About the College
The Virtual College is an internet based facility design to support groups of nurses to function as Communities of Practice with a remit to take forward the project specific practice development agenda and achievement of best practice. The functions of the College are designed to support the aspirations of the nursing and midwifery strategy for Scotland “…to establish model for networking to develop, disseminate and implement best practice in the care of older people…”
(Scottish Executive Health Department 2001: 17).
The key functions of the College are to support-:
- Communities of Practice
- Best Practice Statement (BPS) Development
- Best Practice Statement implementation
- Practitioner learning related to practice development and progressing gerontological nursing.
The virtual learning environment acts as-:
- a centre for collaborative working for teams and geographically dispersed practitioners
- a centre for group communication
- an interactive e-learning environment
- a gateway to the actual demonstration sites
- a dynamic information library
All college activities reflect an agreed set of principles underpinning gerontological nursing, and are undertaken adopting a social participatory model of learning.
Reference
If you would like to go on a virtual tour this will take approximately 4 minutes. Virtual Tour.
Related Media
- Robertson G (2004) BBC Radio Scotland. The Gary Robertson Show. ‘A virtual college helps Scottish nurses.’ 31st March.
- Tolson D (2003) Gerontological nursing demonstration project: from an idea to a national project. Queens Nursing Institute Scotland. Newsletter December.
- Tolson D (2003) Developing Gerontological Nursing. The Foundation of Nursing Studies Newsletter Spring/Summer. p1
- (2001) News in Brief. New College on the Web. Nursing Times. Sept 27th .97 (39) p8.
- (2001) Nurses will learn at Web College The Herald. 14 Sept p18.
- Duffy G (2001) Nursing Care Boost. Evening Times. Sept 14th p19.
Related Publications
- Tolson D, McAloon M, Schofield I, Hotchkiss R. (In press) Progressing evidence based practice: an effective nursing model ? Journal of Advanced Nursing (Accepted April 2004)
- Schofield I, Tolson D, A Kydd, R Hotchkiss, Andrew N, (2002) Logon to develop practice. Nursing Times. 98(7) 38-39
- Schofield I, Tolson D, Kydd A, Hotchkiss R, Andrew N,(2002). Using a Collaborative Virtual Workplace to develop Gerontological nursing practice. Generation Review. 11(4) 26-27