The ICU as a Learning Environment

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a novel system for critical care that delivers instructional material to healthcare personnel at the point of care. The overall goal is to shift some of the delivery of continuing education to the bedside, where relevant and often rich, untapped opportunities for context-based learning exist. The Phase I project will develop a standard format to encapsulate educational material into "bite sized" modules executable at the bedside. The system will deliver the content in a context- sensitive manner (such as linked to a clinical guideline) so as to anticipate its need by the nurse. The system will periodically assess the student's knowledge and will award CE credit or competency certification. The Phase I project will assess the feasibility of the concept (technical performance and clinical acceptance) using a prototype system. The standard format for the content will be public domain (we are working together with MedBiquitous, a medical standards organization, to accomplish this) with the hopes that it will be adopted by content providers and hospital informatics vendors. The commercial products to be sold are the software tools to use the system for content providers (authoring), users at the hospital (bedside display of content, authoring, nurse manager, administrative), and professional organizations (CE administration, authoring). We believe this system will provide a more efficient method for delivering instructional content to the bedside where clinical questions arise. It will provide an innovative system for improving the quality of patient care through continuous professional development.