Answer:

Absolutely, it is a better organization of the current system, but StudentMAX™ is more than just a re-arrangement of how placements are made. StudentMAX™ is able to display all of the clinical sites across a specific group of users, both committed and uncommitted.  Currently when new space opens up or is unused, there is no way for a school to know that space exists unless each hospital is contacted on a regular basis. Open clinical space could mean that a school may consider increasing student enrollment since one of the major challenges to increasing enrollment is the lack of available clinical site space. Likewise, if all available clinical site placement space is being used, that is important for any schools planning expansions or new schools wishing to open a program in the area.

To determine the efficacy of StudentMAX™, we have developed program measurements to help participants evaluate its cost-effectiveness and time-efficiency features, both individually and collectively. As we prepared funding proposals to support the pilot program, NEONI developed a Program Outcomes Indicator document, which was integral to the review process by four philanthropic foundations and their final decision to fund the project. This document gathers baseline information from each hospital and school participant such as the amount of hours and relative cost to currently manage clinical site placements prior to using StudentMAX™.  Data (for the pilot) will be collected again at the end of project to provide a comparison.  The tool also tracks the number of new clinical sites that open up during the pilot phase. 

Currently, our pilot project data from 15 schools and two hospitals indicate that 12,044 hours (faculty and hospital facilitator) are spent at a cost of $100,447 to place pre-licensure nursing students.  Our project goals are to reduce staff time by 50% and reduce costs by 10-15%. We will be collecting data again prior to the end of the pilot program.

Data from the Oregon Nursing Workforce Center to date is limited in that cost savings information was not collected as a number value but anecdotally.  However, with more than two years of continuous usage, clinical site placements in Oregon have increased 25% and both hospital and school participants report reduced staff time to place students.  In addition, StudentMAX™ has been purchased by 12 states other than Ohio with all in varying stages of implementation.  

We plan to use the Program Outcomes Indicator form with all NEW participants that contract with us to use StudentMAX™.  This will allow participants to see the return on investment based on their baseline data compared from the previous academic year with the first academic year using StudentMax™.

Obviously the greatest efficiencies will be achieved if all the hospitals and schools of nursing that currently work together in Northeast Ohio participate in the StudentMAX™ program to determine outcomes on a regional basis.