Clinical Coordinator
Amanda Moreau
Success Story
UConn’s School of Nursing Leverages CORE Technology Suite to Drive Efficiencies Across Their Clinical Education Programs
Since switching to CORE ELMS for both their accelerated and undergraduate nursing programs, UConn School of Nursing has experienced significant process improvements with clinical placements, student onboarding requirements, evaluations, and more!
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Institution Type
Public, Land-Grant, Research University
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Location
Mansfield, Connecticut
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Academic Programs
Nursing
The challenge
Moving away from a time-consuming & manual process
With over 300+ students enrolled across their undergraduate and accelerated nursing programs, UConn School of Nursing has many moving parts to manage when it comes to the clinical education process. Prior to exploring new options for managing clinical education, the UConn School of Nursing was utilizing a primarily manual and spreadsheet-based process. “Evaluations were done on paper, clinical assignments were completed with spreadsheets, reporting was tedious, and there was no centralized location for student, site, or preceptor information,” explained Clinical Coordinator Amanda Moreau.
Over time, that process started to become more and more time-consuming and inefficient for administrators to manage. The UConn team knew it would be beneficial to re-evaluate their process soon, so they began exploring new options for managing the clinical education component of their program.
The solution
A flexible tool with the right level of customer support
After reviewing several options, the UConn School of Nursing ultimately chose to move forward with CORE ELMS. Between the feature flexibility and the high level of direct customer support, they felt confident it was the best choice to help their Nursing programs operate more efficiently and reduce the administrator burden.
UConn’s transition to CORE Technology Suite was further accelerated when COVID-19 suddenly brought on a whole new set of challenges within nursing education.
"The features within CORE Technology Suite are so flexible that we were able to work with the CORE team to find ways to support these new and growing needs caused by the pandemic such as reporting in-person versus simulated clinical hours and managing attestation documentation," explained Ms. Moreau.
Our clinical placement process has greatly improved with CORE’s SmartMatch tool.
The results
Significant process improvements over time
A year after transitioning to CORE Technology Suite, the UConn School of Nursing is experiencing reduced administrator burden, higher student satisfaction, and more time to put back into other growing priorities.
- Clinical Placements
Explained Ms. Moreau, “Our clinical placement process has greatly improved with CORE’s SmartMatch tool. It used to be challenging to do it objectively and fairly while also trying to take student preferences into account. With CORE Technology Suite, students are really happy to have some say in their placements while we as administrators are still able to maintain fairness and objectivity.”
- Clinical Onboarding Requirements
UConn was also able to improve its management of clinical onboarding requirements, a huge burden that all nursing programs and clinical coordinators are dealing with. The complexities of the clinical onboarding process can be automated and managed within CORE ELMS.
“Every agency or clinical site has a different set of requirements, and since utilizing CORE Technology Suite, managing these varying requirements has become easier, more streamlined, and more organized for us,” said Ms. Moreau.
- Customer Service
While there are a variety of clinical education tools out there, it can be challenging for nursing programs to find one that provides the level of client support they are looking for.
Said Ms. Moreau, “Another huge plus we’ve been experiencing with CORE Technology Suite is that they provide one-on-one customer support. Even if there’s something in the system we’re unable to figure out, we have someone at PeopleGrove we can contact to get our questions resolved quickly. There have been instances where I email them, and I have an answer in as little as 20 minutes.“
- Other Benefits
Since getting comfortable with CORE ELMS, the UConn team has also begun utilizing it to support their evaluation process, student absence tracking, and student hours tracking. In light of the current nursing staffing shortage, they also utilize the CORE ELMS job board to easily post all job openings in one central location for students to view. Additionally, they heavily utilize the survey and forms feature within CORE ELMS to help them easily collect student accommodations such as religious, athletic, community service, and more.
The UConn School of Nursing has also grown their use of CORE Technology Suite by starting to utilize CORE’s CompMS solution to help them manage student competency assessment.
The UConn College of Pharmacy is also utilizing The CORE Technology Suite.
Since utilizing CORE Technology Suite, managing these varying requirements has become easier, more streamlined, and more organized for us.
Amanda Moreau
Clinical Coordinator
Tips From the UConn Nursing Team
Here is some advice from their team if you are also considering CORE Technology Suite:
- Start the process ahead of your required timeline
Acclimating to a new solution does not happen overnight. Rather than waiting until you have an immediate need, begin the exploration and transition process before it becomes a necessity. It’s not an overnight fix for all problems, but once you have fully transitioned, CORE adds so much efficiency to your process. - Ask the PeopleGrove team for their ideas and suggestions
PeopleGrove’s team is very knowledgeable and their one-on-one support model allows you to ask many questions throughout the transition process, with timely responses and solutions. In addition, the flexibility of the tools within CORE Technology Suite means there could be many different ways to solve the challenges your program is experiencing, and the PeopleGrove team probably has a way to help solve them. - Consider the differences between your cohorts when developing a timeline
When it comes to getting your students up and running with a new system, your new cohorts will take less time than existing cohorts. When deciding timelines, try to dedicate a little extra buffer time and support for your existing cohorts to acclimate to the improved process.
Tips From the PeopleGrove Team
The team at PeopleGrove has taken over 350 programs through this process – here is some advice from them!
- Consider different contract options
All programs are different and have unique needs, so PeopleGrove offers a variety of flexible contract options to accommodate a range of different scenarios. We’ll work with you to find the contract option that works best for your particular program. - Get a fresh start by cleaning up your data
PeopleGrove’s implementation team does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to transitioning your data over to CORE Technology Suite. Our team can work with you to develop a plan to clean up your data ahead of transitioning it into CORE ELMS so that you are starting with a clean slate and ensuring an even smoother overall transition. - Ask your institution’s IT team if they will need to do a security check
A commonly overlooked step in the process is seeing if your IT department will need to complete a security check prior to implementation. To save you time, clarify what your institution will require early on in the process, and the PeopleGrove team will be sure to accommodate it within your needed timeline.
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