Nursing Documentation Software Skill Gaps
For nurses across the country, documenting patient care is a significant portion of their daily routine. Communicating clinical notes effectively, developing care plans and creating patient discharge instructions all help ensure that facilities are performing quality procedures. Regardless of whether procedures are recorded in paper charts, within an EHR or in nursing documentation software, completing accurate procedure notes is crucial to patient well-being.
According to the Advisory Board, there’s a nursing shortage in America.
The gap is due to the amount of both burned out and retired nurses, and new nurses who have minimal training in their nursing documentation software. As experienced nurses retire and complex cases rise, an “experience-complexity gap” emerges.
Novice nurses lack training with more intricate surgeries. Many don’t have the support to quickly take the place of their retired counterparts. With little aid, nurses get burned out. An Advisory Board researcher concluded that, “the increase in the number of new nurses, along with the annual retirement of thousands of experienced nurses, has led to a far more inexperienced nursing workforce.”
The bottom line: Nurses need help with their nursing documentation software to succeed.
The key to avoiding many problems with nurse burnout is employing an effective nursing documentation software. Facilities also need to arm nurses with proper training.
“It’s crucial to have a documentation solution that is easy to use and teach to new nurses,” said Kathie Holloway, MSN/Ed, RN, CGRN. “So often sites require nurses to use paper charting or document patient care in clunky EHR systems they find difficult to use. When a solution directly aligns with a nurse’s workflow, it makes a significant difference.”
Inaccurate documentation may lead to poor patient satisfaction.
Comprehensive nursing documentation software should lie at the top of the priority list for all hospitals and ASCs. Unfortunately, under-trained nurses pose a threat to patient health. “Forty percent of new-graduate nurses report making medication errors. Half report missing signs of life-threatening conditions,” reports the Advisory Board. Intuitive solutions can’t stop nurses from taking well-deserved retirement. Yet, they can help new nurses ensure accuracy when using a nursing documentation software to complete nursing notes.
It’s important for sites to conduct due diligence when choosing a software that nurses use regularly. When nurse satisfaction and patient care are on the line, you want to choose the very best.
For more information on end-to-end nursing documentation software, discover Provation® MultiCaregiver.