DiversityNursing Blog

This article is an excerpt from Diversity Best Practices' new book, the HR Executive Diversity Primer.

What’s the best way to structure a diversity function? The answer is as individual as companies themselves. Let’s look at three organizations—Sodexo, Johnson & Johnson, and Rockwell Automation—that have established different, yet equally effective, configurations of their diversity offices.

Sodexo, Inc.

With 400,000 employees across the globe (125,000 in North America) and operations in 33,400 sites in 82 countries, Sodexo is among the world’s top 25 employers, as a provider of integrated food services and facilities management. Betsy Silva Hernandez, Sodexo’s senior director for corporate diversity and inclusion, describes the corporate culture as high touch with an orientation toward action. It’s a high-touch culture, because the company is very relationship based and uses the power of influence to drive its diversity efforts. Its action orientation shows up as the company’s business leaders push for quick results, yet they also want the diversity strategy to be customized to their local context.

Silva Hernandez explains how the company’s decentralized structure is reflected in the structure of the diversity office. Depending on the location of a regional market (North America, Europe, Central or South America, and others), the company uses multiple infrastructure models. The decentralized model is further intensified by its French ownership, which brings its own inclusion issues. While the structure has evolved over time, the formal diversity effort began in 2002 with the creation of the company’s diversity leadership council. 

Along with the North American CEO, this council was charged with developing the diversity and inclusion strategy, setting priorities, and providing oversight for the effort. Later the strategy was broadened to include a committee of operational leaders comprised of members from the executive committee and market presidents. Their task was to implement the strategy and embed it throughout the organization by working with the company’s Cross Market Diversity Council (CMDC) and its employee business resource groups (EBRGs). The CMDC and EBRGs provide the grassroots support for inclusion initiatives. According to Silva Hernandez, this structure represents a top-down, middle-out, bottom-up approach to the inclusion strategy.

The efforts of Sodexo’s diversity and inclusion team on behalf of 125,000 North American employees, and influencing 270,000 other employees in locations around the world, are augmented by its EBRG members and other volunteers across the organization. Volunteer impact is monumental. For example, roughly 90 percent of Sodexo’s 25,000 North American managers participate in EBRGs. And the EBRGs are instrumental in how the company delivers its inclusion results. 

Volunteers may provide the much-needed resources to drive the inclusion efforts. However, as Sodexo’s Chief Diversity Officer Rohini Anand explains, the inclusion strategy is also based on the shared services model. The corporation provides and funds support services for the entire corporation, with local operations furnishing additional resources. Yet, even a company as committed to diversity as Sodexo has had to face the realities of a global economy. For two consecutive years, Silva Hernandez has seen the diversity budget cut, while responsibilities have increased. The Sodexo diversity office has had to deliver more with less money.

While Sodexo’s North American diversity strategy is only 10 years old, it is considered a mature, highly regarded function. Companies across the globe use Sodexo as the benchmark they aspire to reach. The company also illustrates the evolving nature of the diversity function.

Initially, Anand reported to the senior vice president of HR. Soon after, diversity was repositioned so that she reported to North American CEO George Chavel, and now she has a bifurcated reporting relationship to both the North American CEO and Global CEO Michel Landel. Although her area no longer reports directly to HR, Anand explains that both areas enjoy a strong partnership. “We’re separate, but we’re strong partners,” she says.

The diversity department has changed in the past and Anand understands that it could change again. “Diversity was a part of HR, then separated from HR, and depending on the needs of the organization, we would certainly recalibrate that relationship,” she said. “Obviously, our effort continues to be a work in progress."

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a global leader in healthcare, consumer products, pharmaceutical products, and medical devices. It’s a 125-year-old company with $65 billion in revenues. J&J’s Smita Pillai, director of global diversity and inclusion, medical devices and diagnostics, explains that J&J’s culture is best considered a hybrid between a lean culture at its headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J., and a more high-touch culture in its 250 operating companies that span 57 countries across the globe.

J&J’s structure also mirrors its hybrid culture, which is decentralized at the regional and local levels but supported by a more-centralized core strategy in its corporate offices. In this way, J&J’s global diversity and inclusion office has the best of both worlds. The central office establishes an overall strategy and provides some independent funding, while the local companies roll out the strategy and allocate funding from their budgets to support diversity initiatives.

According to Pillai, the company’s CDO reports directly to the CEO, and manages six director-level direct reports. With an annual budget of $5 million, the diversity function numbers about 16 employees, including directors and administrative assistants. Pillai said Johnson & Johnson can’t run a global diversity operation with the current structure at the corporate level, so the diversity function works in close partnership with HR and its teams.

While J&J’s office of diversity and inclusion has a well-deserved reputation, internally and externally, as an established leading-edge operation, Pillai recognizes that its structure may evolve as the company adapts to an ever-changing global landscape.

 

Rockwell Automation

With more than 20,000 employees, revenues of $6.2 billion and operations in 80 countries, Rockwell Automation is a business-to-business firm that is a leading provider of integrated systems for process manufacturing. According to Joan Buccigrossi, director of global inclusion and engagement, the diversity department was deliberately and strategically structured to serve as an inside consultant to the leaders and managers of the company. The responsibility for creating a culture of inclusion rests totally with the company’s leaders, not with HR.

With only two part-time staff members in the diversity office, Buccigrossi operates in a lean culture with a highly matrixed structure that leverages the power of influence across the organization. While she reports to the senior vice president of HR, Buccigrossi explains that her customers are the company’s business and function leaders, who initiate actions and develop the diversity direction. In this way, HR does not set the inclusion agenda or its engagement strategy. That’s done by Rockwell’s leaders and managers. “The danger of housing diversity in HR is that it can make the effort more of an initiative, something being done to leaders, rather than an effort they are intimately involved in,” Buccigrossi said.

“At Rockwell, leaders and managers are change agents.”

As in many firms, HR provides needed metrics, encourages tough conversations, and challenges and supports leaders and managers, Buccigrossi said. It is the department heads and their employees who fund the strategy and take ownership to ensure it succeeds. She cites an example with the North America sales division. The department decided that all managers and employees receive specialized education in order for everyone to become change agents. The department funded the effort and played a key role in the design and implementation of the learning modules. “The education is much more effective than any ‘training’ pushed out from HR would have been” she added.

While Buccigrossi’s diversity function does not have a budget, for real, the company’s functional leaders are prepared to support diversity initiatives from their funds. This arrangement works well for Rockwell. Everyone remembers 2008 and 2009, when the global and national economies were reeling from the fiscal freefall and companies were tightening their belts. In 2009, Rockwell’s diversity office was able to spend significant dollars on inclusion initiatives for employees. How? The business functions believed that such training was valuable and provided the necessary funding.

While Rockwell’s inclusion and engagement (I&E) department is tiny, in reality, the diversity and inclusion team consists of everyone in the company. According to Buccigrossi, all diversity and inclusion work is done by the people in the businesses and functional areas. They created Inclusion Change teams, which are tasked with performing cultural assessments, identifying barriers to inclusion, planning and executing actions to remove those barriers, and measuring results. Rockwell also uses rotational staffing assignments in I&E for up-and-coming and established leaders, although participants keep their day jobs. 

According to Buccigrossi, the consultant approach works well for Rockwell, because it blends in with the company’s culture and structure. This is how everyone works and business objectives are met. As a result, the consultant model reflects the current corporate environment and drives its inclusion strategy.

1. January 27th is School Nurse Day. Planning on flowers? Chocolates? Didn’t think so.

2. The most visits to emergency rooms occur during the warmer months of the year.

3. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, Finland, Norway, Monaco, Ireland and Belarus have, in that order, the highest ratios of nurses per capita of all nations, ranging from 2162 to 1182 nurses per 100,000 people.

4. The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses was formed in 1908.

5. According to a 2001 World Health Organization report, the number of psychiatric nurses in poor countries is about 0.1 per 100,000 persons.

6. In 1783 a black slave named James Derham worked as a nurse in New Orleans, eventually earning enough money to buy his freedom and move to Philadelphia, where he studied medicine and became a doctor.

7. Men and women between the ages of 25 and 44 account for 33 percent of all people in the U. S. who come to emergency rooms with injury-related wounds.

8. Linda Richards became the first nurse to earn a nursing diploma in the United States in 1873.

9. In 1846 the first hospital training school for nurses, the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses, was established in the town of Kaiserwerth, Germany.

10. The National Association of School Nurses recommends nurse-to-student ratios should be one to 750 for general populations, one to 250 in mainstreamed populations and 1 to 125 in severely handicapped populations.

11. According to a recent World Health Organization report, the United States spends more money, as a ratio of GNP, on health care than any country, followed closely by Lebanon and Zimbabwe.

12. “When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.” Terence, from The Woman of Andros (166 B.C.)

13. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 45% of nurses expressed fear of getting a potentially deadly disease as one of their top three occupational health concerns.

14. Nursing is one of the fastest growing occupations in the U.S.

15. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, Nepal, Liberia, Central African Republic, Haiti and Bangladesh have, in that order, the lowest ratios of nurses per capita of all nations, ranging from 5 to 11 nurses per 100,000 people.

16. One out of every four registered nurses works part time.

17. The American Nurses Association, first known as the Nurses Associated Alumnae, was started in 1898.

18. The New England Hospital for Women and Children, established in 1862, was the first school for nursing in the U.S.

19. The order of the Brothers of Mercy was founded in 1538 by Juan Ciudad. (b. 1495. d. 1550.)

20. One out of every five licensed practical nurses works part time.

21. During the months that school is out, emergency room visits from children under 14 years old rise by 18 percent.

22. The demand for registered nurses is expected to rise 21 to 35 percent through the first decade of the 21st century.

23. “The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.” Homer, from The Odyssey (9th Century, B.C.).

24. There were 358 existing master’s of nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 9% of all registered nurses.

25. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 59% of nurses expressed fear of getting a severe back injury as one of their top three occupational health concerns.

26. Around 500 A. D. the Benedictine nursing order was founded by Saint Benedict.

27. There were 75 existing doctorate of nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 0.6% of all registered nurses.

28. There were 1,100 existing practical nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002.

29. The average annual earnings for registered nurses was $44,840 in 2000.

30. In 1996, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported that one million workers are assaulted every year in the workplace and that “Most of these assaults occur in service settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, and social service agencies.”

31. In 1898 the British Army formed the Royal Army Medical Corp.

32. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, Ireland, Seychelles, Maldives, Philippines and Azerbaijan have, in that order, the highest ratios of midwives per capita of all nations, ranging from 411.0 to 137.0 midwives per 100,000 people.

33. In 1947, Florence Blanchfield, a nurse, became the first female regular commissioned officer in the United States Army, assigned as the superintendent of the Army Nurse Corp. (b. 1882. d. 1971).

34. There are approximately 567,000 bicycle-related injuries each year that require emergency room attention.

35. 29 Victoria Crosses have been awarded to British medical personnel.

36. The United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) has been the main regulatory institution of nursing training and standards in the British since 1983.

37. “It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” Charles Dudley Warner, from “Fifth Study,” Backlog Studies (1873).

38. You know you are a nurse when you baste your Thanksgiving turkey with a Toomey syringe.

39. According to a 2001 World Health Organization report, nurses and midwives can comprise between 50% to 90% of the number of health practitioners in many countries.

40. The American College of Nurse-Midwives was formed in 1955.

41. The National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the national accrediting body of nursing education programs of all types, oversees over 1,900 different programs.

42. “If you would live in health, be old early.” – a Spanish proverb.

43. Walt Whitman’s service as a nurse during the American Civil War inspired many of his poems, including Memoranda During the War (b. 1819 d. 1892).

44. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, the country of Nepal has the lowest ratio of nurses per capita in the world, with 5.0 per 100,000 people.

45. The first nursing school in history dates back to 250 B.C. and was located in India.

46. An associate’s degree in nursing (ADN) takes about 2 to 3 years to earn.

47. Clara Louise Maass is famous for serving as a contract nurse during the Spanish American War. (b. 1876 d. 1901).

48. The largest demand for licensed practical nurses through 2110 will be in nursing homes.

49. 17th century shipwreck survivor Juan de Mena is considered the first nurse in the New World.

50. The average starting wage for a certified registered nurse anesthetist is over $50,000.

Would you believe how many babies this 18th century midwife delivered successfully?  –>

51. According to a recent World Health Organization report, 93 member countries of the United Nations annually spend less than $100 per capita on health care, 56 member countries spend less than $500 per capita and 26 member countries spend over $1000 per capita.

52. The Teutonic Knights, the Knights of Lazarus and the Knights Hospitalers were all orders that organized male nurses to tend to sick and wounded.

53. Second Lieutenant Edward Lynn, in 1955, was the first male to be commissioned in the United States Army Nurse Corp.

54. Around nine million children visit emergency rooms in the U.S. each year due to injuries.

55. “To preserve a man alive in the midst of so many chances and hostilities, is as great a miracle as to create him.” Jeremy Taylor, from The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying (1651).

56. In October of 1902, Lina Rogers Struthers became the first school nurse in the United States.

57. The second week of May is National Nursing Home Week.

58. A bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN) takes about 4 to 5 years.

59. Lucretia Lester was a midwife for 34 years, between 1745 and 1779, and is reputed to have helped deliver 1,300 children, of which only two were lost.

60. The Knights Hospitalers was founded in 1119 to protect a hospital build in Jerusalem and also provided nursing care.

61. Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881. (b. 1821 d. 1912).

62. A 1996 survey done by the Department of Health and Human Services found that 95% of all working nurses are female.

63. The U.S. Army Nurse Corp was started in 1901.

64. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, open wounds are the leading diagnosis for injury-related visits to emergency rooms.

65. Why did the nurse keep the bedpan in the refrigerator? Because when she kept it in the freezer it took too much skin off.

66. There were about 700,000 jobs for licensed practical nurses in the year 2000.

67. According to a recent World Health Organization report, the United States, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Germany, respectively, annually spend the most money per capita on health care.

68. About three out of every five registered nurses work in hospitals.

69. The fourth week of May is National Nurses Week.

70. There are more nurses than any other workers in the health profession.

71. “When a man is ill his very goodness is sickly.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power (1888).

72. A 1996 survey done by the Department of Health and Human Services found that only 10% of working nurses represent minorities.

73. There were 86 existing diploma for nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 27% of all registered nurses.

74. You know you are a nurse when you think giving your patients TLC means giving them Thorazine, Lorazepam and Compazine.

75. The training time it takes to become a licensed practical nurse is about one year.

76. Traumatic wounds account for around 11 million visits to the emergency room each year.

77. The Canadian Victorian Order of Nurses was founded in 1897 in honor of Queen Victoria of England’s Diamond Jubilee.

78. Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War (b. 1818 d. 1882).

79. There were about 2,200,000 jobs for registered nurses in the year 2000.

80. If you see a nurse smiling when things go wrong, she is probably going off duty.

81. May 8th is National Student Nurses’ Day.

82. According to a 2001 World Health Organization report, the number of psychiatric nurses in developed countries is about 33.5 per 100,000 persons.

83. The first week of May is National Hospital Week and Health Care Administrators’ Week.

84. In the various U.S. Military branches, approximately one-third of all nurses are male.

85. In 2000, there were 57,954 school nurses looking out for the health of 52 million students.

86. The Nurses Registration Act of 1919 established the first oversight of nursing training and standards in Great Britain.

87. There were 885 existing associate’s degrees for nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 32.0% of all registered nurses.

88. According to the latest data available to the World Health Organization, the United States has a ratio of 972 nurses per 100,000 people, or about the same as Germany and Uzbekistan.

89. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 51% of nurses said they worked an average of 41 to 60 hours per week.

90. Mary Seacole, a self-taught nurse, was famous for establishing a hotel for invalids close to the front during the Crimean War.

91. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, nurses said they spent 62% of their time in direct patient care.

92. Anne L. Austin was a famous historian of nursing (b. 1891 d. 1986).

93. Florence Nightingale, the most famous nurse in modern history, was only a nurse for three years of her life (b. 1820 d. 1910).

94. Saint Camillus de Lellis established a Catholic order called the Fathers of a Good Death in 1584 to tend to the terminally ill, and is also reputed to have designed the red cross on a white background symbol and to have developed the first ambulance (b. 1550 d. 1614).

95. The average annual earnings for licensed practical nurses was $29,440 in 2000.

96. Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first African American nurse in 1879 (b. 1845 d. 1926).

97. There were 695 existing baccalaureate of nursing programs in the U.S. in 2002, comprising 31% of all registered nurses.

98. You know you are a nurse when you find yourself complimenting a complete stranger on his veins.

99. The demand for licensed practical nurses is expected to rise 10 to 20 percent through the first decade of the 21st century.

100. In a 2001 survey done by the ANA/NursingWorld.com, 71% of nurses selected ‘acute/chronic effects of stress and overwork’ as one of their top three occupational health concerns.

101. You know you are in trouble when it’s your first night shift in three years and there’s a full moon.

Published on January 18, 2013 from UMKC Today

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing has received a $2.4 million federal grant to offer full scholarships to help diversify the nursing workforce.

The program will assist 240 students who are underrepresented in nursing — men as well as those with African-American, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaskan native backgrounds. Current and new bachelor of science nursing students are eligible to receive scholarships of $10,000 per year over a four-year period. The scholarships are grants, not loans.

The minority nursing workforce hasn’t kept up with the U.S. population. Minorities made up 34 percent of the population in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  But the minority nursing workforce is only 16.8 percent; and 6.2 percent of nurses were men, according to a 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

Given the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ projected need for more than 1 million new and replacement registered nurses by 2016, breaking the cultural divide is increasingly important.

“Creating a diverse nursing workforce is connected to the ability to provide quality patient care,” said Thad Wilson, associate dean for the School of Nursing, who teamed with social worker Eve McGee to apply for the grant.

The grant, awarded in October by the Health Resources and Services Administration, also will address the growing financial need students are experiencing during the challenging economy.

“I’ve seen students struggle to pay for the rent and gas,” McGee said. “The scholarships will allow students to truly focus on school.”

Preference for the scholarships is also given to those with an educationally disadvantaged background, including those for whom English is a second language, first-generation college students and those from a county in which less than 50 percent of the residents have an education beyond high school.

Students must maintain a 2.75 grade point average or above to retain the scholarship.

About the UMKC School of Nursing
The UMKC School of Nursing offers a full range of education programs including a four-year bachelor’s degree (BSN), an RN-BSN, a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), a Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) and the Ph.D. in Nursing. Research at the UMKC School of Nursing is focused on Women’s and Children’s health and the school is a center of excellence in the provision of health care and education in these areas, emphasizing urban health care and wellness. For more information about the UMKC School of Nursing, visit http://nursing.umkc.edu/. You can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About the University of Missouri-Kansas City
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 15,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a four-part mission: life and health sciences; visual and performing arts; urban issues and education; and a vibrant learning and campus life experience. For more information about UMKC, visit http://www.umkc.edu/. You can also find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and watch us on YouTube.

Experts weigh in on how the nursing workforce has changed in last 25 years. Download, read the full PDF article -> http://bit.ly/VvUIdy

Which states will need nurses most in 2013?

 

by Chris Marshall

The honor is given to neonatology nonphysicians for their outstanding contributions to the field.

Erika Guillen has been a neonatal nurse for seven years, and she has spent the last four at Texas Children’s Hospital, where she works in the Level IV intensive care unit at the Newborn Center, which is reserved for newborns who have severe, life-threatening health problems.

Guillen has spent the majority of her life in the Houston area, and she has been dedicated to helping others the entire time. After graduating from nursing school, she immediately took a job working with newborns, and she began at Texas Children’s Hospital in Level II neonatal intensive care, gradually transitioning toward the higher levels, where she has the opportunity to care for babies brought in from all over the world.

“I’ve always had a passion for babies,” Guillen said. “I love taking care of babies. It’s a very special field to go into. When families trust you to care for these babies, when they tell you they go home and feel safe knowing that you’re taking care of their babies, that’s probably one of the best rewards you can get as a nurse.”

While the intangible rewards are motivation enough for Guillen, her co-workers also recognized the exemplary work she was doing, and she was nominated for the Reba Michels Hill Award by the physicians who work in the neonatal unit.

“The award is presented to people who dedicate themselves to research, education, patient care, as well as family care,” Guillen said. “Here at Texas Children’s Hospital, we take a lot of pride in involving families in the care of their babies.”

Because she works in Level IV, where most of the babies have major, often complex, health problems, it is particularly rewarding to Guillen when she sees a success story. The highlight of her job is seeing the joy displayed by parents whose children overcome seemingly overwhelming odds.

“A lot of these families come to us because we’re the best,” Guillen said. “When we’re able to give them a second chance, when we’re able to give them hope, and when we see their babies go home when they thought they would never live, that is one of the best things ever for us.”

by Crystal Owens

By Bobby Shuttleworth

At Calhoun Community College, nursing students are looking forward to the day they get their certification, degree and begin in the work force. While some will end up in a traditional role, others may look forward to adventure.

Brian Soloman is ready to get into a career and be with his children. 

"I would like to go on to possibly UAH and consider even pursuing a nurse practitioner," said Soloman.

Takicha Barrett said her goals revolve around the very young. 

"My plan is to successfully obtain a job, hopefully in the pediatrics department. I love kids," she said.

Soloman said he's heard of exotic locations, but he wants to stay home with his children.   He said those locations are everywhere. 

"...On oil rigs, people that are offshore. And there's even contractors that are in the Middle East or in the theatre in Afghanistan and that were in Iraq; some of the companies have also hired out nurses," he said.

Bret McGill is the Dean of the Health Sciences Division at Calhoun Community College. He said the options are almost limitless.   

"A couple of jobs that come to mind, one is a school nurse and just about every school has an LPN or an RN that works to take care of children and administer medications," said McGill.

One of the areas people may not be familiar with is in the industrial setting.

Candy Fall is an occupational nurse at BP. She's worked at several industries before honing her skills here with a focus on wellness. She writes articles for the corporate newsletter, an internal TV station, and much more.  

"This particular plant, I'm responsible for medical surveillance for each employee that's here," Fall said.

She said BP is big into wellness programs to keep their employees healthy, like flu shots and more.  

"We have a fitness center reimbursement program. We have fruit of the day, where we have fruit delivered to the plant three times a week and our employees and our contract employees can have a piece of fruit to keep them from going to the vending machines," she added.

The program at Calhoun is giving nurses an opportunity to pursue a rewarding job, while helping to keep employees healthy.

Copyright 2013 WAFF. All rights reserved.

by Stephanie Baum

Nurses have been taking on more responsibility in recent years — and a good thing too. If the shortage of primary care physicians continues coupled with millions of new patients expected to be added to healthcare systems when provisions of the Affordable Care Act are enacted, they will have to take on even more. At the same time, some nursing schools are struggling to employ enough professors. A health IT startup has developed a cloud-based patient simulator that is being designed to be progressively more challenging as nursing school students’ skills develop.

Gainesville, Florida-based Shadow Health’s education tool seeks to put nursing and medical school students at ease with the routine of seeing patients and boost their comfort levels so they know what to expect. It also is aimed at making future nurses and physicians become more self-aware and better communicators so they develop a stronger rapport with their patients.

Tina Jones, an animated and interactive patient, comes into an exam room after a fall. Users type questions to better assess her health and get a medical history to learn of any underlying conditions they need to be aware of to more effectively treat the patient. She gives oral and written responses. There are 1,500 possible responses to student questions that are matched up with a database of 20,000 questions. Users can view lab results, physical findings and the patient history. They can also submit findings for an instant evaluation and compare them with an expert.

David Massias, the CEO and co-founder of the company, told MedCity News in a phone interview that the virtual patient does not recognize medical jargon, although the software program does. Instead of tachycardia, for example, the user has to say rapid heartbeat or use words a non-healthcare professional would understand.

The company raised $1.2 million in its latest financing round partly to help develop its market penetration — it has a target of 20,000 to 30,000 users. “For the past 12 to 15 months, we have been in sprint mode,” Massias said. “We have expanded from half a dozen to two dozen nursing schools.”

Massias said the company wants to create much more intimacy between students and their digital patients so they are not just memorizing text books. “We want to entrench the [patient interaction] experience so much that it becomes second nature.”

There are an increasing number of patient simulators coming to the market both for healthcare professionals as well as nursing and medical school students in response to a shift in teaching approaches that has accompanied the growth in integrating digital tools. Massias distinguishes the company by taking a longitudinal approach. Shadow Health sees the future of healthcare education as a coaching and tutor model where students use simulators to improve their critical thinking and address areas where they have the greatest need for remediation. Although it currently follows students through a semester of school, the company is expanding the software to accommodate a two-year nursing school or four-year medical school program by getting input from educators.

In addition to medical school and nursing school students, Massias said the company has mapped a course that will include training for physical therapists and pharmacists.

“The market today goes 10-miles wide and 1-inch deep. We want to go 10-miles deep and 1-mile wide.”

See the video here.

by Veronica Combs

There are about eight halls of exhibitors at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show and I swear at least one of them was full of iPhone cases and nothing else. I just bought a Droid Razr and I hate the Otter Box that I bought with it, so I was quite disgusted that I couldn’t find an alternative in this sea of cases.

Anyway, there were several practical iPhone and iPad accessories at the show, mixed in with the Spider-Man and jeweled options. Here are three that would keep your Apple device safe no matter what job you have in healthcare:

LifeProof

This booth had several small stages with a chef, a firefighter, and a doctor — each one explaining the merits of this protector. It is a thin, polycarbonate frame that goes around the device.

It’s waterproof up to 6.6-feet deep for 30 minutes and keeps out dust. The nice part about the waterproof seal is that it goes around the edge of the screen, so you can still touch it directly. Water can touch the screen but not get inside the device or touch any of the plugs.

LifeProof also has two straps that seem perfect for a nurse or doctor. One fits diagonally across the back of the iPad and the other is a shoulder strap.

The Joy Factory

This company also had a great case and an awesome accessory. To illustrate how strong the case is, people were shooting bean bags at it. If a dangling device suffered a direct hit, it splashed down into the tank beneath. Cool factor? The aXtion pro case floats. The case goes on sale in April.

The company also makes BubbleShield bags with a big ring at the top. They’re like stylish Ziploc bags for your iPhone — perfect for those days when you are canoeing down the river.

The accessory is a wheelchair mount for iPads and other tablets. The arm attaches with a C-clamp designed to fit around a tube or other curved surface. The tablet snaps into the protective hard-shell tray, which in turn screws to the mounting brackets. A magnet connects the tablet to the arm of the mount.

Barry Lieberman of Joy Factory said the company donated some of the mounts to soldiers at a VA hospital in Texas and that scientists in the spinal research lab at the University of California Irvine were using the mounts as well.

Joy Factory was recognized at the show as a 2013 Design and Engineering Awards honoree.

Nanotech protection

If you want an invisible cloak of protection, I found two options: one is available now, the other is still coming to America. For readers everywhere else in the world, you’re in luck.

Liquipel is the one you can get now. You can buy a device treated with this self-sealing
nanocoating that protects your phone if it falls into water. The entire phone — guts and all — is coated, so no more rice treatments if your phone falls into the toilet. Currently, you can buy Asus, Samsung, Motorola and HTC products as well as Apples.

DryWired is also a nanocoating, but it protects against bacteria and corrosion as well as water. The treatment has been applied to printed circuit boards, cellphones, tablets, medical electronics, aircraft foam, plastics and cloth without changing the look or feel of the product. That was the “oooo” demonstration at the booth: “Here, touch this tissue, feels normal, right? But look, it doesn’t disintegrate in water.”

DryWired licenses the technology from EuroPlamsa, a Belgian company. The Los Angeles company is working with manufacturers to get electronics and other components treated with the coating right in the factory.