In recent years there has been a consistent push for medical service providers to adopt the use of Health IT systems to increase the quality and consistency of care. For example, as technology changes, so does the process that is used to maintain medical records. The use of electronic health records has, however, significantly changed the workflow for nurses, who are on the front lines of the changes being made.
The decision to move to electronic medical records (EMR) has been one of great contention in the medical community, creating division among leadership and decision making (Walsh, 2013). However , as the medical infrastructure has accepted the use of the record keeping technology, nurses, and staff as a whole have been called upon to get onboard, strengthen communication between responsible parties, and understand one another’s needs within the implementation of the system. Of this process Wash (2013) says, “For physicians to truly collaborate with nursing, the nurses now cared about the physician struggle. It’s a two way street” That is to say that both are equally invested in learning to use the system, and using it well, including making meaningful changes in the way that it is used to increase efficacy within the system, and improve patient care, and work satisfaction for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, there are still some major flaws in the EMR system which must be addressed. The inability to access specific functions have called for work arounds, that include using the passcodes of other members of the nursing staff to print labels, access meds, or otherwise access the tools needed for patient care (Seaman & Erlen, 2015). This in turn, creates errors in the electronic record keeping, which disintegrate the level of responsibility that can be placed on an individual nurse of the quality of a patients care. These are the kinds of issues that EMR systems must be updated to eliminate, in order for the record keeping to be accurate, while still allowing nurses to provide a high level of patient care.
References:
Seaman, J. B., & Erlen, J. A. (2015). Workarounds in the Workplace. Orthopedic Nursing, 34(4), 235-240. doi:10.1097/nor.0000000000000161
Walsh, B. (2013). HIMSS: Nursing’s critical role in HER success. Clinical Innovation + Technology
