Nursing schools need to prepare a digitally enabled workforce for the 21st century – and now they have the means to do it.
How do you empower nursing students across the United States to lead data-driven health system change in their courses, capstones, and careers? How do you immerse students in hands-on digital learning so that tools and technologies become second nature to them? ANIA recently joined with Emory School of Nursing, the number two graduate nursing program in the United States, to answer these questions.
In March 2021, ANIA and Emory Nursing led a unique program aimed at understanding what needs to change in order for nursing schools to implement the informatics and analytics curricular standards the profession has been chasing for decades. This program included a presentation on the importance of data science in nursing education and leadership, with a nod to the competencies that professional organizations like the American Academy of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) are calling for with increased urgency.
The event featured an early look at Project NeLL, Emory Nursing’s suite of apps for teaching, learning, and practicing nursing data science. Project NeLL is shifting the way nurses think about research and frontline leadership. With immediate access to more than 2.7+ billion de-identified health records and 37+ trillion data points from across the spectrum of care, NeLL enables users of all career and education levels to step into leadership roles and tackle large-scale health system challenges.
During focus group break-out sessions, attendees from 12 nursing organizations shared meaningful insights with the Project NeLL team on how to optimize NeLL’s searchable big data repository and data dictionary for easy use by nurses of all levels.
“NeLL will be immensely helpful to students with DNP projects and capstones,” commented one attendee. “I would have loved to have used this when I was doing my DNP work.”
Another attendee weighed in: “I teach an evidence-based practice course and I teach informatics. And in both areas, I could really use this because with evidence-based practice, you tell students, ‘Identify a problem and go into the literature.’ And they’ll often say, ‘But what type of problem should I look at?’ That’s where you can come in with NeLL and say, ‘Well, let's look at the data and find out.’ What’s good about NeLL is that it gives you a place to start, so you can design projects effectively.”
Project NeLL is launching nationally in spring 2021, with beta test sites across the United States. For inquiries about data integration or partnership, contact Rose Hayes, Emory School of Nursing’s Director of Engagement at rkhayes@emory.edu. To see a demo or find out about bringing NeLL to your nursing school, contact Projectnell@emory.edu.