Module 2- How I can be involved with information systems

In this past year we have been trained on new IV pumps, pharmacy scanners, new upgrades in Meditech and this week although not an EHR a milk warming machine. A big focus for our manager has been allowing nurses to have a say, so there are many opportunities to give feedback. I thought it was interesting that the largest part of the budget required for implementing EHR is the staff training. For the new update on our computer charting system in Meditech we were trained through a PowerPoint we were assigned in our Healthstream and expected to complete on our own time by a certain deadline. I think that is a cost effective way for training. I don't think this would work well for a brand new system training though. Another opportunity for feedback has been with plans for the new NICU that is to be started in February. There are plans to implement the computer system used throughout the rest of the hospital in the NICU setting. I hope to have feedback on this system before it is implemented. We currently use two systems depending on the purpose for charting. The system works well for now, but if charting were changed completely electronic there would be some overlap, which would be unnecessary.