UCalgary Nursing students get hands-on learning experiences with new app 

Inserting an intravenous (IV) feed is part of the job for nurses working with patients, and a new app promises to change the way students in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing learn how to do it properly.  

The multimedia MOVE Improve app, created by a professor emeritus, aims to help train in these vital psychomotor skills.  

“Nursing students are taught IV starts as part of their training, and mastering this skill can be challenging,” says associate professor (teaching) Megan Kirkpatrick, BN’09, MN’17, a registered nurse.        

“Inserting an IV can be painful for the patient and carries a risk of infection. Enhancing students' competency in this skill can reduce the number of attempts required to start an IV, while also improving both the patient's experience and overall outcomes." 

MOVE Improve involves both student and instructor. Its learning activities can be used for self-evaluation, peer-to-peer learning, instructor assessment and collaborative interactions.  

“Students also have the option to record themselves performing a skill and compare their technique to that of the expert,” says Kirkpatrick. “The app also provides a checklist that outlines each step of the skill, which can be used both for learning and evaluating student competency.”   

Training a vital nursing skill 

MOVE Improve helps train future nurses in working with needle sticks or IV starts, where a small plastic tube is inserted into a person’s vein with a needle. 

There is an identified need for a standardized way of training nursing students in IV initiation and improving their skills, says associate professor (teaching) and project lead Shannon Parker, BN’03, BPE’96, MN’15, who is also a registered nurse. 

“What nursing is all about is the health and well-being of the people that we care for,” she says. “Our undergraduate nursing students leave our programs and programs around the world being excellent nurses who could be even better at completing psychomotor skills.”    

App supported through Innovate Calgary 

MOVE Improve is designed to put students in control of their learning. Innovate Calgary — UCalgary’s innovation transfer and business incubator — is helping commercialize the app through the company Savvy Knowledge Corporation.    

“We can show competency, and we can encourage mastery, and that’s the key behind MOVE Improve,” says app creator, Savvy Knowledge founder and Faculty of Kinesiology professor emeritus Dr. Larry Katz, BSc’75, MSc’79, PhD’84.  

Andrea Oh, Savvy Knowledge chief learning officer, adds she has always seen the platform’s potential and is happy to see UCalgary Nursing and others such as the Cumming School of Medicine applying it to their teaching.    

“We're really giving students an even playing ground when it comes to that learning process,” she says.   

“We're taking that fear away from the learner.”

The MOVE Improve app is currently available for free on Google Play and the Apple App Store and can be downloaded on mobile devices.  

 UCalgary-specific app planned  

Pilot activities tested at UCalgary, once completed, will be accessible through a version of the app called UC MOVE Improve that will be housed and controlled by UCalgary.  

UCalgary Nursing students will continue to participate in and provide feedback in the development of the learning tool and will see the platform’s new materials as part of their curriculum during the 2025 spring semester, says Parker.  

“Students, graduate and undergraduate, have had a hand to play in this, and we will be incorporating student feedback, as well,” she says.  

“I can’t stress enough how important it is that students have voices in the ways that they're learning.” 

Plans to incorporate other trainings are in development and will be based upon learnings from this implementation, but, for now, Kirkpatrick is excited to see the work UCalgary Nursing has done come to life.    

“As nursing educators, we are committed to doing everything we can to enhance student learning and improve patient outcomes,” she says.