Student Nurses and the Electronic Medical Record A Partnership of Academia and Healthcare

The advent of the electronic medical record has brought a new challenge to nursing education. Although most nursing students are proficient in data entry and computer skills, they often do not comprehend how the information they enter becomes a vital component of interdisciplinary team communication. Furthermore, the electronic medical record becomes a repository for information that can be retrieved for the purpose of decision support. Developed by the Cleveland Clinic, the Deans' Roundtable, and University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Student Nurse Portal provides a means of assisting the student to understand how data entered into the computer transforms into information and knowledge, resulting in the wisdom that enables healthcare workers to provide optimal patient care. Current courses present the purpose of the electronic medical record and its role as a powerful communication tool, but future courses will also help the student develop data entry and retrieval skills. Hosted on the Cleveland Clinic servers and available to students around-the-clock from any computer with Internet access, students have found the Student Nurse Portal to be a valuable tool in preparing for the use of the electronic medical record during their clinical experiences.