The post-it says, ‘I LOVE teaching myself something new. New things learned- manipulating the snapboard to add new rooms and where patient education is at.’
I’ve been involved in the electronic health record since its inception at our hospital system. I a SME, or subject matter expert and I had input into parts of the build. I have been a Superuser for the surgeons since, able to answer their questions. I have been a Superuser for the staff since, able to help them optimize the program for their use.
I have been learning all the time. Especially when updates for the build comes out quarterly. I’m on the committee that reviews new parts of the build and I have input here as well. This group meets twice a month. This information learned here is taken to my department, and shared in the other committees that I am on.
Benjamin Franklin said it best “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Being involved definitely increase my learning. And when I teach others, I don’t do it for them, I explain the process, and have them perform the function under supervision.
The things that I learned that week that energized me? There are two new rooms for the OR; an operating room and a procedure room. The snapboard is a visual representation of the schedule for the OR. When we started there was 4 rooms on the snapboard. This is not the OR at a glance like I required for being evening charge. I added the c-section suite, and endoscopy rooms and this enabled me to keep track of where the CRNA may be. This also helped with creating addons. There is nothing more embarrassing then accepting an add on and, when the snapboard is opened, it is apparent that there is an endo or a section at the very time that you gave the surgeon and you have to call the surgeon back and tell them another time.
My snapboard currently has 6 ORs, 4 ENDOs, 2 C-section suites, and 4 ASC rooms. The two rooms that needed to be added are smack in the middle of all the rooms. Before I would have to reverse add the rooms, starting at the bottom of the now 17 room list. This was obnoxious. This time I decided to try something new. I highlighted OR 6 and clicked the add button on the right. Before the new room would be added at the end of all of the room. Because I told the program that I wanted the room added after OR 6, it added a blank room after OR 6. I added another room as well as there are 2 new rooms. And then I named them OR 7 and Procedure Room 8. And it worked. After I went to all the other nurses in the department and helped them add OR 7 and Procedure Room 8.
Is this new information? Maybe. Did it help me and all the nurses I helped add. Absolutely.
And to cap it off, I explored the pre-op tab while I was functioning as the 2nd PACU nurse. The OR has been missing a metric around pre-op patient education about foley catheter insertion. The nurse who runs our reports and I have been looking for an answer. This is the obnoxious part of the electronic health record; you must have the exact place to document an intervention. And I found it. Now to teach all the other nurses.
Because if you are not learning, you are dying. This is a paraphrase of a a quote by Robert T. Kiyosaki in which he said “The moment you stop learning, you’re dying.”
I completely agree. This is how we are different from automatons. We have to keep learning to live.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 