University students to train on Cerner
- 24 July 2008
The University of the West of England has agreed a partnership with Cerner to use its Academic Education Solution to train nursing and other healthcare staff on how to use its electronic patient record system, Millennium.
Students at the university will be given lessons on how to use Millennium as part of a non-assessed module from September this year. Nurses will be taught the system first, with other health professionals following next year.
Rod Ward, senior lecturer at the school of health and social care at UWE, told E-Health Insider: “We see this as an ideal opportunity to get nurses to learn about the electronic patient record environment they will be going into once they qualify.
“Entrants from 2008 will graduate in 2011, by which time the EPR should be mainstream. Partnering with Cerner means we can help to ensure that they are able to use an EPR system in whichever NHS trust they work for.”
Cerner Millennium is being implemented by most acute trusts in London, and is in eight hospitals in the South. Cerner says AES will enable UWE students to benefit from the full clinical information system being introduced into the NHS, adapted to support healthcare curricula and classroom instruction.
Cerner’s vice president, Alan Fowles, told EHI: “It is vitally important that as healthcare embraces the digital age the incoming workforce has a high degree of knowledge and understanding of how healthcare technologies work.
“With a significant number of NHS trusts using, or being in the process of implementing, Millennium, UWE students will be more prepared for the work they will experience once they graduate, allowing them to focus on the best patient care possible.”
Ward said the course would look at the “basic principles” of Millennium, with the partnership with Cerner on an initial two year basis. University staff are currently being supported by Cerner staff on intensive courses to ensure they are ready for September.
Ward added: “We will be evaluating the implementation of AES to ensure it reflects the needs of our students. The great thing is it underpins a lot of the material they are already studying and can easily be embedded into their nursing essentials module. We hope this will put them in good stead for their future careers.”
UWE are the first in England to use AES, though it used globally by over 7,000 students at 40 campuses around the world.
Professor John Duffield, pro vice-chancellor and executive dean of the faculty of health and life sciences at UWE, said: “This partnership is a great opportunity to keep nursing education at UWE at the forefront of current healthcare practice, ensuring that our students are fully prepared for the environments in which they are going to be caring for patients and clients.”
“The use of Cerner AES solution will form a key part of our curriculum as a foundation for evidence-based clinical practice, supporting development of critical-thinking skills and enhancing unidisciplinary and interdisciplinary education. It is capable of being used with human patient simulators and will be available online anywhere anytime.”
Link
