Southeastern partners with OLOL to bring real-world Epic experiences to nursing students

Southeastern Louisiana University has partnered with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, part of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, to bring a true, real-world electronic medical record platform experience to Southeastern nursing students through a program called “Epic.”

“We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the incredible team at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center for partnering with us to bring the Epic playground experience to our first-semester nursing students,” said Southeastern College of Nursing and Health Sciences Assistant Dean Ken Tillman. “Through the Epic Community Extension Academic-Use Program, Our Lady of the Lake has provided remote access to its Epic training environment, allowing our students to work within a secure system populated with fictional patients and designed specifically for educational purposes.”

Over a concentrated two-week period, Southeastern students enrolled in the Nursing Lab 3150 class successfully completed their first round of skills returns, which included documenting assessment findings in Epic, explained School of Nursing Dean Lindsay Domiano.

“This initiative involved 14 course sections and 11 instructors. I would like to thank all NLAB 3150 instructors for their efforts in implementing this new opportunity and offer a special thank-you to Dr. Summer Bunch for coordinating these efforts,” she said.

To help streamline the experience, Bunch and her faculty team developed a comprehensive, 37-step instructional manual. Domiano said this guide significantly reduced troubleshooting, simplified workflow navigation, and allowed students to focus their attention where it belongs: on clinical reasoning and patient care.

“We believe that introducing the Epic electronic medical record platform in the first-semester lab will meaningfully reduce one of the most common stressors students encounter during their initial clinical rotations—navigating electronic health record documentation in real time,” explained Domiano. “Early exposure helps build familiarity and confidence, enabling students to prioritize patient-centered care during what can otherwise be an overwhelming transition into clinical practice. In fact, nursing students from previous cohorts, who were not introduced to the Epic platform in their first semester, have already expressed a bit of ‘healthy envy’ upon hearing about this opportunity.”

Experiences like this truly bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world practice, added Domiano.

“This partnership reflects our shared commitment to innovation, collaboration, and excellence in preparing practice-ready nurses,” Domiano said. “We are deeply grateful to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center for their support and investment in the future of nursing education. We look forward to continuing to strengthen this collaboration and exploring additional ways to enhance experiential learning for our students.”

For more information about Southeastern’s Nursing program, visit southeastern.edu/school-of-nursing/ or email [email protected].