This paper will seek to show how a manager can employ Roger’s principles of relative advantage, compatibility, simplicity, triability and observable results to overcome resistance in nursing community. Further the paper will also look at the important roles nurses can play in the implementation of EHR while at the same time evaluating the negative outcomes of not involving nurses in the software creation process.
Body
How I would approach the meeting
As a nursing facilitator who is tasked with ensuring that there is implementation of HIT systems within the hospital, I would approach the meeting using Roger’s five tools to show how the implementation of EHR systems would result to increased efficiency within the areas they serve and the relative advantage these systems would offer like helping them save time and serve a greater number of patients. Further, I would also outline some the features of the software systems which are compatible with the existing innovations and practices (Kaminski, 2016).
Further, I would also seek to find out some of the qualms and doubts which some of the nurses have towards the innovation and seek to find out how I can resolve the resistance offered by members of the nursing body by illustrating observable results in major health institutions where the software has been used and how it has made the whole nursing body to be effective and effective. Further, through training, I would seek to show the simplicity of using the system by outlining how these systems are simple to use and adopting the simplest language in training which would create familiarity among members of the nursing community.
In addition, I would seek to show the triability by allowing the nurses to play around with the technology, offer their suggestions and feedback and illustrate ways in which the software can be further enhanced to make it user friendly and simple to use (Kaminski, 2016).
Role of nurses as change agents
Nurses therefore play a very important role in the implementation of HIT in health institutions. This is because by having a positive attitude towards the implementation of EHR and providing positive feedback to software manufacturers. Nurses can help enhance the software produced by these companies making them compatible with most present practices. Further, by adopting these systems, nurses will be able to create efficient and effective systems in healthcare which would lead to most of them handling a large number of patients and this will help reduce the overhead costs and operating expenses translating to reduced costs for most patients. Nurses therefore hold a very important role in the implementation of technology in healthcare systems. This is because their feedback will lead to better systems which will lead to increased efficiency and reduction in medical costs (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015).
Further by adopting these technologies, most members of the nursing community will be able to share information quickly while at the same time enable physicians to make proper diagnosis by providing them with an accurate medical history of most patients.
Negative consequences of not including nurses in the SLDC process
As per the six major steps of the SLDC process, not involving nurses in these steps would create disastrous consequences since most nurses will not be versatile with the new software’s created and they will have resistance in adopting the system since their feedback was not incorporated (McMurtrey, 2013). The negative consequences and role nurses should play at the various stages are outlined below;
Requirement gathering and analysis
Thus in the requirements gathering and analysis phase, failure to involve the nurses would lead to a creation of a model which has several shortcomings and which is not user friendly to most nurses. Further most of the products specifications will be below par or be too complex for the nurses to understand thus creating a lot of difficulties once the product has been delivered. To remedy this nurses nee to give the requirements needed in the creation of HIT systems (Mooney & Boyle2011).
Design
Not including nurses in the design phase would also lead to a system gap in which the software produced does not match the hardware resources the nurses are accustomed to using in the health institutions. This would therefore result to a lot of hours being expended in training the nurses as new hardware capabilities would have to be bought to match the new software needs. This problem can be mitigated by involving nurses in the design process and suing the evolutionary model to ensure that the nurses are familiar with the software being developed matches the hardware capabilities the nurses are accustomed to (Murphy, 2011).
Implementation
Failures of involving nurses in this stage leads to the creation of a product which doesn’t meet the end user needs. This is because the implementation phase is always the longest and presents a lot of challenges. Therefore, nurses should actively play a role in the implementation phase to ensure that the end product meets their needs and is compatible with the existing hardware and health practices (Mooney & Boyle2011)
Testing
In addition, the major consequences of not involving nurses in the Testing phase is that the product may have a lot of bugs and errs which makes it incompatible with the existing hardware and very complex to use. By involving nurses, software creators will therefore be able to create an acceptable level testing in which the number of bugs within the system are within the acceptable range. Further, co-operation will ensure that testing conforms to the acceptable standards ensuring that the product is not obsolete (Murphy, 2011).
Deployment
Not involving nurses in this stage will lead to the product being met with a lot of resistance in the nursing community. Therefore, to create a smooth transition which will allow for better relations and co-operation, nurses should be included in this stage and especially on Beta Testing to ensure that they can relay any doubts or errors reported within the system to the engineering team (Mooney & Boyle2011).
Maintenance
By not involving nurses in these process, major issues will arise like frosty relationships between nurses and the software manufactures. Further, the alienation might lead to nurses claiming that the software is not simple to use or compatible with any present systems. To solve this problem, there should be collaborative efforts from the manufactures to ensure that nurses learn the maintenance features which will enhance the triability of the selected software (McMurtrey, 2013).
Conclusion
In as much as EHR systems are important in healthcare since they lead to increased efficiency and reduced healthcare costs. The integration of technology in healthcare should be done in the right approach to ensure that there is no resistance from the nursing body and facilitate greater co-operation among members of the nursing community as analysed above.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Chapter 15, “The Electronic Health Record and Clinical Informatics”
Mooney, B. L., & Boyle, A. M. (2011). 10 steps to successful EHR implementation. Medical Economics, 88(9), S4–6, S8–S11.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Murphy, J. (2011). Leading from the future: Leadership makes a difference during electronic health record implementation. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 28(1), 25–30.
Kaminski, J. (2016). Diffusion of Innovation Theory | Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics. Cjni.net. Retrieved 8 October 2016, from http://cjni.net/journal/?p=1444
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
McMurtrey, M. (2013). A Case Study of the Application of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in 21st Century Health Care: Something Old, Something New?. Journal Of The Southern Association For Information Systems, 1(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/jsais.11880084.0001.103
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