Since switching to CORE for both their accelerated and undergraduate nursing programs, UConn School of Nursing has experienced significant  process improvements with clinical placements, student onboarding requirements, evaluations, and more!

THE CHALLENGE

Moving away from a time-consuming & manual process

With over 300+ students enrolled across their undergraduate and accelerated nursing programs, UConn School of Nursing has many moving parts to manage when it comes to the clinical education process. Prior to exploring new options for managing clinical education, the UConn School of Nursing was utilizing a primarily manual and spreadsheet-based process. “Evaluations were done on paper, clinical assignments were completed with spreadsheets, reporting was tedious, and there was no centralized location for student, site, or preceptor information,” explained Clinical Coordinator Amanda Moreau. 

Over time, that process started to become more and more time-consuming and inefficient for administrators to manage. The UConn team knew it would be beneficial to re-evaluate their process soon, so they began exploring new options for managing the clinical education component of their program.

THE SOLUTION 

A flexible tool with the right level of customer support 

After reviewing several options, the UConn School of Nursing ultimately chose to move forward with CORE ELMS. Between the feature flexibility and the high level of direct customer support, they felt confident it was the best choice to help their Nursing programs operate more efficiently and reduce the administrator burden.

UConn’s transition to CORE was further accelerated when COVID-19 suddenly brought on a whole new set of challenges within nursing education. 

"The features within CORE are so flexible that we were able to work with the CORE team to find ways to support these new and growing needs caused by the pandemic such as reporting in-person versus simulated clinical hours and managing attestation documentation," explained Ms. Moreau.

"Our clinical placement process has greatly improved with CORE’s SmartMatch tool." shared Ms. Moreau.

THE RESULTS

Significant process improvements over time

A year after transitioning to CORE, the UConn School of Nursing is experiencing reduced administrator burden, higher student satisfaction, and more time to put back into other growing priorities. 

1. Clinical Placements

Explained Ms. Moreau, “Our clinical placement process has greatly improved with CORE’s SmartMatch tool. It used to be challenging to do it objectively and fairly while also trying to take student preferences into account. With CORE, students are really happy to have some say in their placements while we as administrators  are still able to maintain fairness and objectivity.”

2. Clinical Onboarding Requirements

UConn was also able to improve its management of clinical onboarding requirements, a huge burden that all nursing programs and clinical coordinators are dealing with. The complexities of the clinical onboarding process can be automated and managed within CORE ELMS.

“Every agency or clinical site has a different set of requirements, and since utilizing CORE, managing these varying requirements has become easier, more  streamlined, and more organized for us,” said Ms. Moreau.

3. Customer Service

While there are a variety of clinical education tools out there, it can be challenging for nursing programs to find one that provides the level of client support they are looking for.

Said Ms. Moreau, “Another huge plus we’ve been experiencing with CORE is that they provide one-on-one customer support. Even if there’s something in the system we’re unable to figure out, we have someone at CORE we can contact to get our questions resolved quickly. There have been instances where I email them, and I have an answer in as little as 20 minutes.“

4. Other Benefits

Since getting comfortable with CORE ELMS, the UConn team has also begun utilizing it to support their evaluation process, student absence tracking, and student hours tracking. In light of the current nursing staffing shortage, they also utilize CORE’s job board to easily post all job openings in one central location for students to view. Additionally, they heavily utilize the survey and forms feature within CORE ELMS to help them easily collect student accommodations such as religious, athletic, community service, and more.

The UConn School of Nursing has also grown their use of CORE by starting to utilize CORE’s CompMS solution to help them manage student competency assessment.

The UConn College of Pharmacy is also utilizing The CORE Technology Suite.

"Since utilizing CORE, managing these varying requirements has become easier, more streamlined,
and more organized for us,” said Ms. Moreau.

TIPS FROM THE UConn NURSING TEAM

Here is some advice from their team if you are also considering CORE:

Start the process ahead of your required timeline

• • • • Acclimating to a new solution does not happen overnight. Rather than waiting until you have an immediate need, begin the exploration and transition process before it becomes a necessity. It’s not an overnight fix for all problems, but once you have fully transitioned, CORE adds so much efficiency to your process.

Ask the CORE team for their ideas and suggestions

• • • • CORE’s team is very knowledgeable and their one-on-one support model allows you to ask many questions throughout the transition process, with timely responses and solutions. In addition, the flexibility of the tools within CORE means there could be many different ways to solve the challenges your program is experiencing, and the CORE team probably has a way to help solve them.

Consider the differences between your cohorts when developing a timeline

• • • • When it comes to getting your students up and running with a new system, your new cohorts will take less time than existing cohorts. When deciding timelines, try to dedicate a little extra buffer time and support for your existing cohorts to acclimate to the improved process.

TIPS FROM THE CORE TEAM

The team at CORE has taken over 350 programs through this process – here is some advice from them!

Consider different contract options

• • • • All programs are different and have unique needs, so CORE offers a variety of flexible contract options to accommodate a range of different scenarios. We’ll work with you to find the contract option that works best for your particular program.

Get a fresh start by cleaning up your data

• • • • CORE’s implementation team does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to transitioning your data over to the CORE Technology Suite. Our team can work with you to develop a plan to clean up your data ahead of transitioning it into CORE so that you are starting with a clean slate and ensuring an even smoother overall transition.

Ask your institution’s IT team if they will need to do a security check

• • • • A commonly overlooked step in the process is seeing if your IT department will need to complete a security check prior to implementation. To save you time, clarify what your institution will require early on in the process, and the CORE team will be sure to accommodate it within your needed timeline.