Nursing Informatics module 1.1

I currently work at the University of Utah Hospital, as an RN. I work on 6 North, which is an orthopedic med-surg unit. In the two years that I have worked there, I have noticed dramatic changes in the informatics of the floor and hospital. When I started my job, I was surprised to learn that our charting was done on paper. However, as of June first of this year, we have moved on to electronic charting called Powerchart. This change has had a huge effect on the health care on my floor. Some of the benefits are that health care workers (nurses, health care assistants, APRNs, physicians, and others) are able to view various aspects of any patient's care summary from any computer in the hospital, instead of having to hunt down the patient's chart. This includes nurses notes, vital signs, medications given, etc. Also, for us night nurses, chart checks have been made easier. A drawback of the new system is that for nurses and aides who are accustomed to paper charting, the computerized charting takes a lot longer, and we are still learning how to chart certain things. Also, it seems that there are some glitches still to be worked out (sometimes the computers do not allow us to chart what we need to). In the near future, we have been told that the physicians and APRNs will "go live" and that they will write their orders electronically. This will hopefully help reduce transcription errors and will help ensure that their orders will be carried out. Also, they will be writing progress notes electronically, which will be a relief to a lot of people who have trouble reading doctors' handwriting!