Techno Nurses
Want to be the best nurse you can be? You'll need to embrace technology.
Technological advances in long-term care offer nurses the opportunity to significantly improve workflow and resident care. All it takes is a clear set of goals, ample access and a forward-thinking attitude.
Good Use equals Relevance – Know your Goals.
Technology offers you a plethora of possibilities to significantly improve your nursing operations and Resident care; but you need to be focused on what you expect to get out of it. Among the many areas of improvement that technology can bring you, two stand out as particularly relevant in our environment today: Reducing Resident Issues and Recovering Lost Revenue.
By effectively using an EHR system, there are great opportunities for data collection and, by extension, for the analysis that helps nurses to identify Residents with potential care issues. This allows you to intervene early with a clear Care Plan to help address and prevent further problems. Of course, if you consistently do this for all of the Residents in your care, you will be much better prepared for Survey too. Everybody wins!
As reimbursement issues encroach upon facilities' operations, recovering lost revenue opportunities becomes a much more critical component than at any other time in the past. In the nursing side technology can help you plug some of the holes and even become a hero for your organization. For example, setting up a system in your nursing supplies closet that allows for easy "checkout" of supplies to Residents will help you capture those ancillary charges in a much faster method. With an integrated system, this information can automatically flow into your billing area. It's extra revenue recovered simply by tweaking something you're already doing today.
The ugly truth is that most EHR implementations don't fail because of the software or training provided or even just due to culture change. They fail because of a lack of focus on goals and priorities. Knowing where you're going makes getting there much easier!
Access is Success
When you think technology, software is important, but not enough. Be sure to also invest in the hardware. After all, software is only good if you get to use it and in order to use it you need easy access to it. This makes the IT department your new best friend. Share with them your vision on how you expect to use your EHR and task them with giving you options to make it happen.
Nothing gets IT folks more excited than talking tech! Ask them to help you determine if touch screen kiosks in the hallways would work for your organization or if Tablets like Apple's iPad or others would be more beneficial for your clinical workflow. The closer you get the software to where the actual care is being provided, the more successful you will be in ensuring consistent clinical documentation and better Resident care.
Follow your Intuition
Ever feel stuck on one area of an application? It happens to everyone at one time or another and it doesn't matter which application it is – Outlook, Word or your EHR system. The most important thing to remember is not to panic! Software companies spend excruciating amounts of time trying to make their applications as intuitive as possible. Don't be afraid of clicking to see what something does. It is always advisable to do this in a test environment, so have your IT department set up a test database for your EHR system where you can't hurt anything if you start clicking away. Your intuition and some fearlessness will help guide you through most questions. Don't forget that if you can't work it out to call your software company's support help desk. They're available to help you through any issues for your software.
Training is critical and you should only try the steps above if you have completed your vendor's complete training sessions. Many vendors offer retraining or refresher courses throughout the year. Take advantage of those as they may help you clear your cobwebs in areas of the application that you normally don't access on a daily basis.
Overall, just remember that technology is your ally. An EHR won't directly take care of your Residents for you or make you your morning coffee, but it will help you to get through your days with ease and help your facility care for its Residents more accurately. Embrace the technology and tools available, but always know that the best computer we could ever have is still our own brains!
