Use of an electronic clinical experience portal for the education of nurses in a critical care unit.

This paper examines a clinical experience portal (CEP) that was developed for critical care nurses to access on a personal digital assistant (PDA) while undertaking a 12-month postgraduate program. The increasing complexity of care provided to patients in intensive care units (ICU) in Australia and overseas requires that health care practitioners working in this area are competent and highly skilled, to prevent errors and adverse events. The CEP - unlike the traditional approach which is often lacking, antiquated or encompassed in paper records - provides opportunity for collaborative activities to occur between the learner and the teacher in an auditable environment to enhance the quality of the education provided. The CEP provided a method for the nurses to record their competencies and access educational material within the framework of a postgraduate program. The benefits of using the CEP for the education of all healthcare professionals' are also discussed.