Healthcare has witnessed many changes in the last few years, specifically in the field of information technology. New innovations lead to improvements in care not just for patients, but also those who work within the industry. While you're training in one of the many healthcare programs for nursing, you might encounter specific lessons regarding the use of electronic health records and the benefits they can bring to coordinating care within a medical facility.
Go all in.
Because it's a relatively new innovation, there's still some resistance to transitioning from paper records in favor of digital ones. Advance Healthcare Network for Nurses recommends taking an all-or-nothing approach to adoption.1 As a nurse, you might want to make an extra effort in familiarizing yourself with EHRs as their integration into medical facilities is inevitable. However, they do require a lot of time and resources from staff in order to maintain workflow capabilities and not lose any efficiency. Nursing administrators could pull in other members of hospital leadership to get the entire staff 100 percent behind the transition, so you should be preparing yourself to face the changes head on. They may completely remove paper records from the facility in an effort to expedite adoption.
It appears to be working.
In one of the first large studies of its kind, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researched the effectiveness EHRs had when used by nurses. Working with more than 16,000 individuals at 316 hospitals across four states, the findings showed that the nursing job consistently experienced improvements in quality of care and health outcomes for patients when EHRs were implemented in the facilities, as reported by Penn Nursing Science.”[The] implementation of an EHR may result in improved and more efficient nursing care, better care coordination, and patient safety,” said lead author Ann Kutney-Lee, Ph.D., R.N., a health outcomes researcher at Penn Nursing, as quoted by the news source.2The results of the study showed that the detail permitted by EHRs might allow for more comprehensive reports of patient health information, which could lead to improved outcomes and better care.
Find an expert, be an expert.
For both registered nurses and nursing administrators, EHR experts might be the key to successful adoption.3 Administrators who create expert users could leverage their knowledge in nursing training of the new technology. As a nurse, this might work to your advantage because you become a reliable source of education on effectively using an EHR in the practice. Doing so might make you stand out amongst your peers as a leader, someone to look up to on the staff.
Positivity is key.
While using a brand new system of recording health information may be intimidating, remaining positive might be the key to success, according to Advance Healthcare Network for Nurses.4 The benefits of EHRs far outweigh the negatives, and implementation should be welcomed and accepted. They may facilitate administering care to patients and making the nursing profession much easier. Being so user-friendly and tailored to improve workflows, nurses should get excited about the prospect of having comprehensive health information available to them at the touch of a button.
1http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Columns/Nursing-Informatics/EHR-Lessons-for-Nurses.aspx
2http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/sia/Pages/Better-Together—The-RN-and-the-EHR.aspx#sthash.yVqgl3K2.dpbs
3http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Columns/Nursing-Informatics/EHR-Lessons-for-Nurses.aspx
4http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Columns/Nursing-Informatics/EHR-Lessons-for-Nurses.aspx