StoryCare Learning Library Aimed at Improving Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

StoryCare®, an interactive library of healthcare learning audio simulations developed through a unique partnership between IDEAS and Synensis, has just released a library of story simulations that are aligned with the international QSEN nursing competencies, and is now being distributed to the professional education market by Laerdal Medical, one of the world’s leading providers of healthcare solutions.

The QSEN program began in October 2005. In the first 18-month phase, a leading panel of 17 national nursing leaders was chosen to outline the core knowledge, skills, and attitudes that should be mastered by pre-licensure nursing students. A range of hospital simulation strategies for clinical, classroom, and simulation-based learning was developed. StoryCare has aligned its story library to these competencies and developed robust instructional materials to assist professional educators both in the classroom and online.

The StoryCare product enters the marketplace at a time when online and narrative learning is an increasingly important aspect of curriculum development. The ability to deal with adversity as a team, communicate well, and learn from experience is important and well documented. StoryCare and its library of stories is also an excellent match to the QSEN core competencies, includingpatient-centered care, professional communication, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics.

“StoryCare is a go-to resource,” said Duncan Kennedy, VP, Experience Design at IDEAS and the product’s co-creator. “In addition to offering nursing educators a robust library of transformation stories, it provides them all the tools to integrate these story simulations into the classroom to enhance nearly every topic traditionally taught in the nursing curricula.

“Contemporary science has confirmed what ancient people intuitively understood – we are all wired for story,” Kennedy said. “In fact, extensive research in the educational field and the social sciences has found that, when coupled with reflection, there may be no more powerful springboard for teaching and changing behavior than storytelling.”

The QSEN team plans on developing an electronic compendium of patient safety and quality-related materials. Eventually, the QSEN project team plans to partner with leading professional associations to disseminate information, support faculty development, and address the same challenges for graduate nursing education.

“The human mind is the most powerful simulator,” said Bob Allen, Principal Executive and Chief Storytelling Officer of IDEAS. “If we can effect change through StoryCare and the telling of stories, we feel as though we can make significant strides in the effectiveness of learning, retention, and the positive modification of human behaviors.”

To learn more about StoryCare and its effect on learning and retention, go to storycare.com.