Title : Evaluating the effectiveness of learning formats with multi-generational ED RN workforce regarding HCV
Abstract:
Background: The landscape of the nursing profession has changed, with an increase of non-traditional learners making up a large amount of the emergency department nursing staff. In 2025, Kaleida Health (KH) employed a total of 243 Registered Nurses (RNs) in their 4 emergency departments (ED) located across Western New York, and 57.62% of RNs were 40 years old or younger. Only 10.7% had a graduate degree, and 58.85% had less than 10 years’ experience as an RN nurse. The challenge faced by clinical nurse educators is the ability to tailor the educational delivery method to the different needs of multi-generational learners, who have different levels of education and experience. One-size fits all learning is not an effective approach to education and learning for the current multi-generational nursing workforce of learners. Based on the social media boom over the past decade, it is assumed that video-based story telling education would be most effective as a learning platform for generation Y and Z Registered Nurse (RN) learners, and traditional style read-along education would be most effective to generation X RN learners. On May 3, 2024, New York State (NYS) passed a law incorporating opt-out only universal HCV screening for all patients 18 years of age or older in accordance with the CDC recommendations and World Health Organization’s goal to eliminate HCV by 2030. Prior to this change, risk factor based screening was the recommendation for screening. With this change, it is imperative that nurses at the EDs throughout the KH system be re-educated on HCV disease and screening in order to educate their patients. In order to educate the KH RNs properly to provide optimal advocacy for HCV screening, a QI project was initiated to determine the most effective learning styles based on the demographics of RNs within our healthcare system EDs.
Purpose: Explore the learning styles of ED RNs at KH and examine direct correlations between educational background, age, and nursing experience and the educational platform used to disseminate and retain the assigned HCV education.
Methods: 59 KH ED RNs (group A) completed a traditional self-guided read-along format HCV education module, and 85 KH ED RNs (group B) watched a “story telling” video created by the University at Buffalo, narrated from the perspective of patients diagnosed with HCV. The optimal number of participants in this project is 100 RNs. This information was gathered from reputable sources: Gilead Sciences, the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and NYS Department of Health. The KH nursing education department assigned the modules as required learning modules using an internal learning management system to all RNs who work in any of the 5 KH EDs. Both modules contained identical information about HCV disease and screening recommendations, and the RNs were given 4 weeks to complete. A post-questionnaire and confidence survey was conducted 4 weeks after the completion of each assigned module for the purpose of gauging the RN ability to retain the information, and confidence in educating the patients in the KH EDs about the learned information and need for HCV screening.
Results: We are currently collecting data. Results are pending for the post-questionnaire. We predict there is a correlation between age, level of higher education, and nursing experience and which learning module was most effective in the ability to retain the HCV education, moreover allowing the RN to disseminate the information accurately while educating their patients in the KH EDs about HCV and need for screening. Statistical data will be available at the time of the conference.
