Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110206

Madeleine J. Kerr, RN, PhD¹, Karen A. Monsen, RN, MS², Sharon Cross, RN, MSPH³, Kim Klose, BA¹, Charles Miller, MA⁴, and Karen S. Martin, RN, MSN, FAAN⁵. (1) School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 5-160 Weaver-Densford Hall, 308 Harvard Street S.E, Minneapolis, MN 55455, 612-625-2669, kerrx010@tc.umn.edu, (2) Washington County Public Health and Environment, 14949 62nd St. N, Stillwater, MN 55082, (3) Department of Public Health, Saint Paul-Ramsey County, 70 West county Road B-2, Little Canada, MN 55117, (4) Learning Technologies, University of Minnesota, 125 Peik Hall, 159 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (5) Martin Associates, 2115 S. 130th St., Omaha, NE 68144

The future public health nursing workforce will need the skills to collect, analyze, and use public health data in order to evaluate effectiveness of population-based health services. In order to build BSN student skill in nursing documentation system fluency and report literacy, we designed an online module applying the Omaha System to home visiting case studies. Our project was consistent with Healthy People 2010 objectives 23-8 and 23-9 to develop workforce competencies in the essential public health services. Using an iterative process, we created case studies with the help of public health nurse members of a regional education-practice consortium. University of Minnesota senior BSN students (n=120) participated in the online module applying the Omaha System to three home visit simulations. Using an innovative Omaha System interactive online tool, students documented their observations of client problems, nursing interventions and client outcomes (knowledge, behavior, and status). Students printed their documentation in preparation for classroom activities in which they compared their documentation with expert nurses' responses to the same case studies. Report literacy was fostered when aggregate shared home visit data were analyzed and reported in a classroom lecture. Student confidence logs were used as an intermediate outcome measure of student learning. Students who participated in the online module improved their confidence in using the Omaha System to a mean of 3.7 (1=not at all to 5=extremely confident). We concluded that an online simulation can promote student competence in preparation for entry-level public health nursing practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe documentation system fluency and report literacy as competencies for the future workforce.
• Articulate a rationale for developing these competencies in undergraduate nurses.
• Apply the Omaha System to a home visiting case study.

Keywords: Healthy People 2000/2010, Teaching

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation