TECHNOLOGY AT THE BEDSIDE Health Information Technology (HIT) has made a huge impact on the medical community. The introduction of electronic health records (EHR) has led to significant advancements in the delivery of safer patient care across the globe. The use of EHRs has brought great benefits to both the medical professional as well as the patient by improving safety and quality of care. In an effort to reduce medication errors, HIT has enabled the medical community to use computerized physician (or provider/prescriber) order entry (CPOE), barcode medication administration (BCMA), e-prescribing, automated drug dispensing systems, smart IV pumps and computerized documentation at the bedside. This technology has led to great advancements in evidence based practice as well as life-saving protocols by reducing medical errors (Hebda & Czar, 2013). …show more content…
According to the article “Technology at the bedside: How connected are you?”, only 84% of the organizations surveyed have nursing system integrations that are supported by IT. In fact, only 49.9% of those organizations have bedside electronic medical charting. Sadly, a mere 20% of nursing leaders in this study have received academic training on clinical information in technology (Hader, 2013). Consequently, they are not as equipped to integrate into the system of EHR or to provide support to their employees. I have worked with a lot of “seasoned” nurses who have experienced great difficulty adjusting to electronic charting. This has caused many great hardships and has even lead to some nurses quitting because they were not technologically