Healthy Communities Innovation Center - School of Nursing ...

university of minnesota school of nursing
Healthy Communities
Innovation Center
Nurses Leading Partnerships to Improve Health and Change Lives
www.nursing.umn.edu/hcic 1

interprofessional
learning community
School of Nursing Associate Professor Wendy Looman, PhD, RN, CNP, (right) pictured
with Anna Thurmes, MA, CCC-SLP, (left) speech therapist and Cleft Palate Clinic
program coordinator and Anna Colestock during a coordinated care session at the
Cleft Palate Clinic located in the U of M School of Dentistry. Dr. Looman co-leads an
interprofessional team that creates coordinated care plans for families of children
with special health care needs. These plans can eliminate duplication, are potentially
less expensive, and improve the quality of life for children and their families.
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The Healthy Communities
Innovation Center
A collaboration for educating our health professionals to
meet today’s challenges
A transformation is needed in health care delivery and
education to ensure that future nursing professionals—
our students—are prepared to meet the demands of
today’s evolving health care environment and to fully
participate with other health care professionals in
addressing the challenges.
The University of Minnesota School of Nursing has taken
the lead in forming a collaboration among schools and
colleges in the University’s health sciences and other related
fields to establish an interprofessional learning community
for undergraduate, graduate, professional and practicing
health care professionals. Called the Healthy Communities
Innovation Center, this collaboration will use a team
approach and innovation to enhance the outcomes we
can achieve through integrated, coordinated, safe, patientcentered
and evidence-based care delivery.
The Healthy Communities Innovation Center will be a
catalyst to create:
• Interdisciplinary learning scenarios that closely reflect
current and future nursing care and health care
innovation, simulating the full continuum of patient
care to enhance quality, safety, and coordination and
continuity in health care delivery.
• Expanded nursing and health professional training in
using health information technology to improve care
across delivery settings, support performance measures
and reporting, and provide decision support.
• An interprofessional culture in which students develop
leadership skills that prepare them to serve as partners
in transforming health care.
• Designing and testing of new technologies and new
care ideas, centered on increased patient safety and the
overall care experience.
• An opportunity for established practitioners within the
field to test, renew and update their skills as well as
enhance their team development practices.
• Team-based coordinated care integrating curricula
across health science disciplines.
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The Healthy Communities Innovation Center will provide all
prelicensure students the opportunity to have key clinical
learning experiences across health settings. These include
caring for patients with key health concerns such as diabetes,
identifying and responding to status changes in patients, and
providing care as part of an interprofessional team.
www.nursing.umn.edu/hcic 3

A Changing Environment
For health care and the role of nursing
Systemic changes are underway in health care delivery in
the U.S., creating change in the roles, responsibilities, and
education of nurses. Nurses are being called upon to fill
expanding roles, deliver care in many different settings,
and master technological tools and information systems
while collaborating and coordinating care across teams of
health professionals.
Some of the factors nursing must address to manage
changes in health care are:
An aging population: The proportion of the U.S. population
aged 65 and older is on the rise, a result of increases in life
expectancy and the aging of the Baby Boom generation.
This has caused dramatic growth in the demand for health
care services and changes in the types of care that need
to be delivered.
Health disparities: Inequities in the burden of disease, injury,
or death experienced by socially disadvantaged groups are
driven in part by socio-environmental conditions, behavioral
risk factors, and systematic biases that can result in unequal,
inferior treatment.
Affordable Care Act: Working on the front lines of patient
care, nurses can play a vital role in helping realize the
objectives set forth in the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Technological innovation: Unprecedented technological
innovation in health care, including the electronic health
record, has become a core facet of health care delivery. With
optimal use of technology, health care professionals can
improve health outcomes, expand care to individuals in
their homes or in rural settings, and employ data to conduct
research on current and new best practices.
Chronic conditions: The aging population, as well as issues
such as increased obesity, has shifted the health care
environment to one in which there are more needs relating
to chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension,
arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and mental health
conditions, in addition to acute conditions and illnesses.
Home-based care: The future of nursing is about being out
in communities, working with patients and their families to
keep people healthy and at home.
A more diverse population: Minority populations are
growing and ethnic and racial demographics are changing,
with respect to country of origin, primary language,
immigrant status and generation, socioeconomic status,
history, and culture.
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Through our faculty practice and community student
learning opportunities, the School of Nursing continues
to grow and provide access to care across the state and
country. Our nearly 250 community partners offer valuable
opportunities for research and practice related to patient
access, health promotion, cost, and quality of care.
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the expanding role
of nursing
When Idil Mohamed, BSN ‘11, first began her experience at Park Elder Care Center
in Minneapolis, she met only a few Somali elders; at her next visit, a line had
formed to talk to her. Learning about some of the challenges from the center
director, Idil designed an approach, established nursing office hours, and earned
the trust of community members—which involved more than speaking their
language. In a short time, Idil gained the elders’ trust and was able to share with
them practical and valuable guidance about their health and medications.
www.nursing.umn.edu/hcic 5

preparing leaders
Miriam Amini, BSN ‘06, conducts a health consultation with a mother
and daughter during their visit to the Indian Health Board—an organization
that provides for the health needs of the American Indian community living in
Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood.
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Preparing Nurse Leaders
In a changing environment
The changing environment of health care places new
pressures and requirements on the 3 million nurses in
the U.S. who deliver patient care in settings ranging from
hospitals, schools, homes, retail health clinics, long-term
care facilities, battlefields, and community and public health
centers. With their focus on direct patient care, as well as
care coordination, nurses bring valuable insights, leadership
skills, and unique abilities to contribute as partners with
other health care professionals in addressing the challenges
of health care today to improve the quality and safety
of care.
According to a new landmark report from the Institute of
Medicine and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation entitled
The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health
(2010), the roles, responsibilities, and education of
nurses – the largest segment of our nation’s health care
workforce – require transformational change to meet the
increased demand for care that will be created by health
care reform and to advance improvements in America’s
increasingly complex health system. These changes are
needed in the profession and in nursing education to meet
the increased demand for care, leadership, and the growing
complexity of health care delivery.
“Transforming the nursing profession is a crucial element
to achieving the nation’s vision of an effective, affordable
health care system that is accessible and responsive to all,”
said Linda Burnes Bolton, vice chair of the committee that
produced this Institute of Medicine Report.
The Healthy Communities Innovation Center will provide
expanded opportunities for nursing and interprofessional
collaboration to enhance quality, safety, care coordination,
and continuity which are key to transforming nursing and
health professional education and the health care system.
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School of Nursing academic programs prepare outstanding
nurse leaders who are committed to developing holistic
models of care. Our programs include the Bachelor of Science
in Nursing (BSN), Master of Nursing (MN), Doctor of Nursing
Practice (DNP), and PhD programs.
www.nursing.umn.edu/hcic 7

Facility Renovation
A critical step in the transformation of education
A key step in meeting the goals of the Healthy Communities
Innovation Center is to renovate the Weaver-Densford Hall
fourth floor nursing skills laboratory and related officeclassroom
space into a high-tech simulation-oriented
learning environment.
The current skills laboratory used by BSN, Master’s of Nursing
and DNP students is 25 years old. Most of the equipment
is outdated and in poor repair, and not in keeping with
current real-world environments in which graduates will
work. Students in the nursing specialty programs use other
high-tech teaching facilities within the Academic Health
Center, however, there is insufficient exposure to a holistic,
team-based, multi-setting care approach which will be a core
focus of the HCIC. Additional technologically sophisticated
team-based learning spaces are also needed to support the
learning that takes place in the innovation lab.
The new innovation lab and related classroom
renovation will:
• Create a contemporary simulation-oriented learning
environment in which students will learn skills from the
basic to specialist level, acute to primary care, in diverse
delivery settings and with multiple disciplines.
• Create technologically sophisticated classrooms that will
serve state-wide and beyond professional education in
nursing and the health sciences.
• Expand professional training in the integration of
electronic health records and supportive technologies
across health care environments.
The HCIC will include simulated environments that
span the continuum of care. These include acute,
skilled, ambulatory, and home care settings. The
acute care space can be modified to be critical care,
medical-surgical care, or an emergency room. There
will be an observation space and control room,
demonstration and debriefing space, and small and
large classrooms. The center will be equipped with
an electronic health record, portable computers and
tablets, and wireless devices that support telehealth.
There will be video-taping and replay capability.
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educating the best
Why Now? Why Minnesota?
Never before have we witnessed such dramatic shifts in
health care delivery. Significant systemic changes are already
underway and will significantly impact the ways and places
in which health care is delivered in the near future. Every
citizen, regardless of economic status, gender, ethnicity, or
age will be impacted by the rapidly emerging changes in
health care delivery. Creating new education models and
achieving a more educated nursing workforce are keys to
meeting the emerging health care needs of our state and
nation.
The School of Nursing and its partners in the Academic
Health Center at the University of Minnesota have long
been recognized as world leaders in health care education.
The development of the Healthy Communities Innovation
Center, with a new state-of-the-art simulation laboratory
and high-tech classrooms, will ensure the University’s ability
to continue to attract, retain, and educate the best and
brightest health care leaders.
• The School of Nursing is one of only 41 doctoral research
universities in the U.S. It is ranked in the top five percent
of public and private nursing schools, and is the only
school in Minnesota that prepares PhD nurses.
• The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program is one of
the largest in the nation and features 14 specialty areas
including Integrative Health and Healing, Midwifery,
Nurse Anesthesia and Informatics – the first of their kind
in the country!
• Our extensive community partnerships and
collaborations across disciplines at the University of
Minnesota help prepare our graduates to work as
members of inter-professional teams, to be leaders in
health care systems, to provide patient care as advanced
practice nurses, and to conduct research to improve care
through evidence-based practice.
www.nursing.umn.edu/hcic 9

A Philanthropic Opportunity
What you can do to help make this happen
Through the creation of the Healthy Communities
Innovation Center the School of Nursing will help shape
and implement the transformation of health professional
education and care delivery necessary to meet the
challenges of the evolving health care environment. Leading
the way in these areas continues the School of Nursing
and Academic Health Center’s tradition of excellence and
innovation in education, research, and practice.
Financial contributions are needed to make the renovation
of our facilities possible, and to support the operation of
the Healthy Communities Innovation Center. Donors have
the opportunity to be part of a transformation in health
care education that will have a profound influence on the
countless citizens who will benefit from improved care,
effective leadership, and innovative practices.
a profound
influence
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Our Mission
The mission of the School of Nursing is to generate knowledge
and prepare nurse leaders who will create, lead, and participate
in holistic efforts to improve the health of all people within the
context of their environments.
For More Information
For more information about how you can support the
Healthy Communities Innovation Center contact:
Gigi Fourré Schumacher
Director of Development
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
612 625-1365
gschumac@umn.edu
5-140 Weaver-Densford Hall
308 Harvard Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
www.nursing.umn.edu

healthy communities
innovation center
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The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
This publication can be made available in an alternate format upon request.
Direct requests to the Publications Manager at nursnews@umn.edu or 612-626-1817.
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