Bridging the Gap to Quality Cared: The ISAT Initiative for Nursing Faculty

Today's nursing faculty are faced with the complex task of educating nurses for a world facing a workforce shortage. Increasing patient complexities, and an ever increasing dependence on technology for patient care, documentation, and communication. Patient safety and quality are superimposed upon these challenges, and coupled with the fact that most graduate nursing programs do not prepare our nurses for faculty roles making the preparation and development of nursing faculty even more important. According to the Institute of Medicine's 2003 report on health education, the education of health professionals is viewed as a bridge to quality care if improvements are made to the system through the implementation of five core competencies. The 10M vision is that "all health professionals should be educated to deliver 1) patient-centered care 2) as members of an interdisciplinary team, 3) emphasizing evidence-based practice, 4) quality improvement approaches, and 5) informatics. The ISAT (Informatics. Simulation, and Telehealth) Initiative addresses faculty development in the three major areas that have been identified as both new to nursing and instrumental in meeting our current educational challenges. This application will determine competencies for faculty development in the three major areas. along with the delivery of a multidisciplinary approach to education that strengthens the patient safety and quality agenda. Project dissemination activities will capitalize on the project's strengths and weaknesses. as well as publicize the online portions of the continuing education efforts that were not part of the original project. "the application draws upon the recognized strength of Vanderbilt University in the area ofinfonnatics, the combined strength of Vanderbilt and the University of Kentucky in the area of simulation, and the strength of the University of Kentucky in the area of telehealth. This unique collaboration pulls together the best possible talents to meet the needs oftoday's nursing faculty which can first be piloted in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, followed by the 16 member states of the Southern Regional Educational Board. These states were chosen due to their high incidence of life-threatening diseases and their need for better health management as described by Healthy People 2010. During the final years of the project, the offerings will be expanded to include all US nursing educators.