292 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
that these same updates would be valued by the education partners. Therefore, part of
the agenda on a quarterly basis includes a legislative update. The impact of health care
reform, accountable care, and the expanding role of advanced practice providers is often
a topic in the annual retreats.
Along with the changing landscape of health care reform, the council also works to
tackle the rapid technological changes. This represented another area that was not coor-
dinated as a health care system. This impacted how we educated faculty and students
in each of our hospitals. Health- system informatics nurses were invited to the table and
they developed a coordinated plan to provide electronic medical record access to fac-
ulty and students and one standardized class to educate academic partners. That has
transformed into sharing electronic medical record of weekly communication updates
with education partners and involving them in documentation optimization work. This
provides opportunity to explain the details of meaningful use and the health care sys-
tem is working to standardize and build in the electronic strategies to facilitate quality
standards of care.
The UPMC has traditionally participated in student feedback surveys. The meth-
odology for distributing the surveys, however, was not consistent between schools.
There was also not a clear mechanism to communicate results. This provided minimal
opportunity to determine how well the health system was serving students and no
ability to trend the results. This was clearly another body of work for our council. The
group developed and approved a standardized methodology. Surveys for faculty and
students and preceptors are distributed at the end of every semester. Results are then
shared openly and transparently across hospitals and our education partners. It is par-
ticularly important for the hospital chief nursing officers (CNOs) to see this valuable
information by the unit. This gives the opportunity to assess the unit culture and influ-
ence the new- nurse success rates.
The UPMC, like many health care systems across the country, is working to
increase the education level of nurses. Sharing our current status and future goals with
our academic partners led to the availability of additional opportunities for nurses in
the region to further their education. Our internal website includes a detailed listing of
each school, admission requirements, degree requirements, availability, and cost. This
supports nurses in making an informed decision in choosing an education institution
that meets their individual needs.
The work of our ASPC continues. We have grown from a partnership with nine
educational institutions to now involving over 15 education partners. The council con-
tinues to address the shared challenges in health care. This partnership has promoted
innovation and collaboration in striving for excellence. The partnership program was
initiated based on mutual potential benefits. Today, many of those benefits are real-
ized. The council members have moved from competitors to collaborators on many lev-
els. This has involved creating a stakeholder coalition, shared decision making, and a
shared structure. The council now enjoys partnerships in clinical education and staff
development. The outcomes have been beneficial to the health system and academic
partners. This foundation serves as a strong springboard for clinical partnerships at all
nursing education levels.
This culture of collaboration and partnership has created a fertile ground for the
DNP student and graduate. The health system has opened its doors to many DNP clin-
ical experiences and quality projects. Many of those experiences help shape innovative
leadership and care models. Further, the health system enjoys the leadership and prac-
tice of many DNP nurses across its ranks. This model has served to strengthen the prac-
tice of nurses within the UPMC.