Change can be good.

January 05, 2025

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We have just entered a new year, the year of 2025. My year of 2024 was quite full of events, effort, activities, and more from start to finish. So full, that I did not quite catch my breath until the last day of the year. Even on the first day of the new year, I felt the need to slow down instead of speed up. Last year, I came out of the gate ready to go. I am not reading too much into this shift at this point. However, it is an indication of change. Change can be good.

                  Change can be good. However, change is often perceived as something to approach with trepidation and/or resistance depending upon where you fall in Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Adopter category for the particular change (e.g., innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority, laggard).

                  I teach this in my academic role and see it in practice every day. When introducing a new idea or product to someone, there will be a reaction. The reaction will provide insight as to where that person or group falls on the adopter curve. That insight is crucial to understand the readiness of that person or group for change.

                  I will give you an example from my own experience thus far this year. Every January, I have my eyes examined to order my annual supply of contact lenses. I have worn glasses since I was in middle school. I had trouble reading the board in the classroom. As time went on, I was able to get contact lenses in college. Since that time, I have worn them nearly every day for some years now. 🙂

                  Two years ago, I was introduced to multifocal lenses. I spend a lot of time in front of my computer but need the prescription primarily for distance vision. The optometrist thought that I would like them. She sent me home with them to try out. I did not like them.

I did not like this change. I felt as though my eyes were looking all over the place and it was hard to focus with these new lenses. I called the office and asked them to fill the prescription from the lenses I had been wearing for years.  

                  I resisted the change because I did not need it. I was ok with how it was, and they worked for me.

                  However, this year, two years later, I shared that I was finding the ability to see tiny print (think of the print on an acetaminophen bottle 🙂 ) from the contact lenses quite difficult. I would fluctuate between my contact lenses, glasses, and readers and found it quite annoying to go back and forth throughout the day. I thought perhaps my vision had dramatically changed in the last six months.

                  As it turns out, my prescription remained the same but this time, she introduced the multifocal lenses again. Immediately, I felt the difference. I lit up and she even noticed my excitement and happiness.  I could see the tiny print and the distance with these lenses without difficulty. Those readers are now collecting dust, and I am absolutely ok with that for the time being!

                  She sent me home with a few trial lenses to confirm that I like them before committing to a year supply. I have been wearing them for the last two days and excited for this change. I did not expect this positive change from that visit. Change can be good.

                  Change can be good, but we need to give it a chance. We also need to feel that need for change to increase the likelihood of adoption. If the need for change is not yet there, it may just be too early for that person or group. Give it time and try again.

                  Cheers to a new year. May you find good change in 2025.

5 Reasons Why Nurses Need Apps

March 04, 2016    |   , , , , , ,

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“Why do Nurses Need Apps?“

Last week someone asked me, ‘Why do nurses need apps?’ His question made me realize that the need for nurses to have apps to do their day-to-day work taking care of patients may not be obvious to the general public. I often tell nurses that it is our responsibility to inform others of our role and responsibilities, impact on patient care and overall value we bring to the health care industry. We are the subject matter experts and the champions for our profession. So, in the spirit of the message I often send to other nurses, I’d like to offer 5 reasons why nurses need apps to help support their delivery of high quality patient care.

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The problem is big enough that it deserves a solution.

March 03, 2016    |   , , , , , ,

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“How did you know that your idea was good enough to start a business?”

 

I was asked this question in reference to my idea to create Know My Patient TM and then a business around it, Nightingale Apps LLC. It was a question I hadn’t been asked before. My response at that time was that I never questioned it, rather I just knew it was good enough.

 

For those who are not familiar, I created Know My Patient TM, Nightingale Apps’ patent-pending mobile workflow nursing solution, in an effort to address the daily challenges faced by nurses each day to access, enter and use information for the purpose of providing their patients with the best care.

Know My Patient

 

In a world where we, as consumers, rely on our phones to support our own personal information needs, answer our own questions, and allow for quick entry of information to communicate with others, we must bring that to our nurses. After all, our nurses are saving lives each day. Their focal point is the patient and whatever the patient needs, where he/she needs it.

 

When I came up with this idea several years ago, I could not accept that nurses would continue to rely on workaround solutions with scraps of paper, be bogged down with moving heavy ‘mobile’ carts (as their mobile solution), stay late (most if not all shifts) to catch up on charting, and feel as though they have turned into ‘glorified data entry specialists’. If we continue to make it challenging for nurses to do their work, we will likely end up driving nurses away from the profession. The statistics show we cannot afford to do that and take care of the population.

 

There are over 3 million nurses in the United States. Nurses become nurses to provide care to patients. Nurses do not go through nursing school, to become nurses,  and subsequently struggle with finding and entering information into electronic charting systems, often referred to as Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Nurses currently struggle to have the information they need about their patients at their fingertips. Yes, EHRs are the way to go in the sense that we need electronic record of information in order to apply more advanced algorithms and analytical reports on the data to improve population health outcomes. I do support the need for EHRs and even wrote a textbook for nurses and health care professionals about EHRs () to drive quality patient care.

Electronic Health Records for Quality Nursing and Health Care

I have worked in this field of informatics for the last 12 years and enjoy the work but I see how hard it is on nurses providing direct care and it takes a toll on their experience and overall job satisfaction. Thus we need a solution that interacts with the EHR. The solution is to provide nurses with tools that support how they work that improve their ability to be efficient. We’ve created that solution with Know My Patient TM and it has been met with remarkable praise from nurses.

 

So, what I didn’t say to that person who asked me the question: How did you know that your idea was good enough to start a business?” was that the problem is big enough that it deserves a solution. Additionally, the solution should be developed in such a way that addresses the needs of nurses to alleviate the challenges faced each day (look for my next blog post: 5 reasons why nurses need apps for more specific information).

“You are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?”

November 30, 2015    |   , , , , , , ,

“You are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?”

I said these words a few weeks ago during a doctor’s visit. When it was my turn to be seen, I was brought back to a very small room and the nurse said, “I need to take your vitals”. She sat me down and started with my blood pressure. I turned my head to my left to look at what she was doing and that was when I saw it:

the yellow post-it note.

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I reacted with: “Oh my, you are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?” The nurse responded, “ Well yes, I have to put them (e.g., my vital signs) in the computer.”

 

My mind started to race… ‘My vital patient information that can potentially be used over time, to assess my physical health status while under the care of this practice, is being written down on a post-it note.‘

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Nurses need to be cared for too.

November 01, 2015    |   , , , , , ,

I envision a day in the near future where we can support nurses with tools that allow them to spend more time with their patients and less time searching for information needed to provide safe, efficient care.

Nurses struggle to efficiently answer basic questions about their patients, often not just for themselves but also for the patient’s families and the larger health care team.

What basic questions you might ask? Below is a list of a small subset of the many questions nurses get asked each day while providing patient care:

  • Have my (the patient’s) labs/exams/test results come back yet?
  • When is the patient due for meds?
  • Does the patient have any allergies?
  • When can I (the patient) go home?

In each of the above questions, nurses need to provide an answer. How do they find that answer? Well, maybe they know from their memory, but if not, nurses have this trusted tool in their pocket: a piece of paper. 

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It is all about the process.

May 06, 2015    |   , , , , ,

I am a nurse, an informaticist, and at times, I am also a patient. Last summer, I made an appointment for a vision exam. I was getting into my car to drive to the office when I noticed I had a voice mail. The voice mail was from the office letting someone else know that her glasses were in and she could come pick them up. I thought, ‘well that is strange, I’ll have to let them know when I get there that they called the wrong number’. What I should have done was call right back. Had I called back, I would have found out that my appointment needed to be rescheduled due to a malfunction with the equipment that day. (Instead, I drove to the office and found out in person). Although, had I called when I got the voicemail, I wouldn’t have identified the informatics challenge I saw upon arrival to the office. Read more