certifiedbuttwiper

Agree with you 100% on AccuNurse, about a month or two ago we switched to that from CareTracker (which uses kiosks), and it easily quadrupled our workload. I used to complain about the kiosks, but I'd never do anything but smile if we went back to them! We used to be able to wear any color scrubs we wanted, but they changed a while back to having CNA's wear one color and nurses a different color, I do understand it though, we are supposed to be professional. Just remember, not all that long ago everyone had to wear white and had to wear a hat with stripes on it to identify them as a nurse aide, LPN, or RN! And most places required that they wear skirts! So scrubs are definitely an improvement, even if you do have to wear one certain color! Good luck!

I agree, the best use for AccuNurse is to skip it across a pond, or maybe smash it with a hammer. It's quadrupled the workload on CNA's at our facility (we used CareTracker before they brought this monstrosity in), and more than quadrupled the stress levels. Good luck, there are several posts on here that give some good details about how it works, all I can say is get ready to be hoorifice from talking into it all the time, have headache medicine handy from wearing the headset, and if you have any dementia patients, be careful that they don't choke you with the cord (even if you have it tucked under your scrubs). If your facility is anything like mine, you will have to chart while you're caring for residents if you have any hope of getting it all done, and your residents that are hard of hearing or that have dementia will think you're talking to them when you're talking to the headset. Your MDS people and corporate will love it, because it gives them an excuse to charge Medicare and Medicaid more; not that I've seen any evidence of it in my paycheck or in any reversal of the constant shortages of basic items needed for resident care.

I agree with the vast majority of posters on this subject, we have been using AccuNurse for about a month or two, although it seems like much longer. We were previously using CareTracker to chart on residents, AccuNurse easily takes 4 times as long to chart, and that is if you only chart each occurrence once per shift, they want us to chart multiple times for each occurrence on each resident, even the ones who are independent (they say "chart everything as it happens", which is impossible if you actually do any care). It is slow, cumbersome, and even if you tuck the cord away it will still get caught on things, and residents will grab it if you have it on (especially dementia patients, it's a good way to get choked if you leave it on while caring for them). Of course our facility requires that it be kept on at all times, except for in the showers. For myself, it is impossible to concentrate on it and providing quality care to residents, especially the ones who are talking to you and asking questions, and it confused the HOH and dementia residents when you're trying to talk to the headset and care for them at the same time. Of course MDS loves it, they say they've increased "reimbursement" significantly already, what they haven't said is how much reimbursement will be required to pay for the system and break even. At the end of the shift when everyone is rushing to get done with the charting it gets more contrary than normal, sometimes repeating the same thing over and over no matter what you say to it, or just "going to sleep" in the middle of charting. It does get faster as you get used to it, you don't have to wait for all the prompts, but it will only go so fast, if you get too far ahead it will just ignore whatever you said. And background noise sometimes causes it to chart something you never intended, it is designed to ignore background noise, but as anyone who has worked in a LTC facility knows, background noise is constantly changing, and I've had door slams cause it to try to chart an independent person as total care more than once. They also have the care plan for each resident programmed into the system, but I work nights, and they tend to play musical halls with us, we are often on a hall that we are not familiar with, and I may have anywhere from 16 to 34 residents assigned to me depending on which hall I'm assigned to for that shift, it would take over an hour to listen to all the care plans for everyone, I'd much rather just have a paper with all the relevant information written down that I can check as I go. Plus the information is often incorrect, many of the residents with mobility monitors are not listed as such in the system, while I'm told to check them on people who are mostly independent and not a fall risk. Toileting plans are the same, I'm told to toilet some residents who are totally continent and independent while others who I know need to be taken to the toilet have no toileting plan at all in the system. Many of the occurrences are redundant and not relevant to the shift, such as meals on night shift, yet they come up as an occurrence that has to be charted. Each resident has between 8 and 27 occurrences that must be charted at night, more during the daytime shifts, and most occurrences have several prompts that must be answered, and then each occurrence must be "saved" (for example: ambulation; if a resident walks in the room, in the hall, and on and off the unit and uses a walker or cane, there are 19 questions that must be answered, and then you have to "save" the documentation). And most occurrences have several prompts or questions, some you can answer before the prompt, some you have to wait for the prompt. In my opinion, it takes away from patient care, and in my experience the workload for CNA's has quadrupled since we started using it. It also has greatly added to stress since we're told we have to get 100% no matter what, if not, the nurse and the CNA are not allowed to go home until it is completed. I would much rather have a kiosk or computer myself, or I have heard there are systems that use I-Pad type devices to chart on, but anything that would allow us to look at something and know what still needs to be done rather than having to listen and try to remember everything for up to 34 residents. I've also noticed that since we started using the system we've been running short on some of the basic items we need to take care of the residents, I can't help but wonder if it's because of the money the company had to spend for this sorry system. Oh, and another thing I don't remember seeing mentioned before, the headset that is assigned to you is trained to recognize your voice and supposedly only respond to your voice, it's not always true, but I have noticed after talking all night when you start to get a little hoorifice it sometimes won't recognize my voice as well, I can imagine when colds and laryngitis are going around in the wintertime charting on this thing is going to be even more fun, if not impossible, and I'm sure they're not going to take that as a good excuse to use sick time.