End of the summer course

Well, we are at the end of the course for this summer. I have been so enriched by reading all your postings! You've done a great job.

- Kathy

Today is the last official day of classes. I am so happy to see the good work that everyone has done!

almost 2/3 done

The course is almost 2/3 done...modules 3 and 4 are due on Tuesday. Most of you are working on, or done with, the decision support module. Decision support is one of my interest areas - it's how I came into the realm of informatics. And ultimately one of the major goals of informatics as a specialty - to support decision making in all areas. Some decisions require minimal support - things like data organization and simple alerts, for example, help clinicians wade through the tsunami of information we face in healthcare, and avoid those errors of omission that can occur when people simply "miss" something in the chart. Another form of simple decision support is literature, especially things like info buttons that provide context sensitive access to evidence. Other forms of decision support are more complex, attempting to make the knowledge that experts have, available to novices. These complex decision support systems ("expert systems") are the type we asked you to evaluate in module 4 and are the type of system I most often work with. I can imagine a time when electronic records incorporate complex CDS that repesent "best practices" in a given area.

The final two modules are coming up. Module 5 looks at policy and ethical issues. The question about blogging (why would anyone do this) really hit home for me this week. One of my young acquaintences (one of my kids' friends) died this week. He chronicled his journey with cancer through a blog; with entries up to two weeks before his death.

Module 6 will come full circle back to the beginning; as we re-examine systems and devices and wrap up the course. The part where you use a public health database is in anticipation of your evidence based practice course - that course has in the past had assignments that require you to access IBIS-PH (the database) and we wanted to provide an introduction to it early on.

This has been a good course so far. Although I haven't left many individual responses, (not wanting to prejudice people who have not yet done a module)... I have been reading your blogs and discussions, and remain impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness with which you've all approached the modules.

Hang in there.

Kathy

Wow, time flies

Wow nearly the end of June already. Most of you are nearing completion of modules 3 & 4. The paper in module 4 is the only major paper in the course. After this it's all downhill.

Hang in there everybody.

Kathy

One third done

We are, most of us, about 1/3 done with the course. Already! I have read most of the postings and will get grades posted soon for the first module(s) - as soon as I get module 5 ready to go. Plan to have that by the end of this weekend.

I hope students feel that they are learning something of use to them. Much of the course is "fear factor" - exposure to many different forms of technology that will be encountered in graduate school and in current nursing practice. We don't expect students to be technology experts when they finish - but hopefully all will at least get a sense of how to learn about a new technology, and a feeling of "I can do this!"

Meanwhile, I am in Washington DC at a conference of pediatric critical care researchers. Yesterday's topics ranged from cellular changes in pertussis, to my favorite talk of the day, how to set up a biorepository (including the volumes of clinical and administrative information to be managed along with the repository). In the working sessions, I worked on a simple decision support protocol for managing septic patients based on genomic findings. Complicated topic, but simple protocol.

Yeah, I know. I'm a nerd.

--K

Week 2

Week 2 is begun. I am so impressed with the way things have started out. Some of the blogs are really beautiful and creative, and postings are thoughtful and insightful. I am always impressed with the wealth and diversity of experience of the students in this course.

We are trying a few new things this time around. One is dividing the discussion between the discussion board and the blogs. CoN admin had told us we need to introduce students to social networking, and strongly suggested use of an external blog. In previous semesters we required all the discussion to happen in the blogs, but this time we've tried splitting it. We envision the discussion boards as the place for discussion and analysis, and the blogs as more personal reflection and opinion. The use of the blog is not optional; it was intentionally designed into the course from the beginning.

I think we should rename module 1 as "fear factor". Starting right off with creating a blog can be intimidating -- we recognize that. But in some ways it's like ripping off a band aid. Better to just get it going quickly. Once they've done this (creating a blog), most folks realize that technology doesn't have to be totally intimidating, and that you CAN be successful in learning new technologies.

The second new thing will come up in module 4. We have previously used Captivate to create flash movies, when we wanted to put voice with powerpoint slides. But iphones and ipads don't accommodate flash movies (yet), and if the movie was very long (more than 10 minutes) it seemed to take forever to download. So I experimented with using the live classroom as if I had archived a live lecture. This archive can be viewed online within the live classroom, or can be downloaded as mp3 or mp4 file (these are supposedly compatible with ipods etc.)

I will be interested to hear how that works, and what people think about the format.

Take care,

Kathy

class day 2

Wowsa I better get crackin'. Some of you are already hard at work!