WEBCAST SERIES: Using Technology to Move Forward in Challenging Times
10 Tips for Nurse Efficiency, Recruitment and Retention As nursing leaders, your role entails dealing with the constraints of a growing nursing shortage, an aging workforce, and expanding patient demand. Your nursing staff is looking for your leadership to create an environment which supports their work of caring for the patient and allows them to do it even better. If there’s one benefit coming out of the ever-increasing demand on nurses, it’s the creative ways nursing executives are finding to leverage technology to address many of these challenges.
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REDUCING DISTRACTIONS FROM NUISANCE ALERTS AND PAGING SYSTEMS
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MAINTAINING LINE OF SIGHT AND SOUND WITH CRITICAL PATIENT ALARMS
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REMAINING VIGILANT AND RESPONDING PROMPTLY TO PATIENT NEEDS
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FACILITATING MORE EFFICIENT DOCUMENTATION AND COMPLIANCE
"Current alarms and paging systems create noise levels that distract nurses and cause Press-Ganey scores to suffer due to patient complaints. Integration of alarm assignments, with notification and escalation through Emergin, serves to reduce these issues.” – Sandy Tobar, RN, MSBA, Director of Critical Care Nursing: Telemetry, ICU, Acuity Adaptable, St. John Providence Medical Center
“Patient surveys, conducted prior to opening of the new hospital, showed that patients want more private rooms, less noise, and increased responsiveness. Our use of the Emergin system for alarm notification and escalation allows us to address patient preferences without triggering additional burden for our nursing staff” – Sandy Tobar
"Alarm fatigue and the implications resulting from staff desensitization are a growing concern. We use Philips Central Telemetry to filter erroneous alarms and technical alarms (like low battery) to minimize alarm fatigue with the nursing staff. By integrating the remaining alarms from patient monitoring and nurse call systems into a central Emergin platform, we are able to assign and escalate alarms to improve alarm vigilance and response time to patient needs — One recent study showed a response time reduction from 9.5 minutes to 39 seconds1” – Sandy Tobar
“It is well recognized that electronic documentation can improve efficiency. Some studies have shown that electronic documentation can reduce input time by up to 24%2. The eICU staff is able to further assist the efficiency of bedside staff with completion of flow sheet data and compliance documentation through virtual rounds on the patient. – Susan Goran, RN, MSN, Operations Director for Maine Health Vital Network
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MINIMIZING UNSCHEDULED OVERTIME FOR END-OF-DAY DOCUMENTATION
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ELIMINATING INTERPRETATION DELAYS AND RISK DUE TO ILLEGIBLE NOTES OR ORDERS
“When crisis hits, it often leads to unscheduled overtime at the end of a shift to update documentation. Our eICU Program allows remote staff to step in and assist with documentation during emergencies or complex admissions. This reduces the burden on nursing for documentation at the end of the shift and improves documentation accuracy.” – Susan Goran
"How often do you have three or four nurses huddled trying to interpret a physician’s order or transition notes during shift transfers? Through the electronic eICU documentation, which integrates with critical care nursing workflow, we diminish these and other problems relating to illegibility. Documentation is not only legible, but immediately accessible to multiple users at the same time.” – Susan Goran