Ball State University School of Nursing

Nursing School Enhances Information Access and Medical Training with Mobile Solution

The Ball State University School of Nursing wanted to enhance its classroom and clinical instruction while providing students with access to tools that they can use when they graduate. Working with NuSoft Solutions, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, the BSU School of Nursing deployed a Windows Mobile® solution using HP iPAQs equipped with medical reference information from Skyscape, a provider of medical information for mobile devices. Nursing students and faculty use the wirelessly enabled devices to find information more quickly than is possible from textbooks for researching symptoms and conditions, finding drug information, reviewing clinical scenarios, and more. The result is an increased pace of instruction, more-engaged students, and graduates who are better prepared for technology that they will use in hospitals and clinics.

Situation

The Windows Mobile solution is helping keep our faculty and students on the cutting edge of the integration of technology with practice.   Kay Hodson-Carlton Nursing Professor, Education Coordinator Ball State University School of Nursing

The Ball State University School of Nursing, located on the BSU campus in Muncie, Indiana, is one of the leading nursing schools in the United States. The school, which admits about 130 nursing students each semester and has about 45 faculty members, offers both baccalaureate and master's degrees.

Nursing schools need to build and maintain a reputation for the highest-quality training in order to attract the best students. Having high-quality faculty is not enough to gain this kind of reputation. Schools also have to provide training in leading technologies so that students can be prepared for the increasingly important role that technology plays in modern medicine.

In the past few years, the BSU nursing school administrative team saw a need to increase the level of technology training provided by the institution. “We wanted to stay competitive and provide students with tools that would bring lectures to life,” says Kay Hodson-Carlton, a nursing professor and Education Coordinator for the BSU School of Nursing. “In particular, we wanted to bring in tools that our students could use in a clinical setting. For instance, say they have a question about a lab value—we wanted technology that could provide them with ready access to this information right at a patient bedside instead of having to walk to another area to look up information in a book. Or worse, not being able to find it at all.”

Hodson-Carlton and her colleagues knew that other schools across the country were evaluating or implementing mobile solutions to provide greater information access, with the goal of enhancing problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The BSU nursing faculty decided to evaluate how mobile computing technologies might help the school train its students.

Solution

Working with NuSoft Solutions, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, and with assistance from Microsoft, HP, and the BSU Computing Services department, the BSU School of Nursing decided to deploy iPAQ devices from HP powered by Windows Mobile® software. 

Being able to pull up information quickly on the mobile devices helps students prepare more effectively for situations that they’ll face in hospitals and clinics.  Nancy Dillard Associate Director, Baccalaureate Program Ball State University School of Nursing

The school initiated a pilot program in the summer of 2006 and in the fall 2006 semester began requiring incoming nursing students to buy iPAQs. Tom Bieniewicz, Channel Manager of the Education Practice for NuSoft, says the development and deployment of the Windows Mobile solution went smoothly. It took NuSoft about four months to develop and fine-tune the solution, which can be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.0 when it is released. The school standardized on the HP iPAQ 2700 series. The devices, which are powered by Windows Mobile 5.0, are equipped with 128MB RAM and 3.5-inch color screens.

Students purchase their iPAQs from BSU, along with a secure digital (SD) card that fits into an SD card slot in the iPAQs. The SD cards are preloaded with a broad range of medical information traditionally found in reference books, such as drug guides, laboratory and diagnostic manuals, and a nursing procedures manual. The information is created and bundled by Skyscape, a provider of medical information for mobile devices. The combined iPAQ and Skyscape package replaces the information that normally would be contained in five textbooks that were required in the past—and costs about the same, according to Linda Siktberg, Director of the School of Nursing.

The iPAQs, which include Microsoft Office Outlook® Mobile messaging and collaboration client, and Internet Explorer® Mobile Internet browser, are equipped with Bluetooth and WLAN 802.11b wireless features. These technologies enable easy connectivity between devices and to wireless access points distributed across the BSU campus. Students can use the built-in mobile applications for other activities such as viewing lecture notes in Word documents, sending e-mail messages to colleagues, visiting Web sites, or tracking their class schedules.

Students can also participate wirelessly in discussion forums that are enabled through Windows® SharePoint® Services, a collaboration technology that is part of the Windows Server® 2003 operating system. NuSoft helped the school create and deploy a Mobile SharePoint Services document library. This library contains all the Web Part pages that are used to view the classroom and other information, such as announcements, events, and contacts, on the iPAQs.
 
NuSoft used the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0 to implement a solution that enables students to download video files from a BSU Web service for viewing medical case scenarios. Tom Bieniewicz, Channel Manager for the NuSoft Education Practice, says that Windows Mobile 5.0 and the .NET Compact Framework were particularly valuable in creating a key feature of the BSU solution—the ability to resume interrupted video downloads. In case a connection is interrupted while a student is downloading a video file, the software running on the student’s iPAQ can save the “state” of the downloaded file and then pick up where it left off when the connection is reestablished. 

Benefits

By incorporating a Windows Mobile solution into its curriculum, the BSU School of Nursing has delivered immediate and long-term benefits to the students and faculty. Students have information and reference tools at hand rather than having to manually search through textbooks or going to a computer station to search online. Students and faculty receive the latest updates to their reference materials directly on their PDAs, instead of having to wait for printed textbooks to be updated. Professors can also wirelessly distribute quizzes, which students take on their iPAQs. School administrators also foresee using the Windows Mobile solution to extend the reach of the BSU School of Nursing to students who are unable to attend classes on campus.

Delivers More Information, More Quickly

Siktberg finds that the introduction of the Windows Mobile solution has greatly enhanced the dynamics of classroom instruction.

“We’re seeing that in the classrooms, the mobile devices are really changing the structure of activities,” she says. “Students are much more engaged because they are no longer just passively sitting there listening to a lecture. As the professor is talking, the students can pull up video scenarios on their iPAQs to better understand what is being discussed. They might be assigned on the spot to search for a specific article to discuss in class, or quickly get the answer to a clinical question.

“What might have taken days or a week to accomplish in the past—with the student having to go to the library or a computer station to look up information, then return to the next class with the information—now takes place in a matter of minutes, right in the classroom,” Siktberg says.

When students were asked what they liked best about the PDA, one student replied, “The portability and access to nursing diagnoses. Patient information and lab values are at your finger tips.” Another student commented that the PDA was an “awesome reference tool” when used in a clinical setting.

Enhances the Level of Instruction

The mobile solution is also helping faculty while extending the students’ ability to apply their learning to real-world scenarios, according to Nancy Dillard, Associate Director of the Baccalaureate Program.

“The faculty members not only have to make sure that students learn content, but they also are responsible for making sure that students will make clinical decisions that are safe and thorough,” Dillard says. “Because there is much greater access to information right there in the classroom—and because a professor has a much faster understanding of whether or not students understand a particular point, he or she can determine if students are on the right track to making the right decisions that in the future may affect a patient’s health or life.”

Further, the Windows Mobile powered devices are being applied to real-world scenarios. For example, these devices are being used in a clinical laboratory in conjunction with a high-fidelity patient simulator called “SimMan,” a lifelike mannequin that can be programmed to simulate a number of life-threatening ailments.

“The faculty can prepare the case in advance, with SimMan telling the students he ‘doesn’t feel well,’” Dillard says. “Then the students have to gather symptoms, look up information on their iPAQs, and make decisions—all within a specific time limit. Time is of the essence in these exercises—and in real-world situations. Being able to pull up information quickly on the mobile devices helps students prepare more effectively for situations that they’ll face in hospitals and clinics. It’s a major piece of our instruction, and the mobile devices definitely enhance the value of what we can deliver. In the long term, it affects the quality of the care that future healthcare providers will bring to their patients.”

Provides a Platform for Future Enrichment

With this Windows Mobile–based solution, we will spend less time, money, and effort building up the variety of training that we can offer.  Todd Meister Assistant Director of Academic Support, University Computing Services Ball State University School of Nursing

With the initial success of the solution, the faculty at the nursing school is looking forward to evaluating other possible uses for the technology.

“The Windows Mobile solution is helping keep our faculty and students on the cutting edge of the integration of technology with practice,” says Hodson-Carlton. “For example, because of the mobile solution that we have in place, we were able to enhance a partnership that we have with a clinical agency. While working with this agency, we realize that they have an excellent project database that we can now make accessible to the faculty and students equipped with the iPAQs.”

Todd Meister, Assistant Director of Academic Support at the school’s University Computing Services, notes that the success of the Windows Mobile implementation will help spur future projects, such as deploying a mobile solution for online graduate nursing students who are not able to attend classes on campus.

”This includes nurse practitioners, nurse educators, and nurse administrators around the globe in a variety of healthcare related institutional settings,” Meister says. “Several graduate students have already expressed interest in using mobile devices for point-of-care reference and patient tracking in their practice and their studies.”

The power of the technology will also increase as information is delivered across an array of other devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs, which is easy to do using Windows Mobile software.

“By using these devices in training, students will be better prepared for the changing dynamics of the clinical work places of the future,” says Meister. “With the Windows Mobile powered solution, we will spend less time, money, and effort building up the variety of training that we can offer. It’s an immediate benefit to our students, and helps BSU retain its competitive position in the nursing field.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about NuSoft Solutions products and services, call (248) 813-7200 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.nusoftsolutions.com/

For more information about Ball State University School of Nursing products and services, call (800) 382-8540 or visit the Web site at:
www.bsu.edu/nursing

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile brings the power of the Windows® operating system to mobile devices, helping businesses and their mobile employees stay connected while on the go. Windows Mobile runs mobile versions of Microsoft programs, including Microsoft Office Outlook® Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, Pocket MSN®, Windows Media® Player Mobile, and Microsoft Office Word Mobile, PowerPoint® Mobile, and Excel® Mobile. With Windows Mobile, information workers get powerful software combined with the familiarity of Windows. Combined with available service plans and connectivity options, Windows Mobile–based devices, available from 42 device makers and 68 mobile operators in 48 countries, can be used to make calls, send e-mail and instant messages, surf the Web, and access critical business information even when users are away from the office.

More information about Windows Mobile can be found at:
www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile  

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. 

Document published April 2007