2001 OPEN FORUM Abstracts
TRACKING CLINICALEDUCATION USING AN INTERNET DATABASE: EXPERIENCE WITH THE DATAARC?SYSTEM.
Jonathan B. Waugh,PhD, RRT, CPFT; Wesley M. Granger, PhD, RRT. University of Alabama at Birmingham,Birmingham, AL.
Background: Some respiratorycare (RC) programs are experimenting with tracking and documenting student progressin the clinical setting using computer databases via the Internet. One suchproduct is DataArc?E(DA), created by the University of Texas MedicalCenter, Galveston.
Method:ü A baccalaureaterespiratory therapy program used feedback from a senior class of 20 studentsand their seven clinical instructors (CI) to evaluate the DA system. Participantswere asked to differentiate between how they rated the DA system and local technicalproblems that weren?t associated with the database
Results:ý Analysesof the following 5 questions are given in the accompanying table. Question 1; Do you like the idea of computerized record-keeping for clinicaleducation? Ques. 2; DA ease of use? Ques. 3; Reliability of DA? Ques. 4; Problems encountered were due mostly to? Ques. 5; How would you rate DA overall, excluding external difficulties?
|Other or none||3||2|
*At least one cell has an expectedvalue less than 5.
Conclusions: Studentand CI group responses differed significantly for questions 1 and 3. Studentstended to have greater apprehension toward a computerized record-keeping systemfor clinical education than their CIs. Although CIs rated the reliability ofDA higherýthan students, all except one person from both groups rated it at?mostly reliable? or better. The majority of both groups rated DataArc as easyto use and no one considered it difficult. There was no one perceived sourceof problems encountered while ýsing DA that was significantly greater than another.Overall, both groups agreed that the DA system performed in a satisfactory manner.The DA system is a work-in-progress and needs continued, wider evaluation forits proper development and to stimulate development of other clinical educationtracking systems.