The BYOD Trend Brings Benefit To Patient Care
The BYOD Trend Brings Benefit To Patient Care
The BYOD Trend and Patient Care
In some industries such as security and customer service, using a smartphone at work is frowned upon and sometimes even disallowed. However, in nursing, there’s a rising pattern of nurses who rely upon smartphones and similar devices while at work and some studies show it may improve the quality of care patients receive.
Keeping Things Familiar
A few years ago, if nurses were encouraged to use technology while at work, it was the norm for hospital IT departments to provide the devices or software. Now, things have shifted towards “BYOD,” or “Bring Your Own Device.” The assumption is if nurses are permitted to use devices they already know well, the learning curve is greatly reduced, which should cut back on, or eliminate time spent figuring out a new app rather than taking part in patient care.
Strong Statistics to Support Smartphones
A company called Fierce Mobile recently conducted a survey and found 61 percent of responding hospitals mentioned how half their staff members rely upon their own mobile devices while at work. Another study from Point of Care Computing for Nursing 2012 discovered 69 percent of nurses were using personal devices while at work. Also, interestingly enough, the manner in which nurses used the devices varied greatly. For example, although about half of the nurses who used their smartphones at work did so to take care of basic tasks like checking e-mail or adding something to a calendar application, 36 percent were using smartphones to access patient data. If that pattern continues, it makes sense how smartphones could play important roles in making patient care more efficient by enabling nurses to more rapidly access crucial information about what patients need.
Memorize Less, Use Technology More
Fierce Mobile also reports that among the types of apps nurses download on their smartphones, ones related to drug references and possible interactions are very common. In an interview with the New York Times, Joann Eland, an associate professor at the University of Iowa, noted there are simply too many things to remember through brainpower alone. That’s where apps can come in handy, especially if nurses know their own smartphones so well that they can access important information about symptoms or potential reasons why patients shouldn’t be given a particular drug, all within seconds.
Fewer Errors is One Commonly Cited Benefit
The Point of Care Computing for Nursing 2012 study looked deeper into the reasons why nurses use smartphones at work, and many respondents who were polled said using their own devices allowed them to practice patient care in a safer way because it minimized communication gaps and misunderstandings, and in turn reduced the number of potentially dangerous errors. Instead of wrestling with a hospital-specific drug database, smartphone-savvy nurses could reach for their devices and receive the same information at a quicker rate of speed, because there’s no need for them to struggle through trying to use a database with which they’re not yet accustomed.
What Does the Future Hold?
There are already thousands of smartphone apps marketed to healthcare workers, and an article from CNBC predicts the market will grow by as much as 25 percent over the next five years. If the BYOD trend continues to gain momentum and app developers keep informed about what nurses need to do their jobs well, it holds true that the use of apps in the workplace should perpetually bring benefits related to the quality of patient care and nursing knowledge, among others.
Posted by
George Daniels
on Thursday October 10 2013, 10:04 AM EST.
All trademarks acknowledged.
Filed under Featured News, Technology.
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