Warnings in various media forums about the growing shortage of registered nurses are now appearing regularly across the entire country. The shortage is acute. No state is immune from this threat to public safety. There are approximately 2,696,540 registered nurses in the United States according to the most recent data reported by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS, 2/01) and that number cannot tackle the demands of the nation’s health care delivery system. Texas reports a need for 27,000 additional registered nurses to meet current staffing demands (Associated Press, 2/01). Experts at Vanderbilt University project a critical shortage by 2010. The Division of Nursing, Department of Health and Human Services projects a shortfall of 400,000 registered nurses by 2020. Insufficient nursing staff throughout the health care system yields increased risk for unintended adverse patient outcomes. The especially alarming concern is an inevitable increase in treatment and medication errors.
Demand is mounting as the population ages. Greater longevity, due to technological advances and other lifestyle enhancing practices leads to an intensification of chronic diseases, and increased health care and education needs. At the other end of the continuum, technology enables our very youngest citizens more opportunities for life with chronic conditions encompassing periods of acute episodes. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing cites determinants of the shortage to include; aging of the nurse workforce and faculty, competing career opportunities, an increasingly violent and stressful workplace and the demand for advanced degree nurses for complex community-based acute and ambulatory settings. The average age for registered nurses is 45.2; 40% are over 50. Nurses under 30 decreased from 419,000 to 246,000 between 1993 and 1998; a 41% reduction (Buerhaus, 2001). The average age of nursing assistant professors is 49; of nursing associate professors is 52; and new nursing PhD’s are 45, on average, compared to 34 in other fields.
Solutions must be found to provide an appropriately selected and educated nursing workforce. Solutions must move past a “shift the burden” or “do more with less” attitude. Solutions must integrate new ideas and technologies.
The eLine Partnership will design, implement and evaluate a seamless, articulated, collaborative curriculum, available anytime, anywhere that will produce the nursing workforce needed to manage, provide and innovate the caring continuum for the ever evolving healthcare needs of the population.
Partnerships that share resources hold the potential for the health professions to meet the continually changing and growing need for their graduates. Approximately six years ago, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiated the Colleagues in Caring: Regional Collaboratives for Nursing Workforce Development Program to foster state-based groups charged with developing relationships and programs that would enable accurate prediction of nursing workforce needs. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s (TAMU-CC) collaborative partnership, the Nursing Workforce: Beyond 2000 Project (NW2K) was one of the initial twenty sites funded in 1996 and again among twenty-four funded sites in 1999. The registered nurse educational programs at TAMU-CC, Del Mar College and Victoria College are working with other partners to address the health care needs in South Texas. A key goal of the NW2K Project is to underpin the establishment of a seamless nursing education system that will meet health care needs. Quality community responsive nursing education would thus be available throughout the entire region (>15,000 square miles). Learning anywhere, anytime, unencumbered by time and place, with technology and educational opportunities seamlessly integrated, is an innovation not yet applied to entry-level registered nurse education at the programmatic level!
National strategies to address shortage issues are being implemented. Task forces identify interventions for state legislatures; create student loan repayment pools and scholarships. State supported data centers disseminate information about workplace problems and opportunities in the health professions. Nursing education programs are being encouraged, in some instances with additional funding, to admit more students. There are already insufficient faculty in the nursing profession. Accreditation mandates clinical lab faculty-student ratios. Enrollment cannot be increased without faculty so this solution is not easily implemented.
Because the educational programs offer different degrees for entry into practice, it is uncommon to realize economies of scale by sharing scarce resources such as faculty and clinical sites. Students entering the nursing profession choose between five types of educational programs, diploma, associate degree, baccalaureate degree, generic master’s degree, nursing doctorate (ND) degree. All five programs are entry level and prepare students for the same licensing examination. However, each program has differing goals beyond the initial licensing examination and graduates are prepared for different roles in the health care system, the licensing examination functioning as the minimum standard for practice in every state. Movement of students or transfer of courses between types of programs is difficult at best. Regionally based articulation agreements between associate and baccalaureate degree programs are the most common linkages yet there is still much duplication of content. In an ideal educational process, students would complete an entry-level program and progress to higher degree levels featuring clearly differentiated content. Students would be able to move easily, at their own best learning pace, among linked programs, while individually demonstrating achieved competencies.
The eLine Partnership proposes to create the curricula, pedagogy and process that will enable this kind of learning. The eLine Partnership curricula will meet existing national accrediting standards. Students will achieve the same national competencies established by the profession, accrediting agencies, commissions, boards of nursing and health care, and education in the different states. The prototypical curricula will initially be part of the programs of two associate and one baccalaureate degree programs in south Texas. Asynchronous curricula will be competency based, self-paced, faculty and preceptor guided. Clinical preceptors from the student’s ambient health care delivery system will be contracted for practice and to demonstrate essential competencies. Students will choose to enter the eLine model program and designate the degree of their choosing from their institution of choice. The degree received is dependent on the general education requirements of the participating colleges and university as well as the number of competency modules the student completes. Students often need a rapid pathway to licensure in order to enter the workforce and then return to study for a higher degree. A competency based, self-paced model will facilitate this course of action, as well as more quickly inject greater numbers of entry-level nurses into the workplace.
The National Council Licensure Examination – Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) is the national licensing examination, required by all states. In order to sit for the examination, candidates follow guidelines set by their home state’s board of nursing and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. In general, candidates complete an educational program accredited by either of two national accrediting agencies, the National League for Nursing or the accrediting arm of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Both of these agencies are approved by the Department of Education. Students can reside in any state, attend an accredited program in another state, take and pass the NCLEX-RN examination in the state of their choice and obtain an official license to practice nursing. In addition, the mutual recognition model of nurse licensure allows a nurse to have one license (in his/her state of residency) and practice in other states, as long as that individual acknowledges that they are subject to each state’s practice laws and disciplinary rules. Fourteen states, including Texas have adopted the Nurse Licensure Compact and four additional states are in the process. It is expected that all states will adopt the cost-effective Compact and facilitate interstate practice. The licensing process enables eLine to address an acute regional and statewide concern and to demonstrate a model that can easily escalate to a national scope.
To build the seamless, articulated, collaborative curriculum, available anytime, anywhere requires a variety of defined and timely activities. The comprehensive eLine Project workplan identifies objectives, tasks and milestones for each of the five project goals. The workplan milestones establish the timeline for accomplishment of each identified goal. Responsibility for tasks and strategies related to goals and objectives are specifically addressed in the workplan. Following the workplan chart, a summary of the particulars of the eLine Evaluation Plan is presented. Detailed role descriptions, including various aspects of the coordination of the project, are included in the detailed budget narrative of this proposal. The workplan defines specific evaluation strategies linked to all goals and objectives requiring formative and summative assessment for all aspects of the project. Formative and summative evaluation will be guided by the Center for Distance Learning Research, a component of Texas A&M University-College Station. The mission of the Center is to provide for the development, application and maintenance of technology systems that directly enhance education and training. The Center’s staff has extensive experience establishing and managing evaluation programs for distance learning. Dr. Ann Martinez will work with the eLine Partnership throughout the project, to establish and maintain an ongoing evaluation plan addressing all aspects of the project. Student feedback, attrition rates, preceptor and clinical agency assessments, graduation and licensing exam pass rates, program satisfaction and employer satisfaction are elements that will be in the comprehensive summative and formative evaluation plan. In addition, evaluation systems already in place at the three nursing programs in the eLine Partnership contribute philosophical underpinnings for curriculum evaluation. These extensive plans meet the standards mandated by the accrediting agencies for nursing and higher education.
The following goals and objectives will guide the work of the eLine Partnership.
1. Design an integrated, learning anytime, anywhere process for delivering nursing curricula,
a. Establish pathways for faculty and other resource sharing;
b. Formulate the entry and exit points in the curricula for earning various degrees,
c. Create a preceptor council charged with designing the experiential processes sufficient to meet licensing requirements.
d. Create a standardized object repository (SToR) for the curricula components to ensure accessibility across platforms.
e. Formulate student profile predictor indicators.
2. Develop competency-based, self-paced nursing curricula modules,
a. Identify and separate the overlapping competencies in the national competencies for associate and baccalaureate degrees;
b. Construct a process for ensuring dynamic modules;
c. Evaluate applications service providers (ASPs) for suitability to work with eLine using TAMU-CC’s established criteria.
3. Ensure compliance with essential standards,
a. Identify truly essential standards in conjunction with regulatory, licensing and accrediting agencies;
b. Integrate elements of the eLine Project with the administrative processes in the two Colleges and University;
c. Track National Council Licensure Examination pass rate;
4. Evaluate eLine
a. Judge the adequacy of eLine as an educational path for preparing the nursing workforce needed to manage, provide and innovate the caring continuum for the changing health care needs of the population;
b. Establish program and module evaluation procedures;
c. Explore methods of integrating eLine into the permanent educational environment.
5. Devise plans and establish conduits for dispersing information about eLine at a national level,
a. Operationalize the business/marketing plan components in the eLine Partnership proposal.
b. Integrate the maintenance of the standardized object repository into TAMUS information technology operations through the TAMUS Distance Learning Council.
c. Submit abstracts for presentations at national distance education, nursing, health policy and information technology professional conferences;
d. Write articles and possibly a monograph describing the eLine model for entry-level nursing education.
To build the collaborative curricula, the eLine Partnership project will undertake a variety of defined activities. The general work plan identifies Key Project Indicators by project year. Then follow specific work plans for each goal and its objectives, tasks, evaluation strategies and milestones. The individual or agency responsible for each requisite activity is listed. The first initials indicate the person responsible as section leader, followed by the others involved. A succinct illustration of the components of the eLine Evaluation Plan is included along with a complete record of the eLine Partnership.
Key Project Indicators
| 2001-2002 |
2002-2003 |
2003-2004 |
| Develop project infrastructure Admission Student Services Financial Aid Tuition & Fees Preceptors |
Continue module development |
Intensive evaluation: Student selection Process to date Effectiveness of program Best practices Student progress |
| Establish student selection process |
Create the “teach-out” guarantee |
Continue module development |
| Develop marketing & business plan |
Evaluate initial cohort admit or at will |
Continue SToR expansion |
| Initiate module development |
Evaluate prospective students |
Continue preceptor council |
| Evaluate and select ASPs for the curricula development & StoR |
Admit students (10/02) |
Continue interactions with regulatory agencies |
| Establish and initiate faculty development workshops |
Create on-line student orientation seminar |
Initiate monograph production |
| Identify entry/exit points for entry-level licensure and degree programs |
Continue project dissemination, presentations at national conferences, |
Continue project dissemination – publications and presentations |
| Evaluate prerequisites across degree programs |
Continue preceptor council |
|
| Initiate preceptor council |
Judge effectiveness of student preceptor matching process |
|
| Establish preceptor and student matching process |
Refine & expand StoR |
|
| Initiate formative and summative program evaluation processes |
Create on-line faculty orientation seminars |
|
| Develop a world wide web page and list-serve for communication and dissemination |
| Workplans | |||
| Goal #1: Design an integrated, learning anytime, anywhere process for delivering nursing curricula. | |||
| Objectives
Establish pathways for faculty and other resource sharing. Formulate the entry and exit points in the curricula for earning various degrees. Create a preceptor council charged with designing the experiential processes sufficient to meet licensing requirements. Create a standardized object repository (STOR) for the curricula components to ensure accessibility across platforms. Formulate student profile predictor indicators |
Tasks
Develop eLine infrastructure Admission Student Services Financial Aid Tuition & Fees Preceptor Guide Establish & initiate faculty development workshops Design a vertical portal infrastructure designed to evolve to a marketspace portal over the course of the eLine Partnership Project. Develop eLine infrastructure Admission Student Services Financial Aid Tuition & Fees Preceptor Guide Establish student selection process Identify entry/exit points for entry-level licensure and degree programs Evaluate initial cohort’s progression to determine if admission should be by cohort or at-will Establish when progression by achievement versus mastery of competencies is appropriate in on-line generic nursing education. Initiate preceptor council & develop eLine Preceptor Guide Establish preceptor and student matching process Assess effectiveness of student preceptor matching process Evaluate & select ASPs for the curricula development & STOR Refine & expand the STOR process Evaluate prospective students Admit students |
Responsibility
CLJ, RG, LAW, LB & TAMU-CC, DMC, VC TBNE< THECB LB eLine Staff, CBHEC, DLC, ASP CLJ, eLine Staff & ASP AHEC, COC, VCOC CIC, DLC, NW2K CLJ, RG, LAW, LB & TAMU-CC, DMC, VC CLJ, eLine Staff, CDLR CLJ eLine Staff, THECB, TBNE, CIC AM, eLine Staff, CDLR, ASP & TAMU-CC, DMC, VC LB eLine Staff, CDLR LB & eLine Staff COC, CBHEC, CIC, CONE LB, eLine & Staff, CONE, CDLR AM eLine Staff & CDLR CLJ & TAMU-CC CLJ, TAMUS, ASP, PBS & eLine Staff, independent consultant LB, eLine Staff, CDLR TAMU-CC, DMC, VC |
Evaluation
Strategies
Student Handbook Workshop/Seminar Log: Date, Content, Attendance Workshop Evaluations Portal URL Student Handbook Document selection criteria Student Handbook Compare cohort progression to at-will progression, matrix based on module completion/timeline. Develop Progress Matrix Names of Council Members Preceptor Guide Matching criteria matrix Student Satisfaction Survey: Preceptor Matching Process Selection criteria for ASPs Learning Style Inventory, McVay |
| Milestones – Goal #1, Design an integrated, learning anytime, anywhere process for delivering nursing curricula. 09/01/2001 eLine Partnership Project Staff participation in established faculty developmenteLine Partnership Project media announcement 10/01/2001 eLine specific faculty development workshops schedule 12/02/2001 Web-based eLine vertical portal infrastructure 03/01/2002 On-line faculty orientation seminar developed 03/15/2002 STOR established 08/01/2002 On-line preceptor orientation seminar developed 09/01/2002 Project infrastructure integrated with host institutions processes. 10/01/2002 Students admitted 2002/2003/2004 Curricula module revisions based on evaluation and on-going assessment during initial student cohort progression. 03/15/2004 Web-based marketspace portal infrastructure. |
|||
| Goal # 2: Develop competency-based, self-paced nursing curricula modules. | |||
| Objectives
Identify and separate the overlapping competencies in the national competencies for associate and baccalaureate degrees. |
Tasks
Create professionally compre-hensive competencies blueprint Initiate curricula module development. Evaluate prerequisites across degree programs Establish & initiate faculty development workshops. |
Responsibility
LB, eLine Staff TBNE BF, DW, JAS, PBS ASP & consultant LB, eLine Staff, CDLR LB, eLine Staff, PBS, DLC, CBHEC, ASP |
Evaluation
Strategies
Competencies Matrix Log: Curricular module development/completion Document prerequisites Workshop/Seminar Log: Date, Content, Attendance Workshop Evaluations |
| Construct a process for ensuring dynamic curricula modules Evaluate applications service providers (ASPs) for suitability to work with eLine using TAMU-CC’s established criteria. |
Design curricula modular configuration Develop curricula modules Refine & expand the STOR process Design bridge seminars for eLine faculty & preceptors and host institutions’ faculty. Evaluate and select ASPs for the curricula development & STOR |
DE, eLine Staff TBNE, THECB DE, BF, DW, JAS ASP & consultant CLJ, TAMUS, ASP, PBS, consultant, eLine Staff CLJ, RG, MM, LB DLC, PBS, NW2K, ASP AHEC CLJ & TAMU-CC |
Log faculty time
with ASP
Log: Curricular module development/completion Workshop/Seminar Log: Date, Content, Attendance Workshop Evaluations Selection criteria for ASPs Matrix |
|
| Milestones – Goal#2, Design competency-based, self-paced nursing curricula modules. |
||||
| 09/15/2001 11/01/200112/01/2001 01/15/2002 01/31/2002 03/15/2002 06/30/2002 08/15/2002 12/15/2002 08/15/2003 |
ASP selected & contracts completed. Overlapping competencies identified.Curricula unit of measure for transcript records established. Essential competencies for licensure blueprint. eLine Staff participate in the Digital Learning Collaborative digital media workshop #1. STOR established. eLine Staff participate in the Digital Learning Collaborative digital media workshop #2. 2/3 of eLine curricula module development completed. Final eLine curricula module development completed. Final eLine curricula module development completed eLine curricula modules integrated with host institutions’ regular curricula evaluation process. |
|||
| Goal #3: Ensure compliance with essential standards. | |||
| Objectives
Identify truly essential standards in conjunction with regulatory, licensing and accrediting agencies. Integrate elements of the eLine Project with the administrative processes in the two Colleges and the University. |
Task
Evaluate prerequisites across degree programs. Identify entry/exit points for entry-level licensure and degree programs. Update curricula concepts and constructs literature review. Initiate formative and summative program evaluation processes. Design the “teach-out” guarantee Evaluate initial cohort’s progression to determine if admission should be by cohort or at-will. |
Responsibility
BF, DW, JAS RG, MM, CLJ, CDLR CLJ eLine Staff, THECB, TBNE, CIC LB, eLine Staff, CIC, CONE, NW2K TAMU-CC, DMC, VC CDLR, TBNE, THECB TAMU-CC, DMC< VC eLine Staff AM, CDLR eLine Staff, ASP TAMU-CC, DMC, VC |
Evaluation
Strategies
Document prerequisites Student handbook Ongoing Evaluation Plan (See Goal #4 Details) Student handbook Compare cohort progression to at-will progression, based on module completion |
Track National Council Licensure Examination pass rate. |
Develop eLine infrastructure Admission Student Services Financial Aid Tuition & Fees Preceptor Guide Initiate formative and summative program evaluation processesIntensive evaluation Student selection Process to date Program effectiveness Best practices Student progression |
CLJ, RG, LAW, LB & TAMU-CC, DMC, VC, DLC & PBS CONE AM, eLine Staff, TAMU-CC, DMC, VC, CDLR, TBNE, THECB AM, eLine Staff, CDLR & CONE, TBNE & ASP |
Student Handbook Student test scores Evaluation Plan (See Goal #4 Details) |
|
| Milestones – Goal #3, Ensure compliance with essential standards. |
||||
| 08/15/2003 06/01/20042003/2004 Life of Partnership |
ELine Partnership Project evaluation integrated into standardized ongoing program evaluation processes at host institutions. Essential standards, concepts & constructs white paper.80% or better NCLEX pass rate for graduating student Continued SACS, TBNE, NLN & CCNE accreditation for host institutions. |
|||
| Goal #4: Evaluate eLine. | ||||
| Objectives
Judge the adequacy of eLine as an educational path for preparing the nursing workforce needed to manage, provide and innovate the caring continuum for the changing health care needs of the population. Establish program and module evaluation procedures. Explore methods of integrating eLine into the permanent educational environment. |
Tasks
Evaluate prerequisites across degree programs. Initiate formative and summative program evaluation processes. Evaluate initial cohort’s progression to determine if admission should be by cohort or at-will. Assess effectiveness of student preceptor matching process. Intensive evaluation: Student selection Process to date Program effectiveness Best practices Student progress NCLEX-RN scores Review curricula module development process. Develop eLine infrastructure Admission Student Services Financial Aid Tuition & Fees Preceptor Guide Design bridge seminars for eLine faculty & preceptors and host institution’s faculty. |
Responsibility
BF, DW, JAS RG, MM, CLJ, CDLR AM, eLine Staff, TAMU-CC, DMC, VC, CDLR, TBNE, THECB AM, eLine Staff, CDLR, ASP & TAMU-CC, DMC, VC BF, DW, JAS, CONE, TBNE, & CDLR AM, eLine Staff, CDLR & CONE, TBNE & ASP BF, DW, JAS ASP & independent consultant CLJ, RG, LAW, LB & TAMU-CC, DMC, VC DLC, PBS, CONE CLJ, RG, MM, LB DLC, PBS, NW2K, ASP AHEC |
Evaluation
Strategies
Document prerequisites Evaluation Plan Expected Attitudes Survey Unexpected Attitudes Survey Program/Product Perception Survey Instructor Concerns Survey Learner Concerns Survey General Program Evaluation Survey Workshop/Seminar Evaluations Developer’s Challenges Survey Compare cohort progression to at-will progression, based on module completion. Compare eLine Model vs traditional nursing programs based on grades, completion Student survey: Preceptor Matching Process Log: Curricular module development/completion Student Handbook Workshop/Seminar Log: Date, Content, Attendance Workshop Evaluations |
|
| Milestones – Goal #4, Evaluate eLine. | ||||
| 09/01/2001 02/01/2002 02/01/2003 05/01/2004 07/15/2004 |
Formative and summative
evaluation plan. Essential prerequisite concepts for entry into nursing professional coursework identified. Dynamic preceptor guidelines developed eLine admission cohort decision On-line faculty development processes in place |
|||
| Goals #5: Devise plans and establish conduits for dispersing information about eLine at a national level. | |||
| Objectives
Operationalize the business/marketing plan components in the eLine Partnership proposal. |
Tasks
Review the elements of the business and marketing plans. Determine what elements need to be revised and created Establish implementation schedule. |
Responsibility
CLJ, LB, RG, CIC, COC, CBHEC VCOC, ASP, CLJ, LB, RG, MM ASP CLJ, LB, CBHEC ASP, CIC |
Evaluation
Strategies
Document Review Timeline |
| Integrate the maintenance of the standardized object repository into TAMUS information technology operations through the TAMUS Distance Learning Council. Submit abstracts for presentations at national distance education, nursing, health-policy and information technology professional conferences. Write articles and possibly a monograph describing the eLine model for entry-level nursing education. |
Evaluate and select ASPs for the curricula development STOR. Continue development of the learning objects. Dissemination of the project with presentations at national and regional conferences. Initiate monograph production. Continue publications and other public domain communications. |
CLJ & TAMU-CC DE, eLine Staff, DLC, TAMUS, ASP CLJ, eLine Staff, CIC AHEC CLJ, eLine Staff, AM, ASP CLJ, eLine Staff, AM, ASP, PBS, DLC |
STOR Development Log Log: Curricular module development/completion Presentation Log Presentation Log |
|
| Milestones – Goal #5, devise plans and establish conduits for dispersing information about eLine at a national level |
||||
| 12/01/2001
12/01/2001 02/01/2002… 02/01/2004 04/15/2004 |
Business
plan strategy for the eLine Partnership Project.
Marketing strategy plan for the eLine Partnership Project. National publications and presentations about the eLine Partnership Project. Nursing curricula standardized object repository available regionally and nationally. TAMUS Distance Learning Council workshop for all TAMUS nursing program faculty about using the STOR. |
|||
Evaluation Plan
eLine Partnership – Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
LAAP Proposal #P339B010118
Program Documentation:
Documents to be Developed:
Evaluations/Surveys:
Surveys:
| Data Type |
Participant |
When |
How |
Evaluation |
| Preceptor Matching Process |
Learner |
During Program |
Online survey |
Formative |
| Learning Style Inventory, McVay |
Learner |
Pre-enrollment |
Online survey |
Formative |
| Expected Attitudes |
Learner |
Post-Program |
Online Survey |
Formative |
| Unexpected Attitudes |
Learner |
Post-Program |
Online Survey |
Formative |
| Program/Product Perception |
Learners |
Post-Program |
Online |
Formative |
| Instructor Concerns |
Instructors |
Post-Program |
5 Scale Questions |
Formative |
| Learner Concerns |
Learners |
Mid/Post-Program |
8 Scale Questions |
Formative |
| General Program Evaluation |
Learners |
Post-Program |
15 Open-ended Questions |
Formative |
| Workshop/Seminar Evaluation |
Workshop/Seminar Participants |
Post-Workshop/Seminar |
19 Scale and |
Formative |
| Developer’s Challenges Survey |
ASPs |
Post-Program |
To Be Developed |
Formative |
The Partnership will be centrally organized to ensure the success of the Project. The Partnership Project Manager will have regular staff monthly meetings to ensure that the Project follows the projected implementation plan. All financial records and expenditures will be conducted centrally through the normal processes at the lead partner, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The eLine Partnership is a representative group of key players needed to effect change in higher education for the nursing profession. The institutions of higher education have fully accredited nursing programs, programs with excellent success records in curricula development and in partnering to ensure high quality nursing education in south Texas. The schools are involved in various forms of distance education, together and separately, and seek effective techniques to meet the educational needs of their constituents and demonstrate successful models that can be used across the nation for common problems. TAMU-CC is assessing application service providers to build a campus portal; it is expected the same provider will work with the eLine Partnership. The South Texas Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and the Digital Learning Collaborative seek to add the newly developing capabilities of digital television to the distance education arena. The Collaborative is composed of the PBS stations and the higher education institutions, working together to program content for broadcast digitally, as well as via Internet, on demand anywhere, anytime. A production island will be equipped and used for this purpose. Regulatory assurances and requirements for nursing education will be addressed in the asynchronous curricula. The Texas Board of Nurse Examiners and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board are members of the eLine Partnership for compliance issues and to break old barriers for new ideas. Staff from both State of Texas regulatory and oversight agencies have committed to working with the development of the eLine Model curricula to promote and support access to innovative programs that will enhance of the workforce in the State. The National Program Office for the Colleagues in Caring Project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will be the conduit for communication between national nursing workforce and educational development projects.
The eLine Partnership reaffirms all partners’ commitment to preparing student’s to live and work within a culturally diverse society. To that end, the eLine Partnership endorses the following statement from the University’s Student Handbook & Code of Conduct in response to Section 427 of the Department of Education’s General Education Act (GEPA):
University’s Commitment
to the Student: Equal Access and Opportunity
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi does not discriminate on the
basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin or disability with
respect to the admission and education of students; the availability of student
loans, grants, scholarships and job opportunities; the employment and promotion
of teaching and non-teaching personnel; and the student and faculty activities
conducted on premises owned or occupied by the University.
| eLine Partnership Staff |
||
| Individual |
Initials |
Agency |
| Claudia
L. Johnston, PhD, RN Lois Barry, MPH, RN Bunny Forgione, PhD(c), RN Design Expert |
CLJ LB BF DE |
Texas
A&M University-Corpus Christi |
| Blanca
Rosa Garcia, PhD, RN, FNP Donna Wofford, PhD, RN |
RG DW |
Del
Mar College |
| Marilyn
Morris, MEd, MSN, RN LeAnn Wagner, MSN, RN JoAnne Settles, MSN, RN |
MM
LAW JS |
Victoria
College |
| Ann
Martinez, PhD |
AM |
Center
for Distance Learning Research |
| eLine Partners |
||
| Individual |
Initials |
Agency |
| Don
Dunlap Production Personnel |
DD |
South
Texas Public Broadcasting System, Inc. |
|
Claudia L. Johnston, PhD, RN Project Director |
CLJ |
Digital
Learning Collaborative |
|
Claudia
L. Johnston, PhD, RN |
CLJ |
Nursing
Workforce: Beyond 2000 |
|
Juan
Castro, MD Rebecca Jones, DNSc, RN, CNAA |
JC RJ |
Coastal
Bend Health Education Center |
|
Rebecca
Rice, EdD, RN |
RR |
Colleagues
in Caring: Regional Collaboratives for Nursing Workforce Development:
A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Program |
| Regulatory Agencies |
||
|
Katherine
A. Thomas, MN, RN |
KAT |
Texas
Board of Nurse Examiners |
|
Marshall
Hill, PhD |
MH |
Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board |
| Supporting Partners |
||
|
Melonie
Kelley |
MK | Coastal
Organization of Nurse Executives |
|
Tom
Niskala |
TN | Corpus
Christi Chamber of Commerce |
|
Phyllis
Hunt |
PH | Greater
Victoria Chamber of Commerce |
|
Robbyn
L. Michalka |
RM | Pecan
Valley AHEC |
Dissemination of the products, outcomes and process for the eLine Partnership should commence at the time of the initiation of the project. eLine is the evolution of the Nursing Workforce: Beyond 2000 Project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Colleagues in Caring: Regional Partnerships for Nursing Workforce Development. The grounding of eLine in the Colleagues in Caring Program creates an immediate tie to the other 24 sites from that national program. All of the sites are focused on creating the nursing workforce of the future and an educational process that eliminates old barriers and speeds the timeframe required to get to the market. Progress will be highly visible and if successful, rapidly copied. The key staff of the eLine Partnership will be speaking and writing about the project, locally, regionally, statewide and at a national level almost immediately as the next gathering of the Colleagues grantees is in October of 2001.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will be partnering with an administrative services provider for outsourcing various aspects of their distributed learning. It is anticipated that the contract negotiation process will be completed by the start of the Fall 2001 semester. The administrative services provider will work with the eLine Partnership to market and brand the model at a national level. Their services will be provided to the Partnership at a reduced rate as an in-kind contribution.
In addition, the members of the Partnership will present the Model at professional conferences and meetings as well as writing in professional journals. The two Colleges are accredited by the National League for Nursing and the University’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. These agencies will be notified as part of the nursing program’s standard reporting process of the development of the eLine Model, these agencies in turn will immediately provide national listings in all publications of the availability of the curriculum for prospective students. In addition, the reporting functions of the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners as part of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and the Texas Higher Education Board will broadcast the Model’s availability.
All members of the eLine Partnership are committed to the cost-effective continuation of the model curriculum focusing on ever-increasing responsiveness to the changing community and workforce education needs. The eLine model curriculum will not be a new program nor will it exist independently of the three established nursing programs incubating it. During the course of development of the anywhere, anytime, competency-based curricula modules, the matriculation infrastructures of the two Colleges and the University will be inculcating the model curriculum into their infrastructure in order to assure that the model meets regional accrediting guidelines, state educational regulatory directives and simultaneously becomes part of the standard educational offerings within the three school’s approved program offerings. It is not the intent of the eLine Partnership to create a new program rather it is the intent to create a more flexible methodology designed to support student needs while enriching the employer landscape by enabling speedier progression from entry to licensure. As the pitfalls are identified during the course of the development phase, corrective strategies will be sought and implemented – this will provide a much needed contribution at the national scale level for clinically grounded on-line, anywhere, anytime learning.
The eLine Partnership members are key players for nursing education in the 15 counties designated as the Greater Coastal Bend Region of South Texas. The members of the Partnership have a successful history of working together with established articulation agreements between the Colleges and University. They have collaborated on several initiatives that serve as foundation for this project; the Nursing Workforce: Beyond 2000 Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for 6 years, the Model Classroom Project and most recently, the new Digital Learning Collaborative Project, both funded by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board. These projects represent over two million dollars in funding and pave the way for the eLine Partnership to build the seamlessly integrated nursing curricula of the future – available anytime, anywhere – offering new opportunities for persons encumbered by access and availability barriers – providing the quality nursing workforce necessary to provide for the future health of our nation. Peter Drucker states that “The best way to predict the future is to create it” and that is the intent of this Learning Anytime, Anywhere Partnership.
Return to The eLine Partnership and the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education
© 2002 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
www.tamucc.edu
All Rights Reserved.