Transforming Healthcare: The Rise of Electronic Health Records

In this day and age where technology seems to be moving faster than the human mind at times, there is a constant need to keep up with the ever-changing technology innovations and just technology in general. We live in a world where we rely on technology to do a lot of things that makes our lives so much easier to get through. Over the past 20 years digital records have been an invaluable tool for doing research and managing massive amounts of data. Banks and airline companies have managed to completely go electronic and now healthcare institutions are moving in the same direction with Electronic Health record (EHR) systems. In healthcare, EHR systems have transformed a predominantly paper-based industry to one that utilizes technology on many

Each has had some effect on the way nurses take care of patients. The transition from paper charting to documenting in an EHR can be a very difficult process if adequate training and support is not set up from the very initial stages of implementation process. It has been noted at Harlem Hospital that there is not an adequate training program setup to prepare nurses for usage of the EHR system. Harlem Hospital is currently transitioning to a new EHR system that will bring interoperability to the entire hospital network. However, currently there are no training programs or nurse leadership support systems set up to help nurses during the implementation process of learning the EHR. Therefore this paper will evaluate the adaptation of adequate training programs and nurse leadership support to help transition nurses on to the new system and positively impact nursing

Once a nurse is finish with general orientation he or she is put in a class for about 30 minutes on how to use the EHR system. When there are system upgrades, there is no one to inform staff about the new changes. There is a “learn on your own” mentality in the hospital. There are no EHR team leaders or EHR super users to guide staff in certain areas on how to specifically use the computer for their day-to-day activities in their unit. Nurse leaders are involved in implementation process at the very end, when they should be involved from the very beginning. They should actually be at the fore front of the implementation process. There has been a lack of support, lack of solid training and lack of good teachers noted. As a nurse you are expected to learn as you work or go to your unit to learn. With sometimes high patient volume and lack of support, this leaves a nurse confused and unprepared to start working in their unit. The basic skills that should have been given during a thorough orientation has been left out which can lead to nurses getting frustrated, making mistakes on documentation or even forgetting to document certain things. After prolonged stress this could possibly lead to nursing fatigue and