ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604300030
SECTION: NURSES PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH COX
As the roles of nurses change in hospitals, outpatient settings, home health care and doctor's offices, so does the role of education in their lives.
Warren Clark, director of education and research for Catawba Hospital, is responsible for all the in-service training of the staff at this state facility. He said the need for continuing education is increasing because there are so many developments in the medical field, and affecting his staff, new understandings of the mentally ill.
In addition, Clark said nurses' roles are expanding, and ``many have a greater say in the multi-disciplinary running of the hospital. Our hospital has adopted the philosophy that care providers are the best people to have a say in how the facility is run. They feel more involved in the process, and can explain the changes better."
Consequently, Clark said Catawba has provided training to meet this need. The nurses are not only trained in recent medical developments, but in how to analyze problems, how to work in teams to improve situations and how to analyze data.
To support this change in education, Clark said Catawba is installing a modem link and computer in the library that will allow nurses to connect with on-line resources and communicate with other groups through e-mail.
To do so, they have had to learn computer skills. Through on-line research, a nurse could research the symptoms of a patient with a dementia they may not recognize. The information is instantly available, the symptoms can be called up and a problem could be solved in much less time.
But their computers are used for more than pure research. Both Clark and Jeanne Lemons, director of capability development for Carilion Health Systems, said they have plans to use computers in continuing education and for testing.
The concept of using computer programs to train is not new, but it certainly represents a savings to the health industry.
``You can train all the way up to advanced cardiac life support," using a computer, said Clark. He added that doing so cuts down on the amount of time it takes to train, allows his staff to train and take tests at their convenience, and therefore cuts expenses.
Lemons, who has been involved in staff development since 1987, said she has more resources to funnel toward education now than she ever has. Carilion, she said, has a very strong commitment to education.
Lemons said she's seen a change from educating nurses for one role to cross-training staff - all staff at all levels - so they can be more flexible and skilled in more areas. It makes cost sense.
A nurse, she said, can now be trained to do electrocardiograms, thus eliminating the need for specialized, one-job areas.
``You might see us training an R.N. to do respiratory treatments or help with a patient's breathing exercises after surgery. Our No. 1 priority is our patients," she said.
To achieve the delivery of a higher quality of care to patients, a hospital wants to reduce the number of different people who walk in and out of a patient's room delivering care. Doing this allows the care givers to become more familiar with the patient's history, she said.
The impact this has on education is that they are teaching their staff the ``whys'' as well as the ``hows,'' said Lemons.
In addition to using computers for research and staff development, they are looking into interactive distance learning.
``Nurses are ready for change, and they're ready to make sure their patients are No. 1," said Lemons.
Janet McDaniel, graduate program coordinator at Radford University, said their nursing programs are changing to meet the needs of a changing health care society.
Currently, Radford University offers two masters-level nursing programs, both reflecting the needs in Southwest Virginia. The first, advanced adult health, opened in 1992 after a needs survey.
The second is home health nursing, ``in anticipation of more home health moving to the community," said McDaniel. Radford University has also submitted a grant proposal to the U.S. Public Health Service (December 1995) which was approved, but not funded, for a family practice nurse practitioner's masters degree program. Currently, said McDaniel, they are moving toward the goal of offering this latter program by training their faculty now. ``We hope to begin the program within the next two years,'` she said.
McDaniel said the main change in their graduate nursing curriculum involves increasing a nurse's experience outside the hospital, with more of a focus on health prevention and education of their patients. This has even extended to the undergraduate program, she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: TIM TREVILIAN. Warren Clark, director of education andby CNBresearch for Catawba Hospital, and Diane Nutter, R.N., practice CPR
using a computer.