Technology a solution for nursing shortage
By Patty Enrado, Editor
ORLANDO, Fla. — The nursing shortage has been a reality in the healthcare industry for a number of years. In response, the American Academy of Nursing Workforce Commission, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, developed the Technology Drill Down (TD2), a process that lets organizations explore work-process changes that can be technology aided to increase safety and efficiency, and reduce nursing time demands.
The study highlighted the most common workflow process inefficiencies and the current and future technology solutions that can improve medical-surgical nursing units in hospitals.
“It is critical that we use technology to assist the workforce needs for the future,” said Pamela Cipriano, chief clinical officer and chief nursing officer at the University of Virginia Medical Center. “Not only can technology help reduce the demand, but it can also enhance safety, reduce costly inefficiencies and help retain an aging workforce by reducing some of the other physical burdens of work.”
In her View from the Top session, “Technological Solutions to Workflow Inefficiencies on Medical/Surgical Units,” Monday, February 25, at 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM, Cipriano discusses the TD2 process, which has been implemented in 25 sites around the country, including large and small, urban and rural, teaching and non-teaching, and public and private hospitals.
“The analysis of the combined results provide a rich database of solutions with implications for developers and producers of technology, hospital executives who purchase technology and nurses who must be involved in design, testing and using technologies,” she said.
Cipriano stressed that technology vendors can learn what is important in a hospital’s workflow. “The Academy’s Commission will influence purchasing patterns, interoperability standards, and design and testing standards through the leveraging of this work with healthcare industry experts in IT, device and systems manufacturing, healthcare facility design and federal policy groups,” she added.
Cipriano will identify major areas of workflow that would benefit from technology improvements. She advises hospitals to involve nurses in the design, testing and assurance of efficacy of devices and IT software for better nurse adoption.
Posted by Patty Enrado on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
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(On Feb 13th, 2008 at 4:40 pm)
At HIMSS, Cipriano discusses the TD2 process, which has been implemented in 25 sites around the country, and reports on her finding for the need for new technology.
Will these results be available for those of us who are not attending the conference e.g. for purchase or will the results be published in a journal?
(On Feb 13th, 2008 at 9:28 am)
Hi psalem,
If you go to the HIMSS08.org site, I believe there is a “Digital Download” service available that enables you to get the content of the talk (for a reasonable fee, no doubt…). It may not be available until the education session is completed. If you can’t find this, let me know (jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com) and I’ll ask Patty Enrado for direct contact information for Pamela Cipriano.
Cheers!
Jack
(On Feb 13th, 2008 at 9:36 am)
Digital downloads
HIMSS is proud to bring you for the first time digital downloads of the HIMSS08 education sessions. Download an individual session, a whole track of sessions or the entire conference. Digitell, located on Level 2 in both Lobby A/B and Lobby C, will be taking orders at the conference for digital downloads of the HIMSS08 education sessions.
If you don’t have a colleague who is going and can get this, and the HIMSS08 Web site doesn’t have information on how to purchase, please do contact us,per Jack’s note.
Thanks,
Patty