EpicEDU: An Innovation to Improve Core Electronic Health Record Competencies Among Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND

Electronic health records (EHRs) are central to modern health care, yet many nursing graduates feel underprepared to use them.

METHOD: To close the competency gap, nursing faculty partnered with Epic Systems to develop EpicEdu, a novel academic EHR that authentically simulates all of the features of the EPIC EHR system in practice settings.

RESULTS

A total of 239 nursing and 88 nurse practitioner students completed EpicEDU simulations. Of those, 54.1% strongly agreed that using EpicEDU in simulation enhanced the realism of the simulation, 43.1% strongly agreed that they felt better prepared for clinical practice after using EpicEDU, and 42.2% strongly agreed that the use of EpicEDU in simulation can improve patient safety outcomes.

CONCLUSION

The academic-industry partnership is a successful model for designing academic EHRs that closely mimic the electronic health records in clinical practice to support development of core technology competencies for future nurses.