Hi Ingo, You might want to check out an earlier post of mine in which I suggested that we won't make a lot of progress until we accept the idea that "computer assisted nursing" systems need to change the way nurses work not incorporate the way they work...
In many settings I have observed there is a long history of work-inflation that has been begrudgingly accepted by nurses. It is all too common to find multiple forms that duplicate most of their content and add little or nothing to the management and control of nursing units. These forms are often generated by outsiders but occasionally within nursing. Nurses often tire of pointing out inadequacies in such situations because nobody seems to listen and efforts to correct a small duplication problem can generate solutions that create far more work. It tends to be easier to accept the latest idiot from the business department's brainstorm than to try to fix what is wrong with it. Ideally, nurses ought to have wearable or handheld computers, the data to be collected ought to be recorded automatically, and patient info ought to be able to be retrieved without recourse to paper records. That is the ideal. What often happens is that administrators or nurses do not trust the computer system - hence, they ask nurses to complete all the old, dysfunctional paperwork and also learn how to use a crippled on delivery (COD) computer system. They enter the same data they recorded on paper charts on the computer charts - albeit, after waiting for a free monitor to be able to use the new, more efficient, computer system. The period of duplication often lasts longer than the glow of the new system and eventually the system is trashed or worse, everyone continues the paperwork, the dysfunctional old computer system, and the latest bells and whistles computer system to come along - that of course, means threee systems that are dysfunctional. To really address these problems takes an effort to understand what nurses do, should do, do not do, or should not do. Nurses report that up to 60% of their time is spent doing documentation activities - that ought to be reduced by 90+% if a computer system is to be considered "nurse-friendly" and "design-adequate". Instead, all too often, the computer system offers nurses little relief, no extra information about their clients, and means more clerical work for them, reducing time available for nurses to do nursing - oh yeah, some of us still think that working with patients rather than documentation is the key to nursing... Nurses make up a large part of the workforce in health care organizations - yet their needs for information and analysis rarely get the same attention that business managers and financial personnel get. To really make a health care management information system work it is critical to enhance the work efficiency of the largest workforce in the system, meet their needs for information and analysis, do it in an easy to navigate system, and one which clearly has payoffs for them. A poorly designed system that fails to incorporate the needs of the nursing workforce will never rise above the level of an "also-ran"... Oh, yeah - I am a nurse... care2k is as promising as any other system around - more so than many, but I suspect it has not yet adequately addressed access and utility for nurses... When considering what needs to be done for nursing - think about a large insurance company in the early 1980s when everything was done on paper. It took several years for people to trust computers and for the programs to be made user friendly and user accessible. The use of computers by nurses is at that earlier stage and is likely to remain logjammed there until a breakthrough is made in simplicity and utility of use. Bear --- Ingo Zugenmaier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello list, > > I recently talked with a nurse about Care2x, and there came up one > question about the daily routines: > > Is it planned that nurses take PDA (or laptops) with them when they > do > their daily 'round' (inspections) on patients, for example measure > temperature, pulse, blood pressure and so on? Do they write that > information down (on paper) for each patient and then, after > finishing > all, enter it in the desktop computer? That seems to be double work. > > Does anybody know if there are hospitals where laptops are used on > wards > for that work? > > Regards, > > Ingo Zugenmaier > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email sponsored by Black Hat Briefings & Training. > Attend Black Hat Briefings & Training, Las Vegas July 24-29 - > digital self defense, top technical experts, no vendor pitches, > unmatched networking opportunities. Visit www.blackhat.com > _______________________________________________ > Care2002-developers mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/care2002-developers > ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email sponsored by Black Hat Briefings & Training. Attend Black Hat Briefings & Training, Las Vegas July 24-29 - digital self defense, top technical experts, no vendor pitches, unmatched networking opportunities. Visit www.blackhat.com _______________________________________________ Care2002-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/care2002-developers
