American Association of Colleges of Nursing recognizes innovative approach to care
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) today honored The Ohio State University College of Nursing with its 2021 Innovations in Professional Nursing Education Award for the creation and execution of its Telehealth Wellness Hub and Wellness Partner Program. This award recognizes the outstanding work of AACN member schools to re-envision traditional models for nursing education and lead programmatic change.
“The adverse impact of the pandemic includes the exacerbation of anxiety, stress, burnout, fatigue and depression that were already being experienced by nurses and nursing students,” said Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, APRN-CNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer and dean of the College of Nursing. “Consequently, we set out to create an innovative teaching and learning strategy through our telehealth wellness hub to respond to the national epidemic of student and clinician distress and burnout.”
The college leveraged telehealth during the pandemic to design and implement the Telehealth Wellness Hub and Wellness Partner Program to innovate clinical education for undergraduate and graduate students to include assessments of well-being, implementation of wellness coaching strategies and the creation of partnerships focused on behavioral change.
The program was deployed first as an emotional support line for nurses working in critical care or in COVID-19 hotspots, including New York City, southeastern Michigan and Columbus, Ohio. The Wellness Partner Program was launched in a partnership with Trusted Health, with travel nurses opting into the program to engage with APRN students who served as wellness coaches with great impact; nearly 95% of participants reported the program helped them improve their mental and physical health. It continued as a resource open to students across all of Ohio State’s campuses, supported by grant funding from the federal CARES Act.
To date:
- More than 325 students in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), prelicensure graduate entry and Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs have supported wellness for nurses and students
- Three primary initiatives (emotional support line, Wellness Partner Program, CARES initiative) afforded 1,485 clinical hours for students across programs in the first year of service
- An additional 500 hours of wellness clinicals are made available through the hub during the first semester of year two
“We launched the Telehealth Wellness Hub and Wellness Partners Program in response to the pandemic as a catalyst for change in meeting clinician and student health and wellness needs,” said Alice Teall, DNP, APRN-CNP, FAANP, assistant professor of clinical nursing and director of innovative telehealth services for the College of Nursing who spearheaded the program. “This initiative provided our undergraduate and graduate students across programs with opportunities to support the health and well-being of nurses across the country, colleagues and other students using telehealth technologies.
“The telehealth wellness program is a model that can be scaled across the country, and for the sake of our clinicians and the quality and safety of patient care, it needs to be,” Teall added. “We believe strongly that connection is the antidote to burnout, and this program proved that forming those strong bonds provided our participants with both the tools and the confidence to take charge of their wellness.”
“Our nurses and other clinicians cannot continue to pour from an empty cup,” Melnyk explained. “We must build wellness cultures and implement evidence-based programs that prioritize and promote health and well-being, with resources like our program that can truly transform health and improve lives everywhere.”
The College of Nursing received its award today during AACN’s Academic Nurse Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.
