The Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust has awarded the Community College of Rhode Island $50,000 to purchase wireless laptop computers and carts to integrate informatics, the science of information and the practice of information processing, into the existing health sciences curriculum at the Newport County campus.

The federal government plans for most Americans to have an electronic health-care record by 2014. As phase one of the informatics implementation process progresses, the college has begun requiring all nursing and health science students to sit for electronic, Web-based examinations. The college also is shifting from paper patient care plans to electronic, e-mail-ready versions similar to those used in the clinical setting. Phase two will include instruction and experience with tutorial patient management software.

The electrical technology department at New England Institute of Technology has received a donation of a FLUKE 1587 Insulation Multimeter from the Electrical League of Rhode Island for use by students and faculty in the electrical technology program.