Stationary units will be used primarily for communicating between faculty and students across the four UNMC nursing divisions in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff. Portable systems will allow students and their clinical preceptors to communicate with faculty while students are evaluated by faculty on their skills in clinics and homes. This grant will provide the tools for greater accessibility of advanced nursing education as well as enable students to practice skills closer to their own communities. The equipment will be used initially for teaching and evaluation purposes and will be later used anyplace where health care can be delivered, Dr. Zimmerman said. She said the technology will reduce the number of hours of driving to the campus during a semester.
Travel is required by students and faculty, especially during the clinical courses.
If a student has a home computer with video conferencing ability, they will be able to connect with the College of Nursing anytime, or they can do so through the campus connection. Faculty hope the systems can be expanded for use in the students homes to enable the students to take tests, sit in on lectures, participate in discussions with other students and communicate with professors. The demand for advanced practice nurses, which merges the roles of the nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist, is increasing in Nebraska, she said. The reasons are due in part because of the critical shortage of health care providers with specialty expertise in rural and underserved areas of Nebraska and because of the decrease in length of stay for patients. Recovery will most likely take place in the home.