UDM's McAuley School of Nursing is offering unique training for nursing students by introducing the Hands-on Automated Nursing Data System (HANDS) into its curriculum. It is a Web-based software care-planning program that makes it easy for students to access from any computer.

"The system provides a structure for care planning that helps students identify nursing diagnoses, interventions and outcomes, and assists students in prioritizing and planning nursing care needed by their patients," says Julia Stocker Schneider, associate professor of Nursing and coordinator, Health Systems Management Program. "HANDS gives students an edge in terms of their ability to deliver nursing care that more fully meets their patient's needs."

With HANDS, everything is documented electronically, replacing paper care plans. It assists undergraduates in their efforts to understand informatics, which includes learning standardized nursing languages such as NANDA, NIC and NOC, which are common terms for nursing diagnoses, interventions and outcomes. Ultimately, students identify where they expect their patients to be when they are done with their care and identify the intervention to see how well patients progress.

"HANDS helps students see the big picture," explains Stocker Schneider. "It gets them thinking about what the patient and the family need to do to lead the patient toward the best possible outcome."

She also stresses that HANDS is an innovative way to address the new competencies set by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, which is the accrediting body of baccalaureate and higher nursing programs.

This fall, the UDM Grand Rapids campus launched the use of HANDS in the classroom. According to Robi Thomas, associate professor of Nursing and chair of the Grand Rapids campus, HANDS enables students to finish assignments more completely as it encourages them to evaluate the patient's ability to meet their goals.

"HANDS allows students to think critically. It helps focus the students on where we want to focus them," says Thomas. "HANDS is a more realistic representation of the care plan the students will be using as professional nurses."

Thomas has observed that the rollout to the 42 sophomores who have never prepared a care plan in their coursework has been easy. However, she describes it as a transition period for the 38 juniors who are adjusting to the switch from paper to electronic.

By fall 2010, the Detroit campus of the McAuley School of Nursing will be ready to introduce HANDS to students.