Throughout the Higher Education landscape, student outcomes have become a focal point in the evaluation of an institution’s efficacy in fulfilling their academic promise. For some programs of study, particularly in the Allied Health fields, the Clinical Externship has provided a valuable means by which to better prepare students for professional success after graduation.
Giving students the opportunity to apply their acquired academic and practical skills within a clinical setting is a mandatory program component for some programs, while a recommended option for others. Mentored by professionals and exposed to the realities of patient/client relations, externs receive the advantage of “real world” experience prior to graduation as well as a substantive hands-on work product to add to their resume.
With all the benefits that come with Clinical Externships, the administrative rigors of managing the process are many. The investment of time and resources associated with externships involve the academic institution, the hospital/clinic as well as the student. The layers of paperwork and required documents can be overwhelming, but Rotation Manager, a cloud-based web application software solution, is a user-friendly remedy to the issues that compromise effective clinical rotation management.
Developed by tech-savvy innovators Max Cacchione and Enrique Triay, Rotation Manager was developed in direct response to a clinical rotation management crisis brought to their attention by a nursing educator at a hospital that hosted clinical externship programs.
As Cacchione recalls, the dilemma was fervently expressed by the nursing educator; “Imagine having 5000 students on externship every year, and each of them has at least 10 documents connected with them?” It was this logistical pain-point associated with managing the clinical rotation dynamic that started the conversation, but this concern was only the tip of the externship iceberg.
The hospitals who partner with Higher Ed institutions to provide clinical externship opportunities clearly have an administrative burden rife with both compliance and internal due diligence ramifications. The Higher Ed institutions who sponsor these externships as part of their academic programs are also beholden to agencies and accreditors who have strict compliance mandates for clinical rotation management. In addition to these regulatory factors, there are additional considerations that schools must address.
“In many circumstances, Clinical Coordination on the campus level is performed in conjunction with other job functions on campus.” observed Cacchione. He further elaborates, “School side coordinators with multiple responsibilities can inadvertently have clinical paperwork fall through the cracks. Clinical Rotations can be lost due to improper management of the process and paperwork so this is a vulnerability that needs to be addressed.”
Cacchione’s point is one that comes with significant consequences for institutions that fail to properly manage the externship documentation of their students. As Cacchione explains, “Schools can’t afford to lose externship sites…there is too much competition for these opportunities.”
To provide a technologically reliable and user-friendly system to streamline the documentation crucial to the administration of the clinical externships, Cacchione and Triay developed Rotation Manager; an online platform that stores and shares documents from all parties involved in the externship process. The system not only serves as an archive, but a bridge, linking externship documentation from the student, school and clinical externship site.
“The benefit is felt by all three parties” asserts Cacchione. Each party uploads documents for which they are responsible. Schedules, insurance forms, waivers, notes from clinical educators and reference letters are just a few of the document types that can be customized on Rotation Manager. Throughout the tenure of the externship, all three parties can be assured that all relevant documentation is being updated, stored and accessible on this cloud-based system.
Though Higher Ed institutions and clinical sites clearly benefit from the mitigation of compliance vulnerabilities, for the students, the main benefit is that of organization. A convenient Rotation Manager Smartphone app allows students to access important externship information as quickly as they can post a status on Facebook. With a Higher Ed student population made up of multi-tasking, working adult learners along with tech-raised millennials, Rotation Manager is an organizational tool which facilitates a smooth transition from classroom to externship site.
As Higher Ed institutions strive to maintain operational efficiency while optimizing student outcomes, the ability to reduce administrative vulnerabilities while providing valuable training opportunities makes Rotation Manager an online platform to consider. To learn more about Rotation Manager, visit their website here.
More about Rotation Manager here: www.rotationmanager.com
More about Tribeca here: http://www.tribecamarketinggroup.com/
Source: Tribeca Marketing Group
————————
What is RotationManager.com?
RotationManager.com is the turnkey solution for managing clinical rotation scheduling and compliance online. Click here to schedule a free demo.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.