Global Distance Education

One of our Collaborating Centre’s most exciting developments is utilization of technological advances to disseminate knowledge to geographically diverse segments of the health care workforce. Our web-based courses are provided at no charge to nurses, students and faculty across the globe, with emphasis on dissemination to the Spanish, English and Portuguese speaking Latin America and Caribbean. Every participant who completes all course modules is awarded an electronically generated and customized certificate of completion for each course. Our distance learning offerings include:

Nursing Leadership

Nursing Leadership: Empowering Nurses in Latin America and the Caribbean in English and Spanish (http://cursos.campusvirtualsp.org/).

Development of leadership capacities in the nursing workforce of the Americas is essential to achieving Universal Health in the region. This web-based distance learning resource aims to empower nurses in Latin America and the Caribbean by enhancing their understanding of leadership and management principles that can be utilized in the practice of nursing. Developed in collaboration with PAHO, as well as with the Colombian Association of Schools and Colleges of Nursing (ACOFAEN) and the University of the West Indies School of Nursing PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centres, it presents a synthesis of the most recent nursing leadership knowledge, drawn from the best available sources. The course is offered as an open-access resource through PAHO’s Virtual Campus of Public Health to Latin American and Caribbean country-based nurses who are currently practicing in the nursing field as nurse clinicians, managers, researchers, educators, administrators or government health officials. Pre-course demographic survey and post-course evaluation modules provide detailed information on course participants and relevance, while pre- and post-tests measure knowledge gained by users of this innovative educational tool.  Evaluations demonstrate overall positive satisfaction among course participants and diagnostic measures indicate increased knowledge of nursing leadership concepts among course completers.

 

Nursing and Patient Safety Online Course

Nursing and Patient Safety Online Course in English, Spanish and Portuguese (http://patientsafetycourse.org). 

The UM SONHS CC worked with its international partners on the Nursing and Patient Safety International Experts’ Network (RIENSEP) and at PAHO to build multiple perspectives from different PAHO region countries into this course, which is designed to help practicing nurses and nursing students learn and maintain essential skills related to the provision of safe patient care. Numerous clinical recommendations have been compiled in a user-friendly and open-source format. Ongoing evaluation and data collection on course utility and users via pre-course demographic survey and post-course evaluation modules demonstrates a high rate of usefulness, satisfaction, relevance, and knowledge gain among course users. Over 8,000 participants from a broad range of world regions have enrolled in this course.