Innovative nursing program lands national award

The MUSC College of Nursing has received an American Association of Colleges of Nursing Innovations in Professional Nursing Education Award, which recognizes the outstanding work of AACN member schools in rethinking traditional models of nursing education and leading changes to those programs. 

The College of Nursing was recognized for its innovative approach called virtual interprofessional learning, or VIP, a virtual health care setting that uses avatars to engage learners across disciplines, universities and other locations.

In 2014, with the support of a grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the college created VIP as an online learning experience to increase students’ interprofessional engagement, communication and knowledge of patient quality and safety standards. The Interprofessional Education Collaborative Core Competencies, or IPEC, guided the development of the VIP.

MUSC students from nursing, medicine and pharmacy completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement root cause analysis and communication modules to build baseline knowledge before entering the virtual environment. Via the VIP platform, students conducted a root cause analysis through a complex case in a virtual world scenario. Unique to the evaluation plan is the ability of the VIP platform to assess a number of IPEC competencies through automated scoring, populating at the end of the virtual student experience. Additional evaluation tools include focus groups, a self-assessment of interprofessional practice in patient care and a user experience tool.         

This approach helps advance interprofessional education from limited experiences to accessible, innovative and interactive opportunities that are not bound by time or place. The VIP platform is portable, exportable and generalizable and will promote incorporation of interprofessional education in a wide variety of clinical scenarios and locations.

Gail W. Stuart, Ph.D., RN, serves as dean of the College of Nursing. “We were thrilled to receive this award from the AACN that recognizes our faculty and staff's hard work and dedication to develop and implement an innovative interprofessional program that will educate and engage our future health care professionals."

During the Academic Nursing Leadership Conference, only three schools in the U.S. were honored with the Innovations in Professional Nursing Education Award in the following categories:

• Small school/liberal arts schools — St. Mary's College

• Academic health center — MUSC College of Nursing

• Public school without an academic health center — Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University

The award, including a prize of $1,000, was presented at the AACN leadership conference in Washington, D.C.