As mobile technology becomes more common in health care, some nurses are carrying around multiple devices – and wondering how juggling (and, in some cases, fumbling) all these gadgets is supposed to help improve patient care and communications, according to Gregg Malkary, managing director of Spyglass Consulting Group, Menlo Park, Calif.
As a matter of fact, a variety of problems are making it difficult for nurses to fully tap into the power of mobile technologies – and ultimately improve patient care at the bedside, according to Point of Care Communications for Nursing, a study based on in-depth interviews with more than 100 nurses.
For example, 71 percent of nurses interviewed indicated that their wireless networks are poorly designed resulting in coverage gaps, wireless interference and overloaded access points – all of which make it difficult to document patient care at the bedside. The study also pointed out that some nurses find VoIP communications to be disruptive at the point of care as they sometimes have to deal with a phone call while trying to attend to patient needs.
Although the study calls out some common shortcomings, Malkary likes to put a positive spin on things, saying that the results provide an “accurate snapshot of where we are” and perhaps more importantly highlight the “opportunities for mobile health success” moving forward.
According to Malkary, to more successfully implement point of care mobile communications, hospital CIOs and other managers need to:
- Turn to nurses to get a better handle on workflow needs. “A lot of times, information technology staff pick the technologies and they don’t really understand nursing. Nurses need to be more involved and work side by side with information technology in the selection and implementation process,” Malkary says.
- Adopt a holistic point of view. Leaders need to look at how technology is being applied across the organization – and make it a priority to go beyond one-off departmental initiatives and look toward implementing technologies across the entire organization.
- Abolish the nursing station. The nursing station is a commonly accepted part of the hospital landscape. To truly accept mobile technologies, however, administrators and nurses alike need to start thinking of working sans the ubiquitous gathering point. “Everything is centered around the nursing station. We need to start to think of how we can work without the nursing station. We need to push supplies close to the patient bedside and push computers close to the patient bedside. We need to get rid of all the reasons that nurses now have to migrate back to the nursing stations,” Malkary says.
For more information on the study, go to: http://www.spyglass-consulting.com/press_release.
John McCormack participates in HealthcareGoesMobile.com as a community correspondent through Intel's paid sponsorship with SourceMedia.
Comments
The nursing station
Interesting. The social support and mentoring aspects of a nursing station never really crossed my mind. But, it makes sense -- as anyone who has been in a hospital knows that the nursing station is the hub of a lot of activity. As part of the change over to mobile environments, though, could hosptial leaders create other opportunities for social support and mentoring? Would it be possible to create another gathering place? It would also be interesting to explore how mobile technologies, themselves, could support electronic social support and mentoring.
Abolish the nursing station....let's think about this
As a registered nurse for over 30 years - I have to disagree with the concept of abolishing the nurses’ station without research into both the social support systems for the nursing staff as well as mentoring practices/locations.
A few years ago, while I was teaching in an associate degree nursing program, I went back to works as a per diem clinical nurse on a medical surgical unit. What truly struck me as the most difficult was the isolation from my peers due to the way the unit was laid-out. I did all my work in my little part of the hallway and the only time I saw my peers was to get medications or supplies. It was a very lonely way to work. That personal insight made me think about new nurses--how are their mentoring needs met after their preceptorship? And given that most nurses I have known over my years of practice are social creatures, how has this distributed work arrangement impacted their work satisfaction and could it be a contributing factor to the reason why many nurses leave the bedside after 5-7 years of practice?
The nursing station has traditionally been an area where novice nurses could be mentored by their colleagues, a place where our emotional batteries could be recharged by interactions with our peers. These psychosocial needs of the staff must be taken into consideration when thinking about unit redesign. Designing a truly mobile ecosystem that allows nurses to decide where to work is key.
Cheryl D. Parker, RN, MSN, PhD
Senior Clinical Informatics Specialist - Motion Computing
Adjunct Faculty - Walden University MSN-Nursing Informatics Program
Cheryl D. Parker, RN, MSN, PhD
Senior Informatics Specialist - Motion Computing
TOTALLY agree!
Caregivers need to be involved in both trial and selection. They are the ones using the technology.
I also agree with the abolishing of the nursing station. Decentralized nursing is outdated and is problematic at best. Keeping supplies, medications, computers close to the patient is what we do. Whether its a tablet, laptop or full PC, we build solutions around the needs of the caregiver and patient. See all our point of care products here.
Great article John!
Dan Laninga
Cygnus Workstations