locations to encourage your students to think at a higher level. Be sure to visit the Next Gen Tips and Tricks page for a repository of quick and easy activities and ideas to integrate into your teaching.

 

 

Overview: Next Gen NCLEX® & Clinical Judgment Measurement Model

These resources are made possible through OADN’s ongoing collaboration with NurseThink®, leading the way in Next Gen Teaching and Testing. Learn More.

 

 

 

 

 

In April 2023, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NSCBN®) will roll out the Next Generation NCLEX® (NGN) item styles for the RN and PN national examinations. The most current resources for learning about Next Gen NCLEX® is on the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) website. Several of the resources provided here will guide you to that location. Novice and expert nurse educators should regularly visit this website as it will change as updates are continually added.

 

Dr. Phil Dickison, Ph.D., RN, is the Chief Officer of Operations & Examinations of NCSBN and is leading NGN research. Watch his recorded presentation provided by NurseTim, Inc. ®

 

The Clinical Judgment Measurement Model (CJMM) by NCSBN is the foundation of NGN. Taking the time to understand and apply this model to your teaching practices will create a habit of thinking and change how your students learn. Whether you are teaching in the classroom, lab, simulation, or clinical, your students need to experience the CJMM every day.

17th Annual NACNEP Report to Congress: Preparing Nurse Faculty and Addressing the Shortage of Nurse Faculty and Clinical Preceptors

The National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) has released its 17th annual report to Congress titled Preparing Nurse Faculty and Addressing the Shortage of Nurse Faculty and Clinical Preceptors. NACNEP is calling on a public-private response to develop, support, and fund a wide range of initiatives to address the shortage of nurse faculty and enhance nursing education and training. For the first time since the report’s inception, OADN had direct input into this report through CEO Donna Meyer, who is serving an appointed term on NACNEP.

Safer Labs and Clincials During Covid-19: Evidence & Literature to Support Mitigating Strategies

OADN has received requests for information that can be used for state-level advocacy, particularly in regards to regulations that govern simulation and clinical hours.  Individual states regulations in these areas this vary considerably.  Regardless of how your state regulates clinical nursing education, it is important to rely on research and evidence-based practice in your arguments for regulatory changes.

For guidance on academic-practice partnerships, look above under “Returning Students to Clinicals and Labs,” where OADN and other national nursing organizations joined with NCSBN to recommend one possible strategy for clinical education during the pandemic.

Below are some resources to support you in your advocacy and program changes as it relates to clinical education hours and simulation: