It's no secret that technology has changed the way we live, work, and play. In recent years, there's been a surge in the development of new gadgets and apps that aim to make our lives easier and more efficient. While there's no question that these technological advances have had a positive impact on many aspects of our lives, some experts are now wondering if there's such a thing as too much technology. Caregivers that work at the bedside are becoming acutely aware that the deployment of more technology may not be a good thing. Especially when viewed in the light of how it affects the patient-caregiver interactions and the barriers it creates to those interactions. Are we approaching a tipping point where these technological barriers if left unchecked will continue to take us down the path of dehumanizing the experience of bedside healthcare?

The Impact of Technology on Healthcare

Technology has had a major impact on the healthcare industry in recent years. From new developments in treatments to more efficient ways of managing patient data, technology has revolutionized the way that healthcare is delivered. This technological revolution in healthcare is what allowed me to start my gig-based staffing company CarePRN. Our technology platform allows us to easily meet the daily staffing demands of our healthcare partners. One of the biggest ways that technology has changed healthcare is in the area of treatments and therapies. Thanks to advances in medical science, there are now more effective treatments available for a wide range of conditions. In many cases, these new treatments wouldn't be possible without the use of technology. Technology has also greatly improved patient safety and allowed for higher levels of patient monitoring as well. Allowing medical providers to intervene earlier and prevent poor health outcomes. While there have been many benefits as a result of the technological revolution in healthcare that we are witnessing today. Some experts, as well as myself based on my clinical experience, are now wondering if there is such a thing as too much technology in healthcare. Is this direction we want to continue when it comes to delivering patient care at the bedside, or do we need to start to re-think our approach?

Is technology creating a barrier between the patient and their caregivers?

According to almost any nurse or nurse's aide you ask, you'll probably hear the same thing: that acute care is stressful. The growing use of technology in healthcare appears to be adding to that stress by creating barriers between the patient and caregiver. With so much emphasis placed on the use of technology, some caregivers are losing the personal touch that is so important in providing quality care. While there is no question that technology has had a positive impact on healthcare, it is important to consider the potential downside of placing too much emphasis on technology. In some cases, the use of technology can create a barrier between the patient and caregiver, which can ultimately lead to poorer quality care. One of the most ubiquitous technologies in all of healthcare is the Electronic Health Record. As EHRs have been rolled out to almost every major healthcare system in America at this point. Caregivers who work at the bedside are just beginning to come to terms with the additional responsibility and hurdles that EHRs create when they're used. EHRs promised to streamline documentation and make it more detailed and efficient. However, many bedside caregivers are dealing with the opposite of that and grappling with the increase in documentation burden EHRs have created.

The Impact of Technology on Healthcare Documentation

One of the most significant ways that technology has changed healthcare is in the area of documentation. In the past, most healthcare documentation was paper-based, which appeared to be time-consuming and inefficient. However, with the advent of electronic health records (EHRs), documentation has become much more robust and greatly improved the safety of medication administration by decreasing medication errors. While EHRs have many benefits, they also come with some challenges. One of the biggest challenges is the documentation burden that they can create. Because EHRs are so comprehensive, they can require a lot of time and effort to maintain. Some studies have suggested that bedside staff can spend between 25%-45% of their time during a shift imputing data or documenting their care. Turning the modern bedside caregivers into data input clerks rather than healthcare providers. This documentation burden puts undue stress on the bedside caregiver with many in practice prioritizing EHR documentation over patient care at times. Reducing the Documentation burden would free up the time and mental space of the bedside caregiver to utilize their most valuable skill set of critical thinking to detect changes in their patient status. This early detection allows for early intervention help to prevent poor healthcare outcomes for their patients. This challenge is going away anytime soon with the documentation burden expected to increase. This increase is due to bedside caregivers having to care for more people due to staff shortages along with healthcare organizations demanding more extensive patient documentation as well. This requirement for endless documentation has many bedside caregivers asking if all their time spent in EHRs worth it. Is all this documentation contributing to their patient's healthcare in a meaningful way?

Nurses Need A Data input Scribe

Spending the past decade working with EHRs as a nurse and as a certified nursing assistant, I think bedside caregivers need a new role to help combat the documentation burden. One possible solution to this challenge is creating the role of a nurse scribe. The unit clerk which is currently a role in most acute care settings could easily be cross-trained to fill the role of the nurse scribe. The nurse scribe's main task is simply to click boxes in the EHR to input nursing assessments that would be delivered to them in a paper document. This new position will not require much-specialized training at all. Utilizing paper and electronic documentation would be a first step in reducing the caregiver-patient technology barrier and allow healthcare systems to retain all the best qualities of EHRs while simultaneously reducing the documentation burden as well. Many bedside caregivers may be hesitant at this practice at first but the data being input would require their review and for them to sign off on the data being charted for them. The nurse scribe could be a first step to finding some balance when it comes to the use of technology at the bedside.

Finding the Balance – How to Use Technology Effectively when delivering patient care at the bedside

With the ever-increasing developments in technology, it can be easy to get caught up in the hype and forget the importance of the personal touch when it comes to patient care. However, it is essential to find a balance between using technology effectively and providing the personal care and attention that patients need. One of the best ways to use technology effectively when delivering patient care is to ensure that it is integrated seamlessly into your workflow. This means that you should have a clear understanding of how each piece of technology will be used and how it will fit into your existing process. It's also important to remember that technology should be used as a tool to support your care, not replace it. There will always be a need for human interaction and compassion when delivering care, regardless of how much technology is involved. By re-imagining new roles and returning to simpler methods of documentation maybe bedside care in the future can find some balance. Finding this sweet spot could allow for accurate detailed documentation while reducing the accompanying documentation burden and alleviating the barriers technology is creating between caregivers and their patients. Creating a system like this may finally allow the bedside caregiver to be more present for their patients during their interaction. Giving the bedside caregivers time to bed present will ultimately lead to a better overall healthcare experience, and make sure we preserve the human connection when it comes to providing care at the bedside.