Twenty Plus Years of Distance Learning: Lessons Learned.

Private institutions of higher education in the United States were hesitant to institute programs of distance learning for fear that they could not maintain the quality of the education they had delivered in face-to-face programs. Vanderbilt University allowed their School of Nursing to embark on such an endeavor in 1996, as long as quality measures were incorporated. The result has been a comprehensive resource support team using Quality Matters and an increase in program rankings.

Using Contemporary e-Learning Tools to Teach Staff How to Use New Online Documentation Systems.

Medical centers, hospitals, and health care practices are implementing electronic documentation systems and regularly adding new features to these systems. Training users to effectively use these systems in a scalable way has been a challenge. Learners learn at different rates and have different needs.

Designing New Buildings to Accommodate Current Technologies.

Growing higher educational programs are always interested in adding physical facilities to their campus. Many times the initial plans do not include all the technology details needed for either a standard or a cutting-edge program. This paper describes planning and implementation efforts at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, which has resulted in a new 29,947-square-foot facility addition.

Expanding Virtual Reality to Teach Ultrasound Skills to Nurse Practitioner Students.

This team has had prior successful production efforts in the use of Second Life to implement a virtual reality world into both nursing education and practice. Our current efforts center around a virtual reality application that provides learners with the opportunity to master competencies in the use of ultrasound technologies, which have surfaced in many nurse practitioner certifications as a necessary skill. Using the authoring tool of CenarioVR™, and capturing video footage of a nurse practitioner using the ultrasound equipment, students can don a VR headset for an immersive experience.

Distance Education Programs: The Technical Support to Be Successful.

Academic success requires support on a variety of levels as well as access to contemporary tools and services. Supporting students enrolled in a successful higher education distance learning program, requires a strong, properly trained IT support staff in addition to a stable IT environment. Our distance education program began with a regional market but has grown significantly over the past few years.

Integrating Informatics Content into the Nursing Curriculum.

Contemporary nursing curricula require that nursing informatics content be integrated across the various levels of the programs that are offered. Many such programs face national accreditation requirements that typically relate more to technology than to informatics. International standards vary in these requirements.

Using the Virtual Reality World of Second Life to Promote Patient Engagement.

Patients have typically been passive participants in their own healthcare. However, with a change in philosophy towards outcomes driven care, it has become necessary to make sure that patients mutually set their healthcare goals with their providers Both eHealth and mobile health applications have required patient participation in ways never before valued. The virtual reality world of Second Life offers one eHealth solution that requires computer literate patients to participate via avatars in synchronous healthcare visits and support groups, as well as explore online resources asynchronously.

Extending nurse practitioner care using the virtual reality world of second life.

The growth of Internet applications has substantially broadened the potential for its use in global telehealth. This pilot project used the virtual reality world of Second Life for diabetic patients to meet with their nurse practitioners for their maintenance visits. Using avatars and the online patient portal, these scheduled visits were designed to meet the needs of the patients as determined by the results from a questionnaire completed by patients prior to the visit.

An analysis of nursing education's immersion into Second Life, a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE).

Second Life (SL) is a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) using 3-D modeling to replicate real world settings and experiences. However, little is known of the extent to which nursing education is involved in SL activities. This study used four different search strategies to conduct a comprehensive review of print, blog, web and media sources.

Teaching during a pandemic event: are universities prepared?

As the threat of pandemic events streaks across the planet, the question then becomes can universities, particularly health science centers charged with producing the next generation of health care providers, continue their teaching and educational mission by offering classes in a distance environment, completely uncentralized, away from the traditional centralized campus? A sampling of campus websites were reviewed to gather a sense of how well prepared we are, followed up with a survey administered to faculty and staff in the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt University. The concern being that if a technology rich environment such as Vanderbilt is not fully prepared to continue teaching in a pandemic event, what concerns should we have for other institutions providing health care provider education that may not have access to the resources a Vanderbilt has? Finally, a set of recommendations to schools is presented, based on the findings.

Using the virtual reality world of second life to teach nursing faculty simulation management.

Healthcare faculty members have come to depend on the advantages of teaching with clinical simulation, but not all faculty are competent in their ability to manage students during the simulation experience. This federally funded proposal provided the opportunity for nursing faculty to participate in a synchronous learning event using the virtual reality world of Second Life (SL). Based on competencies, faculty participants were guided through the simulation process by a "Master Teacher.

Developing the online survey.

Institutions of higher education are now using Internet-based technology tools to conduct surveys for data collection. Research shows that the type and quality of responses one receives with online surveys are comparable with what one receives in paper-based surveys. Data collection can take place on Web-based surveys, e-mail-based surveys, and personal digital assistants/Smartphone devices.

The development of an online clinical log for advanced practice nursing students: a case study.

Three years ago at the Medinfo conference a prototype version of a clinical log for nursing students at Vanderbilt University was demonstrated. The purpose of the log is to document the types of clinical experiences the students are participating in as part of their academic program. We collected log data during that first year and received ongoing formative feedback from both students and faculty regarding its current feature set and desirable features for future implementations.

Data mining results from an electronic clinical log for nurse practitioner students.

Traditional techniques for collecting data on clinical experiences have been greatly flawed. Data cannot be easily collected in real time to make programmatic or placement changes "on the fly". Furthermore, it is difficult to look at data across students, specialty areas, and years because the data is typically not in a digital format.

Demonstration: An online clinical log for nurse practitioner students.

The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) has advanced practice nursing students in clinical experiences across the USA who are required to provide written documentation on their encounters. Prior log activities had consisted of responses on optical scan sheets and descriptive logs submitted at the end of each semester. Faculty wanted a more contemporary and efficient environment that would allow students to collect their clinical log data at their point of care and enter into an online database.

Aggressiveness of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici Isolates in the South-Central United States.

Although stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, has been an occasional problem on wheat in the south-central United States from 1941 until 1999, the disease has been consistently severe in the region since 2000.

PDA application for collecting patient encounter data for Advanced Practice nursing students in a clinical setting.

Unlabelled: Three years ago we developed a web-based clinical log for Advanced Practice nursing students to record patient encounters. Although it solved many problems, students complained about the time it would take to complete each encounter since they actually entered the data twice, once immediately after seeing the patient and later on the web.

The Solution: Create a PDA version that students populate with data during the day and upload to the main database at night.

Investigation of proton conductance in liver mitochondria of broilers with pulmonary hypertension syndrome.

We previously reported an impaired ability to regulate hepatic mitochondrial state 4 respiration rate in response to sequential additions of adenosine diphosphate in pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS). As proton conductance is a major contributor to State 4 respiration, the major goal of this study was to investigate the nature of proton conductance in hepatic mitochondria isolated from broilers with and without PHS. Broilers were placed on floor litter in environmental chambers and exposed to cold temperatures (15 degrees C) from 3 to 7 wk of age to induce PHS.

Evaluation of alternative tactics for management of insecticide-resistant horn flies (Diptera: Muscidae).

A 3-yr study was conducted to determine the efficacy of tactics that could be used to manage populations of insecticide-resistant horn flies, Hematobia irritans irritans (L.). Insecticide spray, spot-on or pour-on formulations and two IGRs in bolus formulation, 1.

Influence of the host plant on occluded virus production and lethal infectivity of a baculovirus.

Intra- and inter-specific effects of cotton, soybean, and clover on the time until death of Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) and Heliothis virescens (F.) larvae lethally infected with H. zea nucleopolyhedrovirus (HzSNPV) were evaluated in the laboratory.

Larval mortality and development of Pseudoplusia includens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) reared on a transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis-cotton cultivar expressing CryIAc insecticidal protein.

The effects of a transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)-cotton cultivar (DPL 32) on three instars of the soybean looper, Pseudoplusia includens (Walker), were determined in laboratory studies. First, third, and fifth instars were fed field collected Bt-cotton leaves for 1, 2, four and 7 d or until pupation, and then transferred to artificial diet. Mortality during the larval stage increased linearly in response to an increase in the length of feeding time on Bt-cotton by first and third instars.

The hepatic extraction of plasma free amino acids and response to hepatic portal venous infusion of methionine sources in anesthetized SCWL males (Gallus domesticus).

This study was conducted to investigate the hepatic extraction of plasma free amino acids in anesthetized Single Comb White Leghorn (SCWL) males (Gallus domesticus). SCWL males were anesthetized and implanted with cannulae in the carotid artery, hepatic vein, hepatic portal vein and the left hepatic duct. Free amino acids in plasma and bile were determined before, during and after 30-min infusions of Saline (control), DL-Methionine (DL-Met) or DL-2-hydroxy-4-methylthio-butanoic acid (DL-HMB) into the hepatic portal vein.

Effect of timing of artificial insemination on gender ratio in beef cattle.

It was recently reported that cows inseminated at approximately 10 or 20 h before an expected ovulation deliver predominately a bull or heifer calf, respectively. The objective of this study was to further investigate the effect of timing of insemination on the gender of offspring in cattle. Angus heifers (n = 41) and cows (n = 98) were used in the study.

Electrocardiographic evaluation of broilers following unilateral occlusion of an extrapulmonary primary bronchus.

This study was conducted to provide a comprehensive evaluation of both the amplitudes and durations of the Lead II electrocardiogram (ECG) in nonascitic and ascitic broilers. At 14 d of age, male and female broiler chicks were sham-operated (SHAM, n = 27), or pulmonary hypertension was initiated by occluding one extrapulmonary primary bronchus (BRONCHUS CLAMP, n = 57). Lead II ECG and BW were recorded on Days 28 (ECG1) and 42 (ECG2), necropsies were conducted on all birds dying after Day 28, and final necropsies were conducted on Day 49.

Electrocardiographic and genetic evaluation of giant jungle fowl, broilers, and their reciprocal crosses following unilateral bronchus occlusion.

Electrocardiography is useful as a noninvasive technique for detecting right ventricular hypertrophy in birds developing pulmonary hypertension (PH) and pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS, ascites). The objective of this study was to identify every aspect of the Lead II ECG wave form (amplitude or duration) that can be correlated with right ventricular hypertrophy [increased right:total ventricular weight ratios (RV:TV)] indicative of PH across a broad genetic background. Sham operations were conducted, or PH was induced by occluding one extrapulmonary primary bronchus in 14-d-old chicks produced from matings of broilers (B x B), Giant Jungle Fowl (J x J), and their reciprocal crosses (B x J and J x B).