Day to day informatics questions to LPN's and RN's

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Good day:

I'm currently a nursing student who has not worked in a hospital setting in order to know the day to day ins and outs of what LPN's and RN's go through when working with informatics. It is my hope that those of you who must keep patient records updated on the computer would mind answering some questions.

1. Would you mind sharing approximately how many times during a work shift you interact with a patient related computer systems?

Are those systems hand-held, patient bedside, or station based at your facility?

2. When you access the station, do you have your own user id and password or is there a unit id and password utilized?

3. If you work at a unit where you are not using a hand-held or patient bedside computer system to add or update patient data, do you find the station based computers to impact the ability of nursing care you can provide to your patients?

Thank you for your time.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Is this homework?

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Mary Jean, I'm trying to work ahead and anticipate questions as well as learn about the subject matter. Since I currently don't work in a hospital setting, I'm not able to answer those questions myself which is why I'm hoping those who visit here who are LPN's and RN's might share their experiences interacting with information systems as part of their day-to-day patient care.

Thank you.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

1.) Hmmm...maybe 4x per hour? It's probably more though, since I'll access it to see what meds I need to pull, and then again when I give them. Or I'll access it every time I titrate a drip to chart the change. That alone could be 4x in an hour.

Every pt has a station at the bedside, one in the hallways per two rooms, and three at each nursing desk. We don't use hand-held.

2.) Every RN, CNA, RRT, MD, NP etc. has his/her own login info. After all, it's not "SICU" documenting, it's "Here.I.Stand, RN."

3.) I love it. Computers or not we have to document e-ver-y-thing. We have to look up labs and read progress notes. Having it available on the computer is SOOOOO much faster than thumbing through a paper chart and writing by hand. Less time in the chart=more time with the pt.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I get various reactions from our staff. Many believe they are nurisng the computer, not the patient. They must interact every hour to record hourly rounding and more frequently sometimes. Each has their own ID/PW as each is responsible for contect. Plus, if someone breaches security (HIPAA violation) IT needs to determine who was signed in at the time. We have desk PC's. The tablets were not too reliable and hard to manage infection control, although some use them (mostly dieticians, case managers, social workers). We do have workstations on wheels as eMAR is electronic so the computer has to be bedside. Overall, they are a blessing and a curse.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Thank you very much. I was in I.T. for 3 decades before going back to nursing school (classes start next week), but as I'm not a nurse interacting with nursing computer systems, I wasn't sure how day to day informatics impacted nurses.