EpicEDU: An Innovation to Improve Core Electronic Health Record Competencies Among Nursing Students

BACKGROUND: Electronic health records (EHRs) are central to modern health care, yet many nursing graduates feel underprepared to use them. METHOD: To close the competency gap, nursing faculty partnered with Epic Systems to develop EpicEdu, a novel academic EHR that authentically simulates all of the features of the EPIC EHR system in practice settings. RESULTS: A total of 239 nursing and 88 nurse practitioner students completed EpicEDU simulations. Of those, 54.1% strongly agreed that using EpicEDU in simulation enhanced the realism of the simulation, 43.1% strongly agreed that they felt better prepared for clinical practice after using EpicEDU, and 42.2% strongly agreed that the use of EpicEDU in simulation can improve patient safety outcomes. CONCLUSION: The academic-industry partnership is a successful model for designing academic EHRs that closely mimic the electronic health records in clinical practice to support development of core technology competencies for future nurses.