Nurses and Consumers: Allies in eHealth

By Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, University of Virginia Health System 

Nurses and consumers, alike, know a partnership between patients and health care providers is key to achieving patient-centered care. Technology is bringing patients and care givers together. The use of electronic health records and emerging technologies are transforming care in the home, community, and hospital, while empowering consumers to be more involved in their own health care.

As consumers manage more of their health, electronic tools, or “eHealth resources,” typically available through the internet, empower them to access health information, communicate with health care providers, make health care decisions, and engage in chronic disease management. Nurses can help consumers navigate the ever expanding world of electronic health. Nurses link data and information with people—consumers, families, and other care givers.  They help patients access information and educational materials, and serve as a resource for patients attempting changes in health behaviors such as smoking cessation or diet management. Nurses also serve as a point of contact for disease management monitoring by recording data, troubleshooting devices, sending reminders, and talking through questions and concerns. 

As you know, nurses are everywhere, but sometimes the helping technologies and information are not. With a small percentage of providers actually using electronic records, nurses are often the lynchpin integrating paper and electronic data, orders, and documentation. Nurses know this is not an ideal system and are excited about the prospect of all care providers using an electronic record to improve care and outcomes.  Much of the recent chatter about electronic health records has been focused on physicians. Are they ready and willing to adopt a paperless “chart” that requires entering orders for prescriptions and treatments into an electronic system? Can the developers create systems that are so easy to use and helpful that providers will lead the charge for adoption? In the past, nurses and others stepped in to collect and enter data including orders into electronic systems. Nurses want to do their fair share of documentation and processing of electronic work, but today’s enterprise electronic health records are designed for all providers to do their part.

A recent news report highlighted the successes of implementing electronic health records at Banner Estrella Medical Center, an “all digital” hospital in Arizona. All the gains benefit patients such as reduced adverse drug events, reduced nursing staff turnover, reduced length of stay, reduced pharmacy costs, and overall attainment of strategic goals for safety, and quality. While the rest of the nation catches up, nurses are bridging the gaps.

Technology is an enabler, and like the technology itself, nurses are enablers. Nurses are great partners to recognize and advance changes in workflow and lead clinician engagement to improve and use electronic systems. Informatics nurses, clinical nurses, as well as nurse managers, are contributing to the selection, preparation, implementation, and constant modification of information systems that will improve quality by making care safer and more efficient.

Editor's Note: Pam Cipriano is also Editor-in-Chief of American Nurse Today.