eHealth Seminar and eHealth Training Spur eHealth Advocates
September 6, 2011 11:16 am | by Aliyah Lou Evangelista | Posted in News
Manila, Philippines-More nurse educators were tagged as “eHealth advocates” after attending NTHC’s eHealth Training and eHealth Seminar at UP Manila National Telehealth Center. In a separate activity, nursing educators from Cebu, Quezon, and Tacloban City attended the eHealth Training last August 31-September 2 while nurses and nurse educators, doctors, and IT professionals participated in the eHealth Seminar on September 3.
Who’s to teach?
“We are having problems on who will teach nursing informatics in our school,” said Mr. Andie Merch Comia, faculty of Cebu City College of Nursing. According to him, the dilemma resulted from the lack of relevant resources and approaches to support their faculty in teaching nursing informatics in their school. “Who could teach it? IT instructors of the CAS (College of Arts and Sciences) or the faculty of nursing?,” he added.
Like his co-trainees, Mr. Comia was also sent by their school to the eHealth training in an aim to help resolve the problem.
Nursing Informatics, a 2 unit lecture and 1 hour laboratory course, was added to the Nursing Curriculum implemented by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in 2009. According to the participants, the course which aims “to discuss issues and trends in informatics relevant to the nursing profession” has encountered problems in its implementation.
The eHealth Training equipped participants with tools for teaching nursing informatics such as MOODLE, CHITS and OpenMRS. Training participants with MOODLE broaden their options on how to conduct the usual classroom nursing informatics instruction while hands-on training on CHITS and OpenMRS provided them with the competency in using electronic medical records in health care facilities. Training did also provide them with new perspectives on how to integrate these tools as they do their research and clinical practice.
“What I learned today gave me an alternative method of delivering my lectures, it gave me more confidence in teaching health informatics,” explained Michael Anthony Samaniego, participant of the eHealth Training and faculty of the UP Manila School of Health Sciences faulty at Aurora, Baler, Quezon.
Not just for nurses
The following day, September 3, eHealth Seminar was conducted to orient nurses, doctors, IT professionals and educators with existing eHealth applications and initiatives in the country. The seminar, originally intended for nursing students and graduates, has attracted participation of other allied professionals in the field of health and information technology.
In the AM session of the seminar, Dr. Ryan Julius Bañez gave an intro on what is eHealth and career paths eHealth while Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho discussed the need for standards on eHealth and principles on health informatics ethics. Dr. Alvin B. Marcelo, former NTHC director discussed how eHealth could revolutionize the health care system in the country by explaining the core of data visualization model before lunch time. In the afternoon, Isidor Cardenas, RN enlighten the participants on how Free and Open Source Software works as a tool for developing eHealth applications and shared his expertise on eLearning for Health. Reynaldo Gavino, RN explained how telemedicine works as Phoebe Jane C. Elizaga,RN showcased how eRecords could change the health care deliver in the Philippines.
eHealth Advocates in their own way
Participants of respective event expressed that eHealth is most relevant in the nursing curriculum. Mr. John Bert Macato, participant of the eHealth Training and faculty of the UP Manila School of Health Sciences faculty at Palo, Leyte, Tacloban City said the training prepared them in their planned implementation of the Nursing Informatics course. Participants of both the training and the seminar said they would also like to conduct the training in their respective institution, thus, turning them as “eHealth advocates” among the educators of the health profession.
The eHealth Training is three day intensive hands-on training to provide nursing educators with concepts and applications on eHealth that they can use in teaching nursing informatics. On the other hand, the eHealth Seminar is a one day seminar which gives BS nursing students, registered nurses, doctors, and other professionals with an overview of eHealth initiatives in the country.
