Bayada Technology Award: Education Innovation Award Recipient

Intelligent Pens for Nursing Faculty and Students
Elizabethe Westgard, RN, MSN

Elizabethe Westgard, a nursing educator at the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, has introduced the use of intelligent pens as a technological tool to assist nursing faculty and their students.

Using the capability of intelligent pens to scan and store information, Ms. Westgarde has changed the traditional method of patient data collection from a time-consuming, hand-written process frought with the possibility of error to a time-condensed, highly accurate process, giving students much needed time to spend on creation of nursing care plans derived from the collected information.

Ms.Westgarde has found the dictionary and translation functions to be essential for those learning a new medical vocabulary. The audible pronunciation function provides faculty and students immediate assistance in their ability to communicate with non-English speaking patients. Students may also utilize the translation function to make use of research written in languages other than English.

This innovative use of intelligent pen technology provides faculty and students alike with a mechanism to support and enrich situated learning, and to support cultural competency by enhancing communication with patients who speak languages other than their own. This use of technology has provided faculty with the ability to make the most of the teachable moment by bringing resources to the bedside which enrich the learning environment and support the students' development.