Finding new and innovative ways to analyze and interpret feedback are worth their weight in gold, especially if it leads to improved student learning experiences. The Clinical Education Office at Bloomberg Nursing did just that, taking a software application to evaluate clinical placement partnerships to the next level, and they were recognized with high praise and distinction at the University of Toronto’s 2012 Excellence Through Innovation Awards. The ceremony and reception took place at U of T President, David Naylor’s home on October 3, 2012 and Bloomberg Nursing’s Caroline De Angelis (center above) (Information Technology Advisor & Project Manager), Kong Ng (right above) (Student Placement Co-ordinator) and Terry Yuen (left above)(Nurse Practitioner Program Assistant) attended to receive their team award for Clinical Placement Partnerships – Evaluation Feedback Improvements.
The Excellence Through Innovation Awards recognize the exemplary work done by administrative colleagues across the University of Toronto. This year, 109 staff members were recognized for their individual and team contributions to advancing strategic objectives through innovative projects and initiatives.
De Angelis, Ng and Yuen were the principals in working with a web-based application that transitioned clinical placement evaluations from paper to online and to launch a very flexible reporting system that allows Bloomberg Nursing to review raw feedback from multiple angles. This provides a new and wider framework to measure the effectiveness of these placements, and ultimately improves the quality of the learning environment and experience.
Now the Clinical Education Office at Bloomberg Nursing can use collected data for numerous applications including assessing student satisfaction with the clinical placement, providing feedback to hospital and agency partners on how students felt about their placement and reporting to these partners on how they are doing in comparison to their counterparts.
This project also involved valuable input from many members of the faculty including the faculty leads in the Clinical Education Office, Zoraida Beekhoo, Michelle Lalonde and software vendor Knowledge4You.
Congratulations to the Clinical Education Office for their prestigious win and for advancing the innovation of Bloomberg Nursing with this informative and valuable data management application.