December 14, 2017

The Center for Advancement of Science In Space (CASIS), which manages the International Space Station United States National Laboratory, will partner with the Innovation Studio to issue an innovation challenge on Jan. 8, 2018. This unique challenge, issued only to The Ohio State University, asks students, faculty and staff to pitch ideas to develop a product, service or solution with social impact that utilizes the International Space Station. Astronaut Greg Johnson, president and executive director of CASIS, will be in attendance to officially propose CASIS’s challenge at a reception on Jan. 8 at noon in the Dreese Laboratories building. The Innovation Studio will be in residence (Jan. 8–Feb. 21) at the College of Engineering in the Dreese Laboratories building. 

Submissions to the challenge need to be turned in by Feb. 14 to pitch on Feb. 21. “The Innovation Studio reviews submissions from across the innovation spectrum. From back-of-napkin concepts to working prototypes, we engage with interprofessional teams to help them turn their ideas into actions,” says Tim Raderstorf, MSN, RN, chief innovation officer of the College of Nursing, which created the Innovation Studio. Top teams may be eligible to send their innovations to the International Space Station for testing.

CASIS plans to present a webinar to discuss how research on the International Space Station can be used to search for new answers and solutions to problems facing our planet. Space research provides unique conditions not found on Earth including a microgravity environment, extreme conditions and a unique vantage point. Teams of two or more Ohio State students, faculty or staff from different disciplines may also be eligible for seed funding to further incubate their innovation.

The Innovation Studio is a moveable maker space that travels from college to college across campus, created by the College of Nursing to foster interprofessional collaboration and healthcare innovation. It houses an array of tools and provides project mentors, daily technical support and workshops on product development. For more information about the Innovation Studio and the CASIS challenge, see the Innovation Studio's webpage, or contact Tim Raderstorf at Raderstorf.3@osu.edu.

June 02, 2015

The Ohio State University College of Nursing and medical device company Welch Allyn have joined forces on new research aimed at improving the delivery of patient care.

The project will examine how patient physical evaluations are conducted and how the process can be improved, given the changing healthcare landscape and its growing emphasis on primary care and prevention. As a supplier of diagnostic equipment to patient-care facilities and emergency departments, Welch Allyn is interested in understanding the physical assessment workflow, including the challenges and needs associated with this process in primary- and emergency-care settings. The ultimate goal will be to improve the healthcare delivery process for both providers and patients alike.

“Given our shared vision of transforming healthcare and improving health outcomes, it seemed natural to partner with Welch Allyn in this exciting endeavor,” said Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, university chief wellness officer, vice president for health promotion and dean of the College of Nursing at Ohio State. “This relationship serves as a leading example of our college’s commitment to improving patient care through innovative education, research and evidence-based clinical practice. And, because nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians are all on the frontlines of care, their input is crucial to the success of this project. Interprofessional teams delivering care result in improved health outcomes, so including each discipline makes for more valuable feedback overall.”

Research is being conducted on the Ohio State campus. The College of Nursing will also provide research expertise and evidence reviews on relevant topics, as well as secure clinicians for interviews to be conducted by the Welch Allyn team of engineers, usability and technology experts, and marketing executives. Once enough feedback is gathered, the teams will work together to develop new concepts to improve the physical-exam process.

“For 100 years Welch Allyn has been committed to delivering practical innovations that help doctors and nurses provide better care for their patients,” said Sal Strods, senior director of advanced technology and sensors. “As healthcare continues to undergo rapid transformations, we must be ready to provide clinicians with the right equipment to help meet further challenges. Our partnership with The Ohio State University College of Nursing will allow us to learn first-hand the challenges physicians, nurses and patients face in this changing industry. Unlike other partnerships, this agreement is extremely interactive, allowing clinicians to guide the Welch Allyn team on what they need most to help improve patient care. Basically, products will be modeled by clinicians for clinicians.”

“This relationship greatly supports our college’s goal of fostering collaborative entrepreneurial initiatives with local, national and international partners to improve healthcare and health outcomes, as well as enhancing the experience for both providers and their patients,” added Melnyk.

 

About The Ohio State University College of Nursing

The Ohio State University College of Nursing is the world’s preeminent college known for accomplishing what is considered impossible through its transformational leadership and innovation in nursing and health, evidence-based practice and unsurpassed wellness. As part of the largest health sciences campus in the United States, the College of Nursing offers seven innovative academic programs. The college’s graduate nursing programs are among the top five percent in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report, while its online graduate program is ranked 6th and its RN to BSN program is ranked 8th as part of Ohio State’s ranking for online bachelor’s degree programs. Annual college enrollment is approximately 1,950 students. The college celebrated its centennial in 2014.

 

About Welch Allyn, Inc.

Since 1915, Welch Allyn has brought a unique perspective to developing diagnostic solutions by combining pragmatic knowledge with a visionary spirit of innovation and ongoing improvement. As a leading global manufacturer of physical examination instruments and accessories and EMR-connected vital signs and cardiac monitoring solutions, the company has a steadfast commitment to delivering superlative medical products, services and solutions that help healthcare professionals provide better care for their patients. Welch Allyn is headquartered in Skaneateles Falls, New York, and employs more than 2,600 people in 26 different countries. Visit welchallyn.com for more information. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

June 01, 2015

Two organizations dedicated to improving the health of Ohioans are teaming up to target crisis levels of cardiovascular disease in the state.

The Ohio State University College of Nursing and the Ohio Nurses Association (ONA) have partnered to expand participation in the Million Hearts® Initiative, a national effort launched in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. In Ohio, heart disease and stroke are the first- and fifth-leading causes of death, respectively, for both men and women, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

“Nurses are well equipped to assume a leadership role in reaching the goal of the Million Hearts initiative,” said Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, associate vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer and dean of the College of Nursing at Ohio State. “As prevention and health-promotion specialists, nurses are powerfully positioned to aggressively prevent, assess and manage cardiovascular disease risk factors. We are delighted the Ohio Nurses Association is joining us on our quest to prevent heart attacks and strokes in our state and our nation.”

The College of Nursing offers a free online educational module that empowers healthcare professionals to provide cardiovascular community screenings, individualized patient education and referrals for abnormal screenings. As part of the partnership, ONA transformed the modules into free nursing continuing education for its members, for which they may earn up to 3.46 contact hours. The module was first created when the college launched the National Interprofessional Education and Practice Collaborative to Advance Million Hearts, which has resulted in more than 35,000 individuals being screened for and educated on cardiovascular disease throughout Ohio and the nation.

"The Ohio Nurses Association is thrilled to have formed this collaboration with The Ohio State University in an effort to reduce heart attack and stroke in the citizens of Ohio," Lori Chovanak, MN, RN, APRN-BC, CEO of ONA, said. "This collaborative model is the perfect conduit for our nurses to reach out to their communities and provide one-on-one attention to individuals and talk with them about their risk. If every ONA nurse reaches 10 members in their community, Ohio Nurses Association will provide 100,000 Ohioans with a free preventative screening and support for improving their overall health."

A free toolkit is available on ONA’s website to assist ONA, its members and other healthcare professionals in hosting Million Hearts events. It is designed to be a one-stop place for patient-education materials, assessor tools, event-planning tips and more.

After screenings, ONA and its members will provide anonymous data for the Million Hearts database so statewide impact can be tracked. Data to be tracked includes blood pressure, BMI, age and others.

Those interested in adding the free Million Hearts assessments to their community events may contact Molly Ackley at the Ohio Nurses Association at mackley@ohnurses.org. The free health assessments may also be conducted at workplaces as an employee benefit.

October 28, 2013

The Ohio State University College of Nursing and The Ohio State University Health System (OSUHS) were recognized with the inaugural 2013 Exemplary Academic-Practice Partnership Award during the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Fall Semiannual Meeting in Washington, DC.

The annual competitive award from AACN and the American Organization of Nursing Executives (AONE) recognizes institutions involved in highly productive and model academic-practice partnerships.

“We have built a thriving academic-practice partnership based on our shared vision of the future of nursing and innovative solutions needed to improve healthcare quality and outcomes,” Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FNAP, FAAN, dean of Ohio State College of Nursing and university chief wellness officer, said. “We are catapulting the nursing profession and healthcare forward by challenging the status quo, stimulating innovation in education and sustainable evidence-based practice and improving outcomes for the nursing profession, professional nursing and interprofessional students, patients and the community.”

The combined organizational strengths of the College of Nursing and the Health System have been integrated to build and sustain a successful partnership, which has already resulted in multiple positive outcomes.

Shortly after Melnyk’s arrival in 2011, she appointed Mary Nash, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACHE, chief nurse executive of the Health System, as the first assistant dean of clinical affairs in the College of Nursing. The two leaders immediately pulled teams together from the Health System and the College to engage in a lively strategic planning process to identify a shared vision, goals and activities that would be a win-win for both organizations, as well as for healthcare and innovative academic programming.

“Oftentimes organizations don’t take advantage of the resources available to them. Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and [the] College of Nursing have demonstrated synergy from the day Bern joined the University,” explained Mary Nash. “Our partnership is rooted in a genuine desire to strengthen both the college and the medical center. Building on the foundation constructed by the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing Report, we felt an obligation to Ohio State to advance the practice of nursing not only for one another but for an entire nation. Earning this award is quite remarkable and validates the work we’ve accomplished so far.”

As a result of the strengthened academic-practice partnership, several positive outcomes have already been achieved, including the appointment of academic-practice partners who actively engage in evidence-based practice (EBP) and research projects to enhance patient outcomes; the creation of a new executive track in the College of Nursing Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program with shared leadership and faculty; a 101.5 percent increase in the number of nurses from the Wexner Medical Center enrolled in academic programs at the College of Nursing; the creation of an innovative patient unit in the Health System; and a new NP-led health center that is integrating physical and mental healthcare and serving as a site for interprofessional education and practice.

According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing Committee, an academic-practice partnership between a nursing education program and care setting is a mechanism for advancing nursing practice to improve the health of the public. Key principles guiding such relationships include:

  • The academic-practice partnership demonstrates an innovative and sustained relationship that extends beyond clinical placements.
  • The partnership demonstrates a commitment to the Guiding Principles for Academic-Practice Partnerships developed by AACN and AONE.
  • The academic-practice partnership demonstrates positive and measurable outcomes.

Through implementing academic-practice partnerships, both academic institutions and practice settings formally address the recommendations of the Future of Nursing Committee to create systems for nurses to achieve educational and career advancement, prepare nurses of the future to practice and lead, provide mechanisms for lifelong learning and provide a structure for nurse residency programs.

In addition to Melnyk and Nash, Esther Chipps, PhD, RN, clinical assistant professor and nurse scientist for OSUHS; Jacalyn Buck, PhD, RN, NE-BC, administrator for Health System Nursing Quality, Research, Education & EBP at OSUHS and clinical assistant professor at the College of Nursing; Lynn Gallagher-Ford, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Transdisciplinary Evidence-based Practice; Dave Hrabe, PhD, RN, associate professor of clinical nursing and executive director of academic innovations and partnerships; and Usha Menon, PhD, RN, FAAN, vice dean and professor at the College of Nursing, also contributed to the award submission.

July 09, 2013

Cervical cancer, rabies, food safety among first issues to address

In a country where cervical cancer kills thousands of women each year and rabid dogs endanger the human population, there is plenty of will, and even money, to fix these problems, but not enough trained people to do it. Those facts concerning Ethiopia are about to change.

The African nation has partnered with The Ohio State University to chart a course for a new and healthier future for Ethiopians and potentially citizens in neighboring African countries.

The first comprehensive One Health Summer Institute, representing a long-term partnership between Ohio State and a number of Ethiopian government agencies, service organizations and academic institutions, is officially under way. Spanning from June 17 to Aug. 10, the initiative’s inaugural series of classes, projects and workshops partner 20 Ohio State faculty and students with hundreds of Ethiopian students, healthcare professionals and policymakers eager to improve their nation’s well-being.

Developed last year over a series of meetings in which all seven of Ohio State’s health sciences deans visited Ethiopia to develop plans, the “One Health” partnership is designed to create sustainable and mutually beneficial collaborations primarily in the areas of teaching, research and outreach. In addition to its contribution to Ohio State’s emphasis on global health and outreach, the initiative represents the first time the university’s health sciences colleges have teamed for an international project of this scope.

“One Health,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, refers to a worldwide effort to “attain optimal health for people and animals by promoting global collaboration between human and veterinary medicine while engaging the principles of public health and ecosystem health.”

Ohio State is one of few institutions in the country poised to carry out this kind of mission, said Lonnie King, executive dean of health sciences colleges and dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State.

“When we say ‘One Health,’ we really mean it. We live it and breathe it every day,” he said. “Were it not for Ohio State’s rich history and depth and breadth in the health sciences, this kind of global partnership couldn’t happen.”

The health sciences colleges consist of dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, optometry and veterinary medicine. The colleges’ on-site participation will vary over time, and not all seven colleges will be represented in Ethiopia this summer. Additional participation is expected by faculty and students in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Three priorities top the agenda this summer, identified by Ethiopian officials as the most critical to address: improved screening and treatment opportunities to tackle cervical cancer, which kills an estimated 6,000 women annually; a needs assessment and feasibility test of rabies prevention and control methods; and improvements in food security and safety, from farm to table.

“This initiative underscores the strength of Ohio State in health and wellness and food production and security – two Discovery Theme areas identified for significant investments over the next decade,” said Interim President Joseph A. Alutto. “We will apply what we learn from this partnership to future collaborations that extend Ohio State’s reach in the global community and bring the world’s issues to our own doorstep.”

Much of Ohio State’s contribution will be teaching and training Ethiopian students and professionals at the campuses of two institutions: Addis Ababa University and the University of Gondar. Ethiopia has invested heavily in its education infrastructure, growing the number of the nation’s universities from three to 31 in 10 years.

The growth in the number of schools reflects the nation’s urgent need for professionals who can deliver all types of healthcare. Ethiopia, which has a population of 88 million, is home to 225 total dentists, including 10 specialists, and there is one physician for every 38,000 citizens. Next door, in Sudan, this ratio is one doctor for every 4,500 residents.

“Ethiopia has pumped a lot of resources into its educational system, but this has created a knowledge gap because there are not enough professionals with the proper teaching skills in key sciences to simultaneously increase the availability of healthcare practitioners,” said Wondwossen Gebreyes, professor of veterinary preventive medicine and director of global programs in Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Ohio State will not be there forever – we intend to build their capacity to train future trainers.”

Gebreyes, who received his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Addis Ababa University, has helped coordinate the interdisciplinary, cross-college initiative and is a participating faculty trainer. He will be on-site through July 19, teaching courses and helping run a stakeholders workshop on rabies prevention and control intended to “enable us to develop a roadmap document that will outline a way to eliminate rabies from the region, and to later scale up the program beyond Ethiopia’s borders,” he said.

Nursing faculty are teaching research methods to Ethiopian students, who will submit proposals for research projects before the course’s end. The College of Nursing is also leading the cervical cancer initiative with hopes to dramatically improve upon the five-percent rate of Ethiopian women who currently receive screenings for this preventable cancer.

During the same period in July, Michael Bisesi, interim dean of the College of Public Health, will spearhead a project focused on identifying potential areas of exposure to contaminants in the food system and developing methods to lower those exposure rates.

Courses and workshops taught by Ohio State faculty will cover such topics as foodborne diseases, international trade and public health, molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases, ethics in biomedical research and epidemiology of diseases that pass from animals to humans (such as rabies).

Meanwhile, optometry faculty will explore ways to increase Ethiopia’s capacity to deliver vision and eye care, and a neurosurgeon will train a select group of physicians as part of a long-term effort to develop an exchange program for these types of medical specialists.

In all, 15 Ohio State faculty and five graduate students are making the trip, partnering with six instructors and researchers from the two Ethiopian universities to compose the inaugural summer institute’s faculty roster.

This summer is only the beginning of what is expected to be a long and fruitful collaboration, Gebreyes said. He noted that between summer sessions, participants plan to take advantage of technology by populating a global online repository with recorded lectures and course materials. The target launch date of the site is mid-August.

Future projects could include service-learning opportunities for Ohio State students, development of new certification and PhD programs and research on additional health problems that include leishmaniasis, HIV-tuberculosis interaction and shortages in mental healthcare.

Contact: Emily Caldwell, 614-292-8310