In the two previous blogs we have talked about what our facility has implemented and some of the different risks that are associated with the new implementation of an electronic medical record. Technology is a key player in helping to improve the type of care that we provide to our patients. Nursing is required to provide thorough assessments and complete care to the patients they come into contact with. Technology is opening helping to assure that this is happening. Since the implementation of our very own EMR, we have not stopped in regards to investigating technical momentum. The facility continues to evaluate new technology that is available for use. One piece of equipment we have recently been looking at is the use of hand held charting devices to be used in the clinical setting. The benefits seem fairly favorable in the amount of time saved using some sort of hand held device for documentation. If you think about the process of receiving a new patient, gathering all the appropriate information, and then finding a computer to input all the data into. It is likely you have added some substantial time onto that admission. If you had the ability to use for instance, a hand held device for inputting data you could then place everything into the chart real time and cut out many steps that are currently in the middle. The next major concern of any type of hand-held device is the ease of use and the charting capabilities. Nursing tends to be chaotic and stressful in nature and to implement any new piece of technology in the medical field, must be very user friendly. Portability in my opinion is by far the biggest advantage to this type of available device, but with that being said it also requires someone to be responsible enough to keep up with it. This is a concern, because nurses spend a large majority of their time tracking down equipment and making sure the equipment functions properly. Any purchase of this nature would need an IT department to be responsible for the maintenance and up keep of the equipment. It is exciting to think we will continue to move forward in technology and the fast paced world, but it is also scary considering we are dealing with individuals life while implementing it.
References used so far:
Joan, M., & Mayo, A. (2003).The handheld technologies in a clinical setting. AACN Clinical Issues, 14, 342-349.
Green, S., & Thomas, J. (2008). Interdisciplinary collaboration and the electronic medical record. Pediatric Nursing, 34, 225-240.
Wakefield, D., Halbesleben, J., Ward, M., Qiu, Q, Brokel, J., Crandell, D. (2007). Development of a measure of clinical information systems. Medial Care, 45, 884-890.
