PA College Magazine - Winter 2021 - 5

PA COLLEGE / ON THE PULSE

Using CARES Funding to
Enhance Online Learning
With COVID-19 forcing a shift to online
learning for many higher education
institutions across the nation last March,
Congress authorized more than $14
billion for the establishment of the
Higher Education Emergency Relief
Fund (HEERF). This fund, part of the $2
trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief,
and Economic Security) Act, was created
to assist colleges in providing emergency
grants to students and covering expenses
related to changing the delivery of
instruction during the pandemic.
PA College received nearly $780,000
from HEERF, which has been used
to put in place several
initiatives to enhance online
learning for students
and provide financial aid
grants.
In the Diagnostic Medical
Sonography (DMS) program,
students are using a new
tool that allows them
to practice pregnancy
ultrasound techniques at
home. Students usually
practice these techniques
on pregnant volunteers
who come to campus, but
guests are restricted from
the campus as part of COVID protocol.

is that students can practice with it
any time. " It gives them the hand-eye
coordination that they don't get by doing
online modules. "
The College has also expanded its Zoom
resources by establishing accounts
for all students so they can host their
own meetings, set up study groups and
collaborate online. " We have these great
collaboration spaces on campus that
our students really love to use, and we
wanted to be able to provide them with
some version of that same experience
virtually, " says Chief Information Officer
Kevin Balsbaugh.

studies tell stories about patients who
have common medical diagnoses that
nurses see in an acute care setting,
including hypertension, heart failure,
diabetes, sepsis and COVID-19. In
online courses, instructors can use the
case studies as teaching tools in the
synchronous classroom, activities for
group work, or pre-work for students
to complete before class.
The case studies are also used for
alternative clinical education. Due to
COVID-19 safety restrictions, fewer
students at a time are able to be at the
same clinical site - and in some specialty
units, they aren't allowed at
all - so the case studies are
used as a clinical replacement
activity when students can't
see patients in person.
" We're specifically picking
case studies that would
resemble and substitute
for patients that students
would have been seeing in
the clinical setting, " says
Gayle Watson, co-chair of
the Undergraduate Nursing
Program.

" We were really losing those scanning
opportunities with the live models, " says
Tara Dianna, program director of the
DMS program. Enter the SonoSim
program, which provides students with
a transducer, or probe, that plugs into
their computer, and ultrasound imaging
software. Students move the transducer,
which looks like a video game joystick,
on a table to scan through ultrasound
images of pregnant patients' abdomens
on their computer screen.

To help students who are having
difficulty accessing College resources
from their personal devices, PA College
also implemented LogMeIn Rescue, a
remote support software program. With
this program, technology specialists can
connect to students' personal devices
and see their screens, which makes it
easier to troubleshoot problems. " We
can even work in real time to install
something or make changes in settings
to help them get connected to our
environment, " Balsbaugh says.

" As they're scanning, students can
understand how to move the transducer
- how to rotate it, how to angle it - to
get certain images that they would see if
they were scanning a real person, " Dianna
says, adding that a benefit of the program

For undergraduate nursing students,
PA College invested in KeithRN, a
membership program that provides
real-life case studies that focus on
helping students develop clinical
judgement and reasoning. The case

During virtual clinical days,
students are assigned the
case study in the morning, then they
meet one-on-one via Zoom with their
instructor, who asks questions and listens
to their assessments and their priorities
of care for the case study patient. At the
end of the day, the entire class meets
virtually to discuss key concepts.
Watson says that these case studies
have provided valuable consistency for
student learning. " These evidence-based
case studies link to the NCLEX [the
state licensing exam for nurses] priorities,
and also help students identify and work
toward that clinical judgement piece,
which assists in the transition to practice, "
she says. n

PA College / Winter 2021

5
PA College Magazine - Winter 2021

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