ATI and Swift River join to make practice-ready nurses top priority as Next Generation NCLEX approaches

LEAWOOD, Kan., Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, ATI Nursing Education announced Swift River Online Learning will join the ATI portfolio, adding its Virtual Clinicals solution to ATI's set of learning tools built specifically for nursing students and nurse educators, to help them master core nursing knowledge and develop their clinical judgment.

The result will be a complementary set of tools for nursing programs who are faced with not just preparing students to join a workforce challenged by a lingering pandemic, but also planning for a revolutionary change to nursing's entry-level licensing exam that could either ensure a steady flow of new nurses to the profession – or interrupt the supply at a time when they're needed most.

The new licensing exam, referred to as "Next Generation NCLEX," is scheduled to launch April 2023. It will feature new question types and new scoring methods designed to better assess students' clinical judgment (their ability to recognize and analyze changes in a patient's condition, develop hypotheses on the right course of action, then implement those actions and monitor the result).

"I made the decision (to join ATI) based on its quality assessments and the insights those tests bring to educators and students. I believe no other company assesses nursing knowledge and predicts NCLEX success better than ATI. And when I saw the bold steps ATI has taken to align their assessments to NCSBN's clinical judgment model, I knew ATI was the right partner. With ATI, we'll be able to reach more schools and students and, ultimately, benefit more patients," said Dan Moreschi, Founder of Swift River Online Learning.

With Swift River joining ATI, nursing programs will have complementary tools to help students prepare for Next Generation NCLEX and become practice-ready nurses. Nursing programs and students have used ATI's assessments to gain insights into students' mastery of nursing knowledge and their likelihood of passing NCLEX for more than 20 years. Swift River's Virtual Clinicals provide more than 500 unique unfolding case studies that hone students' clinical judgment, with a special emphasis on prioritization and delegation skills.

"Next Generation NCLEX is all about improving students' clinical judgment to ensure they're truly practice-ready when they earn their license. Improving any skill or competency requires a valid way to assess it, and the opportunity to practice it. ATI and Swift River together make it easy for nursing programs to do both," said Sean Burke, President of ATI Nursing Education and Ascend Healthcare.

DEVELOPING PRACTICE-READY NURSES
When nursing students' clinical judgment is stronger, they develop into a practice-ready nurse faster. This means a nurse can adjust to the speed and stress of real-life practice and make sound decisions for their patients. Moreschi saw the need for better clinical judgment and practice-ready nurses first-hand after working as a nurse and nurse administrator for more than 40 years. In particular, he saw a need to address two concepts in particular: prioritization and delegation.

"Prioritization and delegation are essential skills for new nurses. As a nursing student you were probably responsible for one or two patients during clinicals. When that nursing student steps onto the hospital floor as a licensed nurse, they'll have three- or four-times that number, and they'll all need things at the same time. Knowing how to prioritize your actions and enlist other members of the healthcare team through delegation will keep that nurse from becoming overwhelmed – and will keep patients safe," said Moreschi.

Moreschi continued, "It's just very difficult for nursing students to gain that kind of experience during clinicals, and I saw an opportunity to use technology to give students a safe space to experience what it is like to have competing demands on their attention while performing a critical task, like drawing and passing meds." 

"From our very first discussions it was evident that ATI and Swift River share a purpose of developing safe, practice-ready nursing professionals.  After becoming familiar with the Virtual Clinicals solution, we immediately saw how we can add value to students and educators by working together," said Sean Burke, President of ATI Nursing Education and Ascend Healthcare.

About ATI Nursing Education
ATI is the leading provider of online learning programs for improving faculty effectiveness and student and program outcomes in nursing schools across the country. ATI maintains a 97 percent client-retention rate based on providing consistently reliable delivery of high-quality assessment, remediation, and educational products. Currently, ATI Nursing Education works with 20,000+ nurse educators, about 2,700 colleges and universities, and more than 500,000 students, plus more than 1.3 million graduates. The business began in 1998 with the help of a nurse. Today, nurses remain a valued part of its staff, with a team of 230 nurse educators, as well as nearly a dozen psychometric professionals who specialize in educational products, test development, and statistical methods.

To learn more about ATI, visit www.atitesting.com.

About Swift River
Swift River creates Virtual Clinical solutions that are based on the educational learning theory of Kiili's Experiential Gaming Model and the Experiential Learning Model developed by David Kolb. Each Virtual Clinical provides the student or clinical nurse —and the instructor or nurse manager — with an evaluation of each simulation and the cumulative composite scores and recorded times. These allow the student/nurse and his or her instructor/manager to evaluate the progress and determine an individual's standing among classmates or colleagues. The skills learned working with these clinical products are easily transferred to other nursing settings for both the student and clinical nurse.

To learn more about Swift River, visit www.swiftriveronline.com.

SOURCE ATI Nursing Education

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