AACN, Jonas Center & Khan Academy Introduce Online Learning Materials

Khan Academy, AACN, Jonas Center Launch Online 
Learning Materials for Future Nurses, Health Professionals

Online video tutorials, exercises designed to help new nurses prepare for 
licensing exam and serve as a free resource for the global classroom

NEW YORK, June 17, 2014 – The Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare (Jonas Center), Khan Academy, and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) are pleased to announce that 55 new healthcare lessons in 9 topic areas are now available online to supplement the learning of healthcare students, practitioners, and patients worldwide. The partnering organizations launched an international competition last fall to identify content creators interested in developing hundreds of video-based lessons with supporting practice questions. The first wave of this innovative content is now available for free on the Khan Academy website. This new resource will be of particular interest to nursing students preparing for the national licensing exam – the NCLEX-RN® – since 158 sample exam questions are now included among the material posted.

“Khan Academy is proud to share this inaugural set of tutorials produced by our newly minted content creators who have worked tirelessly over the last few months making high-quality content for an international audience,” said Rishi Desai, MD, MPH, Program Lead for Medical Partnerships at Khan Academy. “These videos represent only the tip of the iceberg with hundreds of new videos and questions in production to further enhance the preparation of healthcare students, professionals, and patients.”

The current partnership was a “meeting of the minds,” according to Darlene Curley, Executive Director of the Jonas Center, a philanthropic organization dedicated to building the effectiveness of America’s professional nurses, especially through scholarship.  “Core to each of our individual missions is education. We look forward to continuing to work with our collaborators to promote this important work and are excited to see what new content will emerge from our creative content producers over the next several months.”

“This new resource represents a bold step forward in how we approach preparing nurses and other health professionals for contemporary practice,” said Eileen T. Breslin, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of AACN. “We applaud the content creators for their exceptional work as well as the Jonas Center and Khan Academy for their commitment to re-envisioning the ongoing education of healthcare providers.”

The learning materials produced through this collaboration are designed to support students preparing to become healthcare professionals as well as patients and their families wishing to know more about specific conditions. With 55 videos now available, those interested may access content in these topic areas:

• Emphysema
• Pneumonia
• Vasculitis
• Leukemia
• Pulmonary diseases overview
• Lung cancer
• Pleural effusion
• Non-cyanotic heart diseases
• Bleeding and impaired hemostasis

Hundreds of new videos, articles, and sample exam questions covering a variety of health concerns will be added on an ongoing basis as content is developed. To access the free learning materials, see the Khan Academy website.

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About the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare
The Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, established in 2006 by Barbara and Donald Jonas, is dedicated to improving healthcare by advancing nursing scholarship, leadership and innovation. Its two main programs are the Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholar Program, which aims to address the dire shortage of nursing faculty by preparing nurses with doctoral degrees to step into this critical role, and the Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program, which seeks to improve the health of veterans by supporting doctoral-level nursing candidates committed to advancing veterans’ healthcare. These programs currently support more than 600 doctoral scholars nationwide, with a goal to support 1,000 Scholars by 2016.

About Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a 501(c) 3 non-profit with a mission of providing a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy provides free online educational materials (e.g., practice exercises, instructional videos, dashboard analytics, teacher tools) that support personalized education for users of all ages in a scalable way. In the last two years, the organization has delivered over 330 million lessons and 6 billion exercise problems. Currently, it has 10 million users per month and over 4 million exercise problems completed each day. Khan Academy covers subjects from basic Math to college level Biology and Art History.