Connected Health: Preparing Practitioners

Abstract

Today I received my AARP Bulletin (yes, I am that old) and, to my delight, the first article tells of high-tech ways to stay healthy (Migala, 2015). AARP, with 37 million members, is the second largest member organization in the United States (T. Schreier, personal communication, April 6, 2015). Its members can be segmented into three life stages: 34 percent are baby boomers (ages 50-64), 33 percent are late boomers (ages 65-74), and 23 percent are of the silent/greatest generation (age 75 plus). Migala (2015) quotes Thomas Hale, executive director for Mercy Virtual, who states: "New technologies allow more patients access to physicians and specialists, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship and allow you to obtain on-demand treatment." She then describes the benefits (with a few cautionary remarks) of nine tools that can help improve one's health: health apps, electronic medical portals, at-home disease monitoring, crowdsourcing (such as Crowdmed.com or Patientslikeme.com), telestroke, fitness devices, virtual doctors, virtual counseling, and videoconferencing. Mercy Virtual, by the way, provides telehealth services to help care providers in three areas: ConnectNow (Connecting), SafeWatch (monitoring), and CareEngage (managing) (http://mercytelehealth.com/services/). Think about the 37 million AARP members reading about these advances in health care technologies. Now think about their children or caretakers, who will want to explore the options available for their aging parents or loved ones. I can imagine that some of these people will be asking their health care professionals which of these services, if any, are available for them now. As the momentum builds, it will become imperative that we prepare our future nurse graduates to practice in the world of connected health. For me, it was validating to see this message being relayed to AARP members. After all, several of my previous columns focused on these high-tech tools. And, at the University of Colorado College of Nursing, we have started to include connected health learning opportunities in our curriculum. WHAT WE ARE DOING In 2012, the college of nursing received a HRSA advanced nursing education training grant focused on interprofessional education (IPE) and the use of technologies. To be eligible for this grant, applicants had to incorporate interprofessional (IP) competencies as part of the curriculum and explore the use of technologies to facilitate IPE. We partnered with the school of pharmacy and, on occasion, with the school of medicine. The i-TEAM (Interprofessional Technology Enhanced Advanced Practice Model) project prepares advanced practice nurses (APNs) to function in an IP collaborative practice providing high quality health care in rural and medically underserved urban areas. The primary goal is to prepare a cadre of APNs with the requisite Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies (Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011) to provide technology-enhanced collaborative care within the health care system. To do so, we offer learning opportunities through the master's core informatics course, advanced practice courses (team-based experiences with both standardized and virtual patients), and team-based clinical experiences employing digital health tools. Graduates will demonstrate the four core IP competencies (values/ethics, roles and responsibilities, IP communication, and teams and teamwork) as defined by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel (2011) and the five Institute of Medicine (2003) health care professionals' core competencies: Informatics, Quality Improvement, Evidence-Based Practice, Patient-Centered Care, and Team-Based Care. Following are some grant-funded examples of our work with digital tools. Foundations of Health Care Informatics In this required core course for both master's and doctor of nursing practice students, one module is focused on the use of digital tools to encourage patient, family, caregiver, and consumer engagement in their health care. …