title: Teaching with the Nightingale Tracker technology in community-based nursing education: a pilot study.
abstract: Changes in health care delivery are becoming increasingly focused on technology. Nursing students are often expected to travel long distances to suitable community sites for clinical experiences, which challenges nurse educators to design and implement instructional strategies to provide students with optimal clinical practice opportunities, while maintaining preceptor-student supervision and vital communication links. This article reports a pilot evaluation of the Nightingale Tracker system, which included both a server and an innovative, hand-held device designed to accommodate multiple forms of data input and allow timely communication between clinical faculty and students in community-based clinical settings. A sample of 5 nursing students reported that the Nightingale Tracker enhanced learning, particularly in performing and documenting physical assessments, data input and transmissions, and autonomous clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Worcester Graduate School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655, USA. Abraham.Ndiwane@umassmed.edu
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ndiwane
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001900:Boston; D003142:Communication; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000193:education*; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000592:standards*; D003625:Data Collection; D004282:Documentation / Q000592:standards; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods*; D018961:Educational Technology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D048108:Nursing Informatics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*; D009737:Nursing Records / Q000592:standards; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014195:Travel