Our creative inquiry (CI) team research sought to discover if familiar environments can be used to teach new skills which can then be applied in an unfamiliar environment.

For this project, the team chose to look at Electronic Health Record (EHR) software because few solutions currently exist for teaching students to use this complex software. The government mandated as a part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act that EHR software be used for all people by 2014.

The team created software which looks similar to the familiar social networking environment Facebook but contains the major features nurses would use in commercial EHR programs. We developed an educational EHR system in a familiar environment that acts as a stepping stone for the students to facilitate the transition from mere classroom knowledge about EHRs to actual use of a commercial EHR system in a hospital or doctor's office. The team conducted usability testing on nursing faculty and focused on the skill set (competencies) necessary for EHR use.

EHR System User Manual

Awards

Best Undergraduate Project
School of Computing (Clemson University) - 2010

Presentations

ACC Meeting of the Minds - April 16-17, 2010
Georgia Institute of Technology
Electronic Health Records: A Teaching Tool Abstract (PDF) PPTX

Teaching in Technology Seminar - December 15, 2009
Clemson University (Sandbox Classroom)
Teaching Students Electronic Health Records (Full Presentation) PPTX

CI Poster Forum - April 10, 2009
Clemson University (Hendrix Student Center)
An Innovative Electronic Health Record for Teaching Undergraduate Nursing Students (Poster Presentation) PDF

ACMSE Poster Forum - March 20, 2009
Clemson University (Madren Center)
Using Social Networking to Teach New Software (Poster Presentation) PDF