St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton: Promoting eHealth Principles within Clinical Practice
Margaret Maclennan, RN
Clinical Informatics
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
Cynthia Martin, RN, B.Com
Clinical Informatics
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
After attending the RNAO eHealth Champion workshops, the Clinical Informatics Nursing Practice Council at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton met monthly to plan an eHealth promotion strategy. The plan incorporated the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) Model for Improvement (Langley, Nolan et al, 1992) to formalize a methodical approach, which addressed the limited frontline nursing staff's eHealth awareness, and understanding.
The goal was to engage frontline nurses and increase their understanding on how eHealth supports clinical practice. Our evaluation of this initiative will include measurement of the course participation rates, scores and open ended comments submitted by participants.
In February 2009, we facilitated and provided computer guidance to the RNAO Nursing and eHealth Education course for Nurse Managers and front line staff from the OR, PACU, Birthing, Day Surgery, and Endoscopy units. Response was positive and enthusiastic with an appreciation of the Certificates of Completion.
By April 2009, all frontline nurses were encouraged to take the RNAO Nursing and eHealth Education online course with a communication campaign that included RNAO pamphlet distribution, intermittent advertisements posted in the hospital newsletter, elevators, and notices sent via mass email.
Using the organization's Learning Management System, Medworxx, we developed an easily accessible eLearning course that linked to the RNAO course and provided basic navigational instructions. The advantages of using Medworxx included our ability to capture participation rates and participant feedback. Responses received mentioned ease of navigation, and usefulness of content; however, it was found to be very lengthy.
Most recently, with many eHealth initiatives in progress, we targeted the RNAO Nursing and eHealth Education course to frontline nursing staff seconded for the Intensive Care and Peri-operative electronic documentation projects. Initial feedback from these teams has been very positive as the front line champions are involved with the design, development, and implementation of new electronic documentation systems, adapting to new leadership opportunities, and the many challenges of change management. They have acquired a profound appreciation of the never-ending effort that is required "behind" the scenes to transform applications to meet the complex needs of our patients and staff. A testimonial poster will be forthcoming.
Acknowledgements to the Clinical Informatics Nursing Practice Council members Marguerite Bertin-McDonald, Joan Fisher, Heather Hoxby, Jacqueline Lata, and Lynda Stanisz.
There are currently 6 eChampions at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton