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One “patient” in the educational setting is Aria — a medical manikin (or mannequin) from CAE Healthcare that represents a 7-year-old child and features vocal expressions and sounds, an advanced airway, and neurological and bleeding systems. By mimicking human anatomy and physiology, the manikin allows pediatric-nursing students to develop hands-on clinical skills in a safe way that does not risk harm to actual patients.

Manikins and other simulation equipment have become powerful tools in pediatric-nurse training programs.

Benefits of Simulation-Based Training in Nursing

Simulation-based training is an educational technique that creates realistic scenarios in a controlled environment. It allows future and current nurses to improve their skills and learn from mistakes. Furthermore, nurses can enhance their pediatric assessment skills and advance proficiency in the nursing process — all while reducing anxiety about pediatric care.

Simulation has been enhanced by many high-tech developments. The technology in simulation-based learning is designed to prepare users for cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills. Being interactive, the training requires face-to-face educational sessions.

In addition to manikins, simulation scenarios and processes can include:

• Partial-task simulators — models (e.g., hands-arms) used to implement a clinical skill or task that can be repeated by students, for example placing an airway or wound suturing.
• Virtual reality — uses computers and standardized patients (virtual patients) to create a realistic learning and evaluation setting.
• E-learning — computer-generated simulators represent tasks or settings used to facilitate learning.

Nursing students use simulation learning experiences to practice, and they receive corrective feedback embedded into a simulator that allows them to become competent. Meanwhile, faculty members evaluate students’ skills, including critical thinking.

Building Skills and Confidence

Competency and confidence are among the personal goals of pediatric-nursing students. In the college lab, practice through simulation manikins allows nursing students to prepare for true-to-life medical situations without fear of performing procedures. The manikins are the closest things to real people with real conditions and injuries.

Importantly, simulation-based education prepares nurses for careers in pediatrics. From infancy through adolescence, children have different stages of development that affect their interactions with nurses. Challenges in pediatric nursing include treating frightened and confused children, inflicting pain on babies and young children, and keeping stressed parents informed and calm. 

Infants, in particular, are a special population because pediatric nurses cannot explain procedures to them like they can older children. Nurses must focus on maintaining a steady hand and composure when caring for them. Fortunately, John Carroll University’s nursing students have the advantage of developing the skills to treat babies with the help of Luna, the infant manikin from CAE Healthcare, that enables learners to gain proficiency in newborn assessment, resuscitation, and advanced life support.

Innovative Nurse Training

Indeed, training for nursing pediatric patients presents some challenges and limitations. Innovative strategies like simulation-based learning enhance prelicensure nursing education. Simulation can also promote teamwork and collaboration and the ability to develop a protocol for treating patients.

Advancement in technology allows John Carroll University to deliver meaningful, interactive, and intentional clinical experiences for nursing students that accomplish three objectives:

1. enhance their pediatric assessment skills
2. reduce their anxiety about pediatric inpatient care
3. advance their proficiency in the nursing process

John Carroll University offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program that features low- and high-fidelity nursing simulation labs, where students learn to practice skills that coincide with classroom lectures and clinical experiences. Specialized courses, such as Obstetrics, Immediate Newborn Care, and Pediatrics, are linked with simulated experiences focusing on nursing care.

Pursue a nursing degree at John Carroll University, a private Jesuit university near Cleveland, Ohio, which offers state-of-the-art clinical training across the region’s three major healthcare systems.

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Nursing programs such as the BSN degree at John Carroll University, a private Jesuit university located near Cleveland, Ohio, have begun to incorporate additional coursework, training, and conversation about the overlap between mental and physical health. The goal is to help nurses serve a broader range of patients, raise overall awareness of emotional, cognitive, and physical factors, while easing the pressures placed on nurses and other medical staff.

One concept that new nurses can familiarize themselves with is called therapeutic alliance. Nurses may see the alliance as a way to magnify their impact by applying both professional and interpersonal skills; while the patient desires to be involved in their care, and to be more broadly seen and understood. 

Therapeutic alliance becomes a piece of a larger shift of approaching mental health, recovery time and overall well-being more holistically going forward.

Therapeutic Alliance Basics

Researchers first began to study the connection between patient outcomes and provider/patient relationships in the 1980s, recognizing that the traditional notion of a unidirectional, authoritative exchange from a clinician to the patient failed to capture the full picture. At its most basic, the shift involves moving from a ‘doing to’ the patient mindset to one of engaging meaningfully with patients and families. 

No Two Interactions Alike

Early in their clinical rotations, younger nurses begin to recognize that every patient interaction has a few traits in common, and many more that make it truly one of a kind. Building a therapeutic alliance involves a convergence between the nurses life and work experience, and the patient’s outlook on their condition. Each new pairing starts the alliance building process over again.

Beyond Acute Mental Health Settings

The idea of therapeutic alliance and patient participation in their treatment is most often applied in acute mental health settings and conditions. One frequently studied example is the alliance between psychiatric nurses and patient populations with eating disorders where there is a high-risk of relapse. But therapeutic alliance offers insights and applies across healthcare situations. Surgeries, drugs and other interventions cannot fully account for the improvement of patient outcomes. One study for instance showed that nonverbal communication between physical therapists and their patients predicts health outcomes in geriatric settings.

Research continues to reveal the nuanced ways that nurses and patients establish ground rules and trust, essential for a good working relationship (the “alliance”) and progress toward improved health. Foundational concepts such as control and self-determination come into play, and while skills such as emotional intelligence and empathy always play a role, the patient-provider negotiation remains dynamic and highly subjective. As younger nurses move further into their careers, they can observe the therapeutic alliance at work among their fellow nurses and the patients in their care. Research findings show that successful therapeutic alliances do not magically develop through negotiation of equal partners. Rather, the therapeutic alliance is often dependent on nurses’ capacity to maintain their position of clinical authority, while also building a human bond and  demonstrating their trustworthiness to patients. When patients trust nurses, they might shift their behavior and attitude about their ability to invest time and energy in a new concept of well-being.

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Students enrolling in the John Carroll University Bachelors of Science in Nursing program in Cleveland, Ohio recognize that the future is now — collaboration between humans and various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and tools will be a mainstay of nursing education and practice.

AI, Data Analysis and Machine Learning in Nursing

Application of data analysis and machine learning algorithms continues to expand in an effort to enhance diagnostics, treatment, and patient care. An early example is the Emergency Triage Systems software that can assist nurses in accurately triaging patients in emergency departments. 

The Healthcare artificial intelligence market is expected to reach 280.77 billion by 2032, according to a research report published by Spherical Insights & Consulting.

A good example of how computational tools might one day analyze large volumes of medical information, including patient electronic health records and imaging data, to uncover valuable insights and support clinical decision-making is an experimental new platform from Glass Health. The tool foreshadows a day when nurses, doctors and others use a measure of automation to generate a clinical plan or differential diagnosis. 

Practicing nurses today interact with a range of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and tools to manage everything from medication interactions, preventable falls, surgical complications, and dangerous infections.

This overview from My American Nurse gives nurses an overview of AI applications— machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP)—and their implications for nursing research and practice, as well as their potential role in improving patient care and health outcomes.

Here’s a quick glossary of terms:

Machine Learning

Machine learning refers to the use of a computer program to autonomously learn from data to perform a certain task. The “learning” refers to software self-adjustment that fine-tunes an algorithm over time to increase accuracy. Like any data-dependent tool, a machine learning tool’s function and use are only as good as its data sources. Nurses with a boots-on-the-ground perspective understand patient care and the information that’s required to make informed clinical decisions. Nurse input improves the applicability and accuracy of machine learning tools.

Deep Learning

Deep learning, a subfield of machine learning, looks to use neural networks for advanced pattern recognition to predict, treat or prevent adverse health events such as infections, aneurysms or early onset of neurological disease. By integrating data from many sources, AI may someday be used to tailor treatments precisely to patients’ specific genes, lifestyles, and treatment preferences.

Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing allows for analysis of EHR text data, including nursing notes which are rich with clinical information. A wide variety of applications have been developed using nursing notes, including predicting emergency department patient disposition (Sterling and colleagues), uncovering patient financial barriers (Skaljic and colleagues), and predicting falls (Nakatani and colleagues).

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Current CPA Demographics

The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) releases accounting demographic data every year in its Trends report, including race and gender data for representation in universities as well as professional accounting. According to the 2021 Trends report, professional accounting staff at firms comprise 62 percent white, 5 percent Black, 24 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, and 7% Hispanic/Latino. Compared with the general US population, which is 75 percent white, 13.6 percent Black, 6.4 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, and 18 percent Hispanic/Latino. 

While Asian/Pacific Islanders make up a larger percentage of the accounting population than their US demographic, those identifying as Black and Hispanic/Latino are underrepresented in the profession. The data also shows that representation in college and university accounting programs has remained relatively stagnant at numbers very similar to the professional staff levels at firms. 

Additionally, leadership remains even less diverse, with just 2 percent of Partners at US accounting firms being Black, and 82 percent of partners being white. Furthermore, while the numbers of women graduating from associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s, doctorate level accounting programs remain relatively equal to men if not greater than, men outnumber women in partner positions at accounting firms by 22 percentage points (61% identify as male, 39% female).

The Importance of CPA Diversity

One article published in the CPA Journal underscores the importance of diversity in the accounting profession, calling it “not only relevant but obligatory,” and citing the 2015 McKinsey report showing the beneficial financial impact on companies with more diverse workforces. In accounting specifically, as explained in a blog post for Intuit, diversity begets diverse perspectives, which can keep an accounting firm or agency relevant, bring in new ideas, solve problems faster, and anticipate client needs. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts can address and combat systemic racism if organizations value the DEI work being done, rather than just doing DEI focused work or seeking to fill diverse positions, according to Penn Wharton management professor Stephanie J. Creary. 

The Future of Accounting

Even as recently as over the last decade, the role of accountants has evolved into a position of strategic, proactive insight and analysis. The Boler BS in Accountancy at John Carroll University includes coursework and development in understanding DEI principles, long-term advocacy in ethical leadership, and the ability to anticipate and adapt to changing market conditions. 

JCU is a private Jesuit university located in University Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland.

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As the healthcare industry and nurses themselves process the three-year long pandemic, chief among the concerns and questions is: how do we help nurses balance care for themselves along with the need to serve patients?

Impact on Hospitals

The issue of nurse well-being has cast a spotlight on everything from hospital management, to improved operations and logistics in public health and medicine. Hospital administrators understand the risks. Turnover among nurses can quickly add expenses to a balance sheet. According to the NSI Nursing Solutions survey, the average cost of a single turnover for a bedside RN is $40,038. That translates to an average hospital loss of between $3.6m to $6.5m/yr. Each percent decline in RN turnover costs the average hospital an additional $270,800/yr.

Of course, for nurses themselves, the costs and risks go well beyond lost productivity, satisfaction and income. Increasingly, experts look at our understanding of emotional intelligence and the role it can play in nurse self-care. 

Emotional Intelligence

At the bedside, nurses track and interpret a steady stream of vital signs and other data, along with a patient’s subtle and not-so-subtle feedback. The lines between caring for and caring about a patient inevitably collide and cross.

Along with the emotions of patients, families and colleagues, nurses juggle their own responses — sometimes in the moment and at other times during a rare minute for reflection.

Four components of emotional intelligence

Nurses can consider four components of emotional intelligence that support healthy relationships and personal balance: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

1. Self-awareness

Some people learn to identify and describe personal emotional reactions in childhood. Others learn in the daily interactions of the adult world. The insights that come with routine self-awareness allows one to connect emotional reactions to particular triggers — people or situations. One idea used by professionals across occupations is to give yourself a five-minute emotional time out to collect yourself before re-engaging a challenging exchange.

2. Self-management

The daily routine of a nurse is inherently unpredictable — that’s part of the profession’s appeal. Emotional intelligence insights connected to self-management allow you to interrupt impulsive feelings and behaviors before they get the better of you or a situation. Behind every emotional response is a belief system — some underlying rules we carry about ourselves, about others and about the world. Nursing inevitably challenges everyone’s world view — and asks that you be open to change, expansion and a more complex understanding.

3. Social awareness

Emotional intelligence can be directed inward or outward. As the collective stress of the culture intensifies, so too does the need for more refined and resilient social awareness. The expression “reading the room” describes an ability to step back and observe the cues — posture and body language, gestures, fashion statements, voice intonation, verbal power moves — that create the context of any emotional exchange. In clinical settings, it’s crucial to find ways to bring people together and create relational ties despite the inherently cold atmosphere of a hospital or the frequent shift changes and people movement.

4. Relationship management

Given the pace of a typical clinical day, much of what gets communicated between co-workers and patients happens non-verbally. Often, the key to relationship management is becoming more conscious of nonverbal cues — an otherwise instinctive aspect of our communication style. Skills such as active and reflective listening, allow you to hear others fully without interruption and respond with a non-emotional summary of what you’ve heard if a response is prompted. These and other relationship management skills help to lay the foundation for trust with others.

Good for Nurse and Patient

Few professions match nursing in its demand to sift through emotionally charged interactions and decisions on a daily, if not hourly, basis. Even a minor health crisis will stir strong emotions — guilt, fear, shame, grief — in patients, family members and co-workers. Studies suggest a connection between your nurses’ ability to identify and track emotions, and nurse satisfaction and patient success. Emotional intelligence has been correlated with improved retention, less burnout and both physical and emotional wellness in nurses.

The Future of Nurse Self Care

Experts agree that the health care world that we know and interact with today will change in the years ahead. The John Carroll University BSN program has been designed with the awareness that nurses will become more specialized in their practice (health assessment, pharmacology, disease prevention, differential diagnosis and disease management), interact more with predictive technologies  and assume more advanced practice roles. Along with a degree such as a BSN from John Carroll, and additional certifications and training, nurses will need particular and enduring character traits and human interaction skills — deep emotional intelligence — to thrive and survive for the long haul.

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Teachers are Optimistic About the Future of Education

In an article for Education Week, some award-winning teachers highlighted a few ways teachers are optimistic about education: 

• One teacher pointed to the clear sense of unity among teachers, “coming together to collaborate in ways that keep us in the classroom and keep us working for kids.”
• Another noted that she has found really deep and personalized ways to connect with individual students: “how to make all students feel like they have a voice in the classroom,” she said.
• One teacher said it was collaboration, teachers continuing to put their “heads together to create a common goal for our voices to be heard, for teachers to be seen.”
• In another article, teachers and education experts noted an exciting renewed emphasis on culturally responsive teaching, restorative practices, and bringing social-emotional learning into classroom practice. Our recent infographic focuses on how future teachers can prioritize mental, emotional, and physical health.

For future teachers, this shows an environment of united, collaborative teachers and other education professionals ready to shape their schools and districts in innovative ways. 

Additional Funding and Changing Education Policies to Attract Teachers

From a policy perspective, national education policy has increased funding and provided relief opportunities to schools and teachers. Of the $122 billion in funding provided to schools through the American Rescue Plan during COVID, an overwhelming majority of funds were used for teachers, counselors, academic recovery, and mental health. The Ohio Department of Education lists a number of funding and policy opportunities for those seeking to become teachers and stay teachers. 

Furthermore, those seeking to become teachers at present are met with various grant, scholarship, and student loan forgiveness opportunities, such as the federal TEACH grant, among others. While no policy is without room for growth, these show a developing understanding in investing in future and current teachers.

Become a Teacher

A graduate education degree from John Carroll University prepare teachers for licensure, as well as advanced certifications and specializations. Coursework includes an innovative understanding of not just today’s education environment but one for the future that could help shape policy and positive teacher – and student – outcomes.

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We all know that trying to download and commit to memory every bit of basic science and practice knowledge required for graduation can be challenging. We also know that nurse education is changing.

The faculty and curriculum leaders who designed the BSN degree offered by John Carroll University encourage all nursing students to arrive with three basic insights and strategies: 

• competency-based education
• essential nursing domains/concepts
• learning styles

Competency-Based Education

Familiarize yourself with the competency-based education, which stresses the importance of specific skills and clinical judgment that translate easily and directly from the college environment to the bedside. Advances in simulation manikins and labs allow faculty to contextualize new nursing knowledge within an experiential learning environment that mirrors real-world practice settings.

Competency-based education values the outputs of an educational experience versus the inputs of the educational environment and system. Rather than faced with the proverbial fire hydrant of reading, you are invited onto the stage of an experiential learning environment where your knowledge, emotions, communication skills and more are revealed, supported and honed.

Essential Nursing Domains/Concepts

Scan the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Essentials Series, which introduces 10 domains and eight core concepts with associated sub-competencies within each of the domains that represent the essence of professional nursing practice.

The eight core concepts are:

Clinical Judgment 

Your ability to interpret information and reason in the delivery of care. 

Communication

Your command of  tools (voice, writing, behavior, body language, emotion) and drivers (intention, motive, partnership, trust, and presence) to manage yourself and others within teams and across professions.

Compassion

Your recognition that humans are meaning-making beings, and that compassionate care hinges on some measure of relating to others as fellow, flawed human beings.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

Your ability to see beyond the buzzword phrase, and recognize that a person’s birth, origin and experience exerts an influence on everything — from financial resources to emotional resilience — that show up in your encounter with a person trying to heal and recover.

Ethics 

Your grasp of a vast and growing set of nuanced questions and conversations around what it means to do the right thing, medically, legally and morally.

Evidence-Based Practice 

Your capacity to investigate current evidence and clinical expertise, and reconcile data and science with individual and family preferences. 

Health Policy 

Your ability to widen the perspective of what makes for good nursing from the intense focus of the bedside and a broader view of how policy impacts nursing practice and patient outcomes.

Social Determinants of Health Determinants 

Your facility to see beyond the electronic health record and appreciate that the soil of someone’s birth and beginnings (personal, social, economic, and environmental) exert a sustained impact on health. 

Individual Learning Styles

Within nursing education and practice settings, leaders may encourage you to get to know your individual learning style. While there are many models for individual learning style differences, the following offers some basic types and tendencies.

Sensing Learner

You tend to be a practical, concrete thinker typically oriented toward facts and procedures.

Intuitive Learner

You tend to be an abstract thinker, energized by alternative approaches and innovations, and oriented toward theories and underlying meanings.

Visual Learner

You tend to prefer visual representations of presented material such as pictures, diagrams, and flow charts.

Verbal Learner

You tend to prefer written and spoken explanations, and will likely read body language and cues. 

Active Learner

You tend to gravitate toward group settings and consensus-based solutions. You enjoy the iterative process, and learn by trying ideas and solutions out until one rises.

Reflective Learner

You tend to work best alone or with a single, familiar partner. You work through problems in an orderly, sequential process.

BSN Difference

The BSN degree offered by John Carroll University supports diverse learning styles, and produces nurse professionals who are comfortable with the complexity of modern nursing and health care.

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