Great success!

by Jon Shaffer on August 12, 2008

After about a full day of struggling with the code, I was finally able to install the medical records software on one of the computers at the Center. Now begins the real work of inputing all of the data that the Center has collected about its patients on paper records into the system and then, the difficult task of training the nurses how to use the relevant features of the software in such a way that they see the utility of actually using it on a daily basis. I think that one of the worst things that could happen would be for me to install this software, get all of the current patient data inputed and working well, and then have it sit completely unused as soon as I left.

I think that making a case for the everyday usefulness of the software will be as important as teaching the nurses how to use the software. One idea that I've had is to have a day-long training session for each nurse on the software. The training day could include first, a brief overview of the software and why it will be useful to the nurses in their everyday lives. Then, I was thinking, I could devise a series of "drills" with the main goal of gaining some repetition on some of the most common maneuvers that the nurses will need to make daily such as logging in, checking their schedule, pulling up patient data, editing patient data, and logging out. After the nurses seem relatively proficient with those tasks, I was thinking that they could go through a couple of "role plays" with me being a new patient with the typical symptoms seen at the clinic and they could go through the complete process of adding a new patient to the system, as well as adding clinical symptoms, age, weight, BP, etc.

Onces the nurses are all trained on the software, we will pick a date to roll out its use. Hopefully, I'll be able to train all of the nurses and still have a little bit of time left to monitor the use of the software for about a week before I leave. In addition, Colleen Fant (who I will have to train as well) will be here for about 9 months, so she can be involved in the monitoring/follow-up effort as well.

So, the major parts of the training program are:

Overview of software, main menu page, and why the software will be useful to the nurses and make their work easier.
Series of drills on common maneuvers within the software
Role playing in which nurses will go through the entire processes as they would happen on a normal day at the HOPE Center.
Follow-up

Does that plan sound good? What am I missing, and what else do you think I need to do to make sure that using the software becomes part of the daily routine at the Center? I'd love input.