The Open RN Project: Transforming Nursing Education

Abstract

In 2019, Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Education to create 5 nursing open educational resources (OER) textbooks and 25 virtual reality scenarios. This session will provide a high-level overview of the Open RN grant project and will share the development and review processes used to create the five nursing OER textbooks. Information on how to access Open RN textbooks and a demonstration of the associated virtual simulations using H5P software will also be provided. Additionally, national usage data and the impact of these resources on student outcomes will be discussed. Please join us to learn more about these nursing OER or get involved in the project by serving as a peer reviewer.
 

Bios

Kim Ernstmeyer is a certified nurse educator (CNE) and certified healthcare simulation educator (CHSE) who is passionate about using active learning and simulation to facilitate the development of clinical judgment in nursing students for safe patient care. She has extensive experience leading collaborative teams creating evidence-based, open educational resources (OER). As the curriculum project manager of the ARISE project, she led a multidisciplinary team in creating 150 augmented-reality simulations and serious games available on Skills Commons with over 50,000 international downloads. The ARISE project won second place in the Serious Games and Virtual Arcades competition at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in January 2018. Kim currently leads the Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) project. The Open RN Project is funded by a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Education to create five Nursing OER textbooks and 25 virtual reality simulations. Three Open RN textbooks were Best OER Award winners from OE Global in 2020 and 2021. Kim has extensively presented OER and simulation projects at several international conferences, including International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH), International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL), National League for Nursing Educational Summit, Achieve the Dream, OpenEd, and OE Global. She co-authored the “Impact of Interprofessional Education on Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward Teamwork and Collaboration with Physicians” in the Journal of Nursing Education.

Vince Mussehl is the library director at Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. As director, he has focused on customer service, the student experience, and student resource affordability, including open educational resources (OER). He has also served as faculty and department chair in the Library & Information Services associate degree program, an online program using only no-cost course resources as content, including OER. His course specialties include the gateway course, capstone course, and information ethics. Since the launching of the Open RN Project in 2019 he has served as the Lead Librarian – a project that is projected to save Wisconsin nursing students over $1.5 million annually. As a leader in open education, he has led the Affordable Learning committee at CVTC and saw a student savings of over $1 million during the 2020-2021 academic year. He also facilitates faculty professional development surrounding open education in Wisconsin and nationally. Vince has consulted with many different institutions on affordable learning and has facilitated several state, national, and international presentations focused on open education.