Know My Voice®
Have you ever found yourself thinking ‘do I nurse the computer or nurse the patient?’ during your nursing shift? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. This phenomenon of ‘nursing the patient versus nursing the computer’ did not exist when I was a new nurse in 2000. This phenomenon emerged over the last decade as the nation has moved from a paper-based medical record system to the use of electronic health records (EHRs). However, unless you are a nurse (or health care professional) actively involved in providing direct patient care, this phenomenon may not be well known to you.
The phenomenon of nursing the patient versus nursing the computer is an internal struggle. The internal struggle is visible in the nurse’s behavior but not often verbalized by the nurse. As nurses, we are there to care for our patients. I have yet to meet a nurse who entered the profession because of their joy for charting. Instead, entering the profession often comes from the joy of caring for other people, our patients, during our shifts.
We, as nurses, know charting is part of our role and responsibilities. We learn this through nursing school courses, practicums and our preceptorship when first starting as a nurse in the health care organization. We respect the practice of charting, or documenting, on our patient. Yet, in many cases, the patient should be the priority over that of the chart. Thus, our instinct is often to care for the patient before caring for the patient’s record of information. However, there are times when this decision becomes a struggle for the nurse.
