Transforming the Future of Nursing Education and Practice
 We treasure those who have gone before us;
their work has enhanced our expertise by developing standards
of excellence and best practices to light the way. Our
eyes are on the future as we uphold the developments of the
past and incorporate the wisdom and knowledge gained into
the present. We constantly seek innovative and creative ways
to continue building the expertise of nurses through research,
education, and practice. Some of them are described
below…
The
"Living Laboratory" Smart Technology Home
The Living Laboratory (Lab) is a high-tech
home that was opened by the Nursing Institute of West Central
Ohio in November, 2009.
Living Laboratory video
Living
Laboratory Introductory article
The Living Laboratory is designed to pilot
innovative programs and creative solutions to the nursing
workforce and to position healthcare fro transition to community
home-based care. The lab is a two story residential home nestled
on a wooded lot in Bethany Village, a senior living campus
owned and operated by Graceworks
Lutheran Services in Centerville, Ohio.
Renovations in 2010 created
an assistive and adaptive environment complete with state-of-the-art monitoring and confererncing technologies. Engineers, chief scientists,
business representatives, architects, residential and commercial
builders, and computer experts worked on the operational
developments.
The laboratory serves as an educational facility
for interdisciplinary healthcare providers, EMT workers and
others concerned about the care of persons across the lifespan
through home and community based care delivery educational
sessions. The Living Laboratory serves
as an alternative clinical site for nursing and other healthcare
disciplines.
The Techy Family
The Techy family, Andy, Beth, Josie, Noelle,
Grandpa George and others reside in the Living Lab home. They are human
patient simulators operated through computer systems. Healthcare
providers and faculty engage in the house via remote presence
robotics and other video conferencing capability. Technology
applications are scattered throughout the “Techy”
family’s residence; sensors are in place to provide
information and observation for research projects.
About the Techy Family
Techy Family Album
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Remote
Presence Robot
 Meet
RP-7, or Morgan, as he is affectionately known to us.
He joined the Nursing Institute staff in the summer of 2007,
coming from InTouch Health Technologies in Santa Barbara,
California. Since he has been with us, he has traveled
throughout the US. Morgan has been called a Faculty Extender
because he can allow faculty in remote locations to interact
and instruct students in any location. He's about 5
1/2 feet tall and weighs almost 200 pounds. He has a flat
screen monitor (his "head")where the educator's
face is displayed. His camera eyes (mounted atop his "head")
capture images of the students so the educator can see and
interact with them.
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Nursing
Ergonomics
A very important
aspect of the Nursing Institute's dedication to the profession
of nursing is the recruitment and retention of nurses.
The Nursing Institute’s
Nursing Ergonomics Initiative came
as a result of Govind Bharwani, Ph.D. Dr.
Bharwani has taught courses in Ergonomics, Six Sigma,
and Lean Process Improvement in the College of Engineering
at Wright State University and served as Project Analyst for
the Nursing Institute Robot Extender Study. He has over
20 years of ergonomics consulting experience, and has applied
principles of Ergonomics and Six Sigma in a long-term care
facility in Dayton, Ohio to reduce resident falls, build care
teams, and improve the connection between residents and caregivers.
He has developed ergonomic training modules for nurses and
nursing aides to reduce musculoskeletal stresses during care
tasks and computer work, leading to decreases in job-related
injuries and workers' compensation costs.
Dr. Bharwani also developed the CE course,
Nursing Ergonomics,
which began in 2009 and continued through June of 2010.
Nursing Ergonomics and Alzheimer's Disease
Dr. Govind Bharwani, director of nursing ergonomics for the Nursing Institute, worked with his daughter, Meena Bharwani, in 2010 to develop the concept of "Behavior-Based Ergonomics" in the care and treatment of patients with Alzheimer's. Meena Bharwani is a Dayton-area consultant who graduated from MIT and Cornell, and together they worked to implement the results of their research at St. Leonard's Franciscan Living Community in Centerville in March of 2010. The Bharwanis visited facilities across Ohio that serve patients with Alzheimer's and developed techniques for avoiding patient boredom and disengagement and for providing comfort and mental stimulation as needed. Their major finding was that one-size-fits-all solutions were sometimes ineffective because Alzheimer's patients are all unique individuals with differing cognitive abilities, preferences, interests and so on. They provided the staff at St. Leonard's with a selection of "tools" that could be tailored to the needs of each patient. Those tools could include CDs and DVDs, puzzles and games, and "memory prop boxes" that include objects provided by patient family members that have special meanings for the patient.
Debi Sampsel, executive director of the Nursing Institute of West Central Ohio, said Dr. Bharwani's venture extending nursing ergonomic concepts into the arena of Alzheimer's Disease is an example of how the Nursing Institute can act as an incubator for ideas that can be "commercialized" and spread into common usage. It helps fulfill the Nursing Institute's commitment to propelling nursing and nursing education into the future.
Govind and Meena Bharwani's work has been reported in other media. See the links below for more details:
Article from the Centerville-Bellbrook times
SJB News Notes (see page 2)
Transcript of Channel 2 news story
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Research,
Education and Consulting Projects
Fast Track to
Faculty -
is
a program designed to cultivate new faculty and increase enrollment
in programs of nursing. Through technology, it will
prolong the contributions of experienced nursing faculty and
create an accelerated competency
development plan, hastening the process from novice to
experienced nurse.
Nursing programs scattered throughout rural,
suburban, and inner-city locations in 22 Ohio counties benefit
from The Fast Track to Faculty. By using remote presence
robots and interactive video conferencing equipment, Fast
Track to Faculty expands the productivity, reach, and expertise
of faculty throughout the region. In this nursing education
model, faculty and instructors will provide lectures, supervision
of students and new clinical instructors and clinical education
in human patient simulation laboratories using state-of the
art technology in classroom settings and in the clinical area.
Ohio
Human Patient Simulation User Group -
This
statewide user group developed by the Nursing Institute provides
all users of Human Patient Simulators with a network to gain
and share knowledge, best practices, and innovations in the
use of this dynamic educational technology.
Participants include ut are not limited to
in-hospital healthcare providers, emergency care providers,
simulation manufacturing representatives, the military, and
educators with an interest in the use of Human Patient Simulation.
The group meets quarterly at various locations
in the state of Ohio. if you are interested in hosting a meeting,
presenting an educational program, or joining the user group,
please contact the coordinator, patricia.burnell@wright.edu
for additional information.
Upcoming Ohio
Simualtion User Group Meetings:
Watch our events
page for updates on time and exact location.
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