I started my medical career as a Care Attendant, then a Licensed Practical Nurse, and finally a Registered Nurse. Over this time I have worked in two different states and seen many changes in the continuing evolution of the nursing profession.
The most recent changes have been primarily within the way we record our care. Over the past few years electronic charting has overtaken more and more aspects of our daily routines, not only do we record each patients vital signs within the electronic record, we record whatever they eat and drink, each use of the ladies and gentleman’s room, and most stressful for nurses, the exact times we medicate. We are given an hour, half our prior and half hour after the scheduled time of a medication to administer it. That doesn’t sound hard to do, but when staffing is short a nurse or a nurse assistant, more is expected to be done by each nurse on the floor. It is not always possible to adhere to this tight timeline, and all the time in the back of your mind you know that each day a printout is generated and sent to each nurse manager showing who was late with their medications, and each floor is sent a monthly record that is hung in the medication room showing each floor within the hospital and the percentage of times medications are administered on time, and when they are late.
We find that our computers on wheels are never more than a fingertip away, and the information that we put within the electronic record is growing with each passing day. It is an electronic strangle hold that has the floor nurse’s attention rather than the patient having the attention.
Healthcare Informatics Resources 