Nurses Seek IT To Increase Efficiency

FROM IHealthBeat

April 01, 2008

Nurses Seek IT To Increase Efficiency, Counter Staff Shortages

As the U.S. nursing shortage worsens and patient safety concerns increase, health care vendors and policymakers are looking to IT to help nurses increase their efficiency, Government Health IT's "GHIT Notebook" reports.

The American Academy of Nursing is working to curb the nursing shortage by making better use of nurses already in the field, primarily through the use of IT, rather than trying to find more nurses to enter the profession.

What Do Nurses Want?

Using grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AAN's Workforce Commission compared the work processes and environments of nurses and other health care providers at 25 sites nationwide. Participants consistently recommended IT tools in the following areas:

Care coordination;

Care delivery;

Communications;

Discharge;

Documentation;

Medication administration;

Patient movement; and

Supplies and equipment.

Nurses say they want completely electronic health records. Pam Cipriano, chief clinical officer and chief nursing officer at the University of Virginia Health System, said nurses typically work with hybrid systems that combine automated tools and paper-based ones, which "is very disruptive."

Nurses also want computerized order entry systems to eliminate handwriting legibility issues, touch-screen or voice-activated technology for documentation and automated networks to collect and download vital patient data. Cipriano added that nurses want more hand-free tools, particularly wireless technology, that "frees them up."

In addition, nurses told AAN that they want to see greater use of radio frequency identification technology to track people, supplies and equipment, as well as greater use of robotics to deliver supplies. Nurses also support the use of smart beds to monitor patient movements and pressure sensors to reduce the incidence of bedsores, according to "GHIT Notebook."

Nurse Involvement

Historically, nurses have had a disproportionately small role in shaping health IT development and policy, but increasingly nurses are becoming more involved in the development, procurement and deployment of next-generation IT tools, "GHIT Notebook" reports.

Connie White Delaney, dean of the University of Minnesota's School of Nursing, said, "The more [nurses] are deeply involved in the actual design of these applications, the greater likelihood we will get applications that are not impractical but fit the actual care delivery system."

Lynne King --a registered nurse and EHR project director at University Hospitals in Cleveland -- agreed, noting that when organizations implement IT without involving nurses, their implementations usually fail (Pulley, "GHIT Notebook," Government Health IT, 3/31).