Technology Update for Travelers

Contributors: Christina Orlovsky, Debra Woods, RN, & Suzi Birz, principal, HiQ Analytics, LLC 

July 19, 2010 - Technological solutions are becoming more and more important to help nurses work more safely, efficiently and effectively. They are also becoming more and more critical for travel nurses to master. Travelers who take the time to learn the new technologies at their assignment facilities will not only make their current jobs go more smoothly, but they will also make themselves more marketable for future work.

Here are some of the hottest technology trends that travel nurses are encountering around the country:

Smart Phones and Other Mobile Devices

"During 2010, health care applications and medical devices are going from big and stationary to small and mobile," says Patricia B. Wise, RN, MS, MA, vice president of health care information systems for the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS).

Smart phones are increasingly popular and offer a number of benefits, according to Patricia A. Abbott, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, associate professor and co-director of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for Knowledge, Information Management & Sharing, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“We can now page a nurse instead of searching high and low, and the other members of the care team can more easily communicate with one another by sending lab alerts, text messages, etc.,” said Abbott.  “Smart phones—like the iPhone—are incredibly powerful, and there are lots of health applications being developed and deployed via smart phones. They’re like an extra brain in your pocket.”

Remote Monitoring Devices 

Remote monitoring devices are becoming more and more common as a way to allow nurses to cover more patients, including those in the hospital and in their homes.

“Telehealth devices help people ‘age in place’ and help chronic disease patients to better manage their disease in their homes,” said Abbott. “These are particularly helpful in rural areas, where nurses can now reach the geographically distant patients—what a wonderful way to reach those who do not have access to services. Also, visiting nurses can make ‘home visits’ without physically going to patients’ homes, and instead of seeing five patients a day they can visit with 25 via devices that support video telephony.

But remote monitoring is not just for patients; it is also being used to monitor nurses and their hand hygiene. The nurses in the neurology intensive care unit at Shands at the University of Florida Medical Center in Gainesville have been piloting HyGreen, a product best described as a breathalyzer for the hands.

“A nurse entering a patient room will receive a mild vibration to the badge she is wearing if she has not washed her hands within two minutes,” explained Sarah Andrews, RN. “This vibration makes you aware of your practice and soon you are washing your hands even in areas not monitored by the badge.”

Automated Medication Administration

With medication error high on the list of patient-safety concerns, numerous technological advances have been made to help health care workers in the dissemination of medication. Automated medication dispensing systems are widespread; and many facilities use bar-coding technology to match patient identification with medication.

One recent development for nurses is AnywhereRN, a web-based application from Omnicell, which allows nurses to manage medication administration from any computer or workstation in a patient area, allowing them to work without interruption that may lead to medication error.

“Addressing the need for remote management of medications, Anywhere RN will help health care providers increase operational efficiencies and improve clinical outcomes for their patients,” said Randall Lipps, president, chairman and chief executive officer of Omnicell.

Identifying Patients with Biometrics 

Facilities are beginning to implement new methods of patient identification, relying on seemingly futuristic technology to address concerns of duplicate records, identity theft and patient privacy. By scanning patients’ fingerprints, palms and even the irises of their eyes, health care admissions staff are able to increase accuracy of identification without verbalizing the patient’s personal information.

One such technology, created by Fujitsu, is PalmSecure, a biometric authentication system that scans the unique vein pattern in a person’s palm for accurate identification. More unique than a fingerprint, the palm vein patterns are captured by a near-infrared light and are then matched to pre-registered patients’ data to verify identity.

Eye Controls created a similar system that uses the unique characteristics of the iris for patient recognition. The company’s SafeMatch identification system aims to improve patient safety by reducing four common causes for error: duplicate records, data filing errors, relying on the wrong record, and benefits fraud and identity theft.

Nursing Involvement in Health Informatics and EMRs

"One of the top trends for 2010 will be the involvement of nursing professionals in system analysis, design, selection, implementation and optimization of information technology," says Joyce Sensmeier, MS, RN-BC, vice president of informatics with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

According to the 2009 HIMSS Impact of the Informatics Nurse Survey, the benefit of these nursing professionals to health IT is that they have an impact on patient safety, workflow and user/clinician acceptance within their organizations.

Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert, Ariz., moved into a new, all-electronic facility a couple of years ago. Nurses trained on the software. Then leadership took about 20 percent of the nurses to the new hospital and let them practice on the new system during mock drills.

“It allowed them to get comfortable with the electronic tool, and it helped us identify any issues we had to fix before we opened,” said Sheri Dahlstrom, RN, MSN, chief nursing officer at Banner Gateway. The facility trained nurses as super users who did not have a patient load during and for about two weeks after the “go live” to help nurses navigate the system.

MCGHealth began implementing electronic medical records (EMR) eight years ago, gradually adding more functions. It invited nurses to serve on all of the implementation committees. Nurses soon asked for their documentation to go electronic earlier in the process and then convinced physicians of the benefits of computerized records.

“What made us successful is we involved bedside nurses from the very beginning,” said Melissa Popkin, RN, BSN, clinical informatics specialist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which recently implemented a customized EMR system.

Future Trends

With the coming health care reform and a number of additional requirements by the federal government, EMRs and other labor-saving technologies are expected to grow quickly.
And as technological applications advance, care environments are expected to become more pervasive ones, according to Carolyn L. Cason, Ph.D., RN, distinguished teaching professor, associate dean for research, University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing.

“Environmental and health sensors will not only provide a vast array of data but computational algorithms will be in place to alert care providers of the needs for action,” she said. “In these environments — hospitals and homes — health care providers will need quite different skills and abilities than the health care providers of today.”