We have wathchild for L/D. I like it. We have meditech for postpartum, GYN, nursery and I can't say the same for it. I really hate meditech. I just don't find it to be user friendly. It is slow. The screens are tedious. It is often out of service. We've had it for 2 years or so and there have been some provements made. We were originally told that watchild (which we've had for 5 years) would be able to communicate w/ meditech. That has not proven true at our facility. Consequently, much of the info. we ask for watchild on admission is asked again for meditech PP.
With the QS system we do not, and I repeat, do not do the admission in meditech. Only in QS. Our managers are great to back us up on this, esp. when the rest of the hospital is using meditech.(only l/d,level 1,ante and pp are using QS) Occasionally we have some one going from ante to the OR or our OR to ICU We then print up all our admission screens and let them figure out what to do with meditech. We only use meditech for orders at this point and allerigies,ht and wt for the pharm.
With the QS system we do not, and I repeat, do not do the admission in meditech. Only in QS. Our managers are great to back us up on this, esp. when the rest of the hospital is using meditech.(only l/d,level 1,ante and pp are using QS) Occasionally we have some one going from ante to the OR or our OR to ICU We then print up all our admission screens and let them figure out what to do with meditech. We only use meditech for orders at this point and allerigies,ht and wt for the pharm.
Our unit is being staffed to the bare bones now. Last week, I had 5 rooms, 2 were first day post c/s mother-baby units, plus 3 p/o gyns. Two of those were fresh, one of which came back during report. Needless to say, I didn't get my initial assessments done until almost 5:30 and my charge nurse, bless her heart passed the prns. This was a very heavy load, but they're nickle and diming us to the max. It will take a seriously disastrous negative outcome to correct this I fear.
For our labor patients we have managed to keep 1:1 if they are active. Pre-term stuff is 2:1, but even that can be very iffey depending on just how stable they are and what kind of pre-term thing we are dealing with.
We have Watchchild. I do not like it. I can't imagine like any kind of totally paperless charting. I really like being able to take my paper fetal monitor strip and do the charting from that, especially after one of "those" deliveries. You know the ones. I'll be dipped in you-know-what if I'm going to ignore my patient to satisfy a computer. At this point we mostly do only the admission using WC, and with any luck at all, I'll be retired before they go totally off the deep end.
IMHO, computer charting leaves far less time for actual patient care and especially interaction. There's no real way to have a face-to-face admission interview when your face is staring at a computer monitor screen. And some of our nurses do the admission forms from the prenatal records at the nursing station, so even less patient contact when that happens. I've started printing off a blank admission section (the one with about 100 questions) and doing a sit-down interview, like the good old days. I can plug in the answers later. That really takes very little more time, and I feel like it more fully satisfies the idea of being available to our patients.
I do like having central monitoring which enables any of us to pop in and ask if another nurse needs help when we see something that might be a problem.
Our unit is being staffed to the bare bones now. Last week, I had 5 rooms, 2 were first day post c/s mother-baby units, plus 3 p/o gyns. Two of those were fresh, one of which came back during report. Needless to say, I didn't get my initial assessments done until almost 5:30 and my charge nurse, bless her heart passed the prns. This was a very heavy load, but they're nickle and diming us to the max. It will take a seriously disastrous negative outcome to correct this I fear.
For our labor patients we have managed to keep 1:1 if they are active. Pre-term stuff is 2:1, but even that can be very iffey depending on just how stable they are and what kind of pre-term thing we are dealing with.
We have Watchchild. I do not like it. I can't imagine like any kind of totally paperless charting. I really like being able to take my paper fetal monitor strip and do the charting from that, especially after one of "those" deliveries. You know the ones. I'll be dipped in you-know-what if I'm going to ignore my patient to satisfy a computer. At this point we mostly do only the admission using WC, and with any luck at all, I'll be retired before they go totally off the deep end.
IMHO, computer charting leaves far less time for actual patient care and especially interaction. There's no real way to have a face-to-face admission interview when your face is staring at a computer monitor screen. And some of our nurses do the admission forms from the prenatal records at the nursing station, so even less patient contact when that happens. I've started printing off a blank admission section (the one with about 100 questions) and doing a sit-down interview, like the good old days. I can plug in the answers later. That really takes very little more time, and I feel like it more fully satisfies the idea of being available to our patients.
I do like having central monitoring which enables any of us to pop in and ask if another nurse needs help when we see something that might be a problem.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
computer charting indeed gets in the way of my interaction with my patients. We are forever trying to figure this or that out, taking much more time to chart. It's a real pain and not saving us any time whatsoever. I strongly dislike it myself. The whole idea was to increase legibility and accountability, as well as save time. Hmmph, well 2 out of 3 aint bad, but tell that to my patients, who need me to teach em to breastfeed or other baby/self-care.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
computer charting indeed gets in the way of my interaction with my patients. We are forever trying to figure this or that out, taking much more time to chart. It's a real pain and not saving us any time whatsoever. I strongly dislike it myself. The whole idea was to increase legibility and accountability, as well as save time. Hmmph, well 2 out of 3 aint bad, but tell that to my patients, who need me to teach em to breastfeed or other baby/self-care.
imenid37
1,804 Posts
We have wathchild for L/D. I like it. We have meditech for postpartum, GYN, nursery and I can't say the same for it. I really hate meditech. I just don't find it to be user friendly. It is slow. The screens are tedious. It is often out of service. We've had it for 2 years or so and there have been some provements made. We were originally told that watchild (which we've had for 5 years) would be able to communicate w/ meditech. That has not proven true at our facility. Consequently, much of the info. we ask for watchild on admission is asked again for meditech PP.