Ohio University Southern assistant nursing professor and nursing skills lab coordinator Mashawna Hamilton recently accepted the 2014 Elsevier Leading Star Award in the category of Excellence in Simulation within the nursing profession.

Hamilton was instrumental in implementing Electronic Health Records (EHR) documentation simulation for classroom instruction at OUS. Hamilton was selected from dozens of candidates nominated across the United States.

“What this program does is trains students to document health records electronically,” Hamilton said. “Although it is part of President Obama’s health care initiative, which called for all medical records to be electronic by 2014, it is also good for students to know because it is becoming so prominent in healthcare facilities in our area.”

The EHR simulation program provides OUS nursing students the opportunity to obtain practical experience in the latest technology used to capture valuable patient information in a variety of clinical settings, such as hospitals, clinics and nursing facilities.

Elsevier — the world’s leading health science publisher — presented the third annual Exceptional Nursing Educator Awards during a special ceremony at its annual conference in Las Vegas earlier this month. These awards recognize the work of three outstanding nursing faculty members in the categories of clinical, classroom and simulation education who exhibit exceptional skill, innovation and effectiveness in regards to promoting student learning, professionalism and self-confidence.

“Graduates of our nursing program looking for a job will already have familiarity with the program and be more attractive to potential employers because of this training,” Hamilton said. “There will be samples of what they have done with electronic records in their portfolios. It will cost less money and take less time to train employees who already have this knowledge.”