How do you use Med+Safe in your curriculum? Med+Safe is utilised across a number of undergraduate nursing units. Students undertake their practice and assessment in the software to achieve the 100% test requirement as per our regulatory requirements. Students renew their assessment each semester as a requirement for their clinical practice rotation. This to ensure they are current and up to date with medication calculations and medication administration. The school of nursing purchased a licence for student use to enable students to practice at any time on their mobile devices. This provides flexibility, and self-directed adult learning that is monitored and directed by an academic staff member with admin access to students’ progress within the software.

Has Med+Safe reduced teacher preparation time (i.e. resource preparation and assessment marking)? Med+Safe has revolutionised how medication calculations is learnt in the curriculum. Its modern, user friendly and interactive approach enables students to practice many aspects of medication administration and calculations. Med+Safe liaises closely with academic staff to ensure nursing and university regulatory standards are maintained and tailored to our requirements. This has enabled a substantial reduction in marking time and assessment and provides flexibility for students and staff to access the software on their own devices in lectures, labs and in their own time. As the software is so comprehensive, it has enabled medication calculations to be mainly self-directed.

How successful has Med+Safe been in the curriculum? Med+Safe has been extremely successful in the curriculum and is incorporated across a number of academic units. Students have evaluated the software highly in an evaluation survey and prefer the software over paperbased and similar assessments. Students value saving their certificates of completion and these are added to their portfolios as proof of ongoing competency and currency of skill and knowledge. As an academic, I have valued being able to track students’ progress through the admin portal and can assist and troubleshoot issues for students through the software. The software is utilised for teaching in lectures and labs as well as students being able to access the software in their own time.

What has student feedback been like? Student feedback has been extremely positive. The software was rated very highly across many areas in an evaluation survey when first trialled. Students value the flexibility to practice and complete the assessment in their own time. A professional certificate is saved by the student for their own records when they complete the assessment requirements. Students value this as proof of their achievements, and this is saved in their portfolios and can be provided to other academics on request as proof of completion prior to clinical practice.

Has Med+Safe improved student outcomes? A higher pass rate has been noted since the students commenced use of the software. As Med+Safe liaises closely with academic staff, quality assessment requirements are maintained that exceed industry standards. Students receive quality feedback when practicing within the software which improves their performance. Programming IV pumps and withdrawing medication in sryinges are just some of the interactive components of the software which students value in preparing for clinical practice scenarios.

Has Med+Safe been backed up by high level support by IntelliLearn? Med+Safe has excellent support that has enabled a tailored approach to student learning of medication calculations and administration. Med+Safe act on feedback and are constantly improving the program with exciting initiatives for enhanced learning. Med+Safe staff are readily accessible during a busy academic semester, and are happy to follow up and troubleshoot any issues or questions from academic staff supervising students using the software. Med+Safe’s commitment to a high quality is evident.

“I have used Med+safe for over three years now. The program is easy to access and intuitive. The office and technical support are national and answers are quickly forthcoming. The company has a very personalized approach. IntelliLearn keeps abreast of current changes in the industry, seeks the advice of clinicians and supports national and global safe practice guidelines.  An important aspect of the program is that it is not just focused on calculations. Research has shown the medication errors related to gaps in safe practice – that is that students do not read the order carefully, cannot use the equipment (pumps, syringes etc.) and do not follow the five rights of medication management. IntelliLearn Med+safe has practice sessions and tests that take these aspects of medication management into account.

I first came in contact with the IntelliLearn Program Med+safe there years ago. At that time I was working with a University that had the program embedded in the Undergraduate Nursing Course. Students purchased Med+Safe which lasted them for the three years of their Batchelor of Nursing Course. The students were advised of the assessment items that they must complete and the certificates that they received they had to upload onto their BB system as proof of successful completion. For the final years the University ran medication calculation tests under exam conditions. IntelliLearn supported this process giving the university access to the Med+safe program to run the examinations over several days. The students were familiar with the format and could concentrate on the questions and correct answers. The format supports equity among the students in teaching and learning.

Moving to a new university who currently did not use the IntelliLearn Program Med+safe program I suggested that we get in contact with the team for IntelliLearn. They responded quickly, visited the university and presented the program. Med+safe is now a required learning resource. The students can practice the maths for clinician, medication rights, calculations and test themselves. The university is hoping to move to online testing. Students have expressed satisfaction with the program and stated that it made them feel more comfortable and competent with medication management.

As a clinician and educator I strongly recommend IntelliLearn Med+safe for students and experienced practitioners. We can never be safe enough with medications in our practice.”

“Always striving to learn…”

Anyone who is a professional person understands all too well the importance of keeping up to date with the latest information and evidence regarding professional clinical practice. This is particularly important in the changing landscape of the acute health care environment.

As employers, hospitals understand the value of knowing that your clinical staff are fully compliant with their relevant professional continuing education standards as well as the business critical imperative of the organisation being compliant with the National Safety and Quality Healthcare Standards.

Since 2010 IntelliLearn has played an important role in helping individual nurses and midwives as well as the hospital, meet our respective obligations in this area. We have partnered to ensure that education is available on line, in modular format, readily accessible to our staff and that we can monitor at glance individual staff member’s compliance. This enables the hospital to deliver on our mission of providing safe, contemporary care for every patient, every time.

IntelliLearn has consistently delivered a professional, collaborative, and efficient service playing a role in assisting us turning a fragmented education service into a more structured customer focused program that is well received by staff. Our staff have access to Medication Safety (Med+Safe and Medication and Device Labelling), a series of midwifery modules, manual handling and basic life support.

The hospital is really pleased with the support we have received from IntelliLearn over more than six years and would recommend IntelliLearn to other businesses involved with supporting continuing education for clinical staff.

Allows practical hands on experience. the difference between the educational value of this and the textbook is incomparable. The videos and pdf instructions and education are great.

The software was useful in the way it showed you the medication order on the med chart and the stock strength in the actual bottle or vial. I was able to visualise it much easier than what I could if I just had a question written on paper.

The program is more like what we will get in a hospital ward.

I have been extremely happy with the software and found it great and easy to use. Im very happy to have access to it for the rest of my degree and look forward to using it often to stay on top of my knowledge so far learnt.

This was amazing and I feel lucky to use it.

The skills were easy to understand and if I didn’t understand the training was great, and took me through step by step.

I could log on whenever it suited me, it was easily accessible and the tutorials and practice help reinforce the formulas.

The software has made it easy to learn medication calculations and I also will look forward to using this software for my medication competency before I go out on prac each semester.

Moving the drip rate up and down in relation to the IV bags was helpful for applying our practical nursing skills and medication calculations.

It was a fantastic resource to be able to log onto any time and repeatedly practice questions, definitely facilitated my learning as the time in labs is often limited.

Great resource!!

I found the resource really valuable to my learning.