It’s time to find new solutions to “texting” and doctoring. Many of us know the dangers of texting and driving, and the same sort of distraction caused by using the phone behind the wheel may occur in the workplace when healthcare staffing professionals engage in typing electronic records, a new, small report found.
Texting while driving raises the risk of a crash by 23 times. This is because dealing with one’s phone greatly reduces the amount of brain activity devoted to driving. For medical staffing employees, the same issue might hold true for interacting with patients and typing into electronic health records.
Similar to when driving, a travel nursing professional needs to be alert to environmental cues in the office. At the heart of the problem is that multitasking worsens every task you do, and cognitive scientists have demonstrated that engaging in a second activity disrupts primary task performance. Although handling multiple situations at once is necessary for those on nursing jobs, trying to juggle patient contact with electronic records can undermine the essential alertness of observation, communication, problem solving and developing trusting relationships with patients.
Almost all of us have encountered the situation when we’re talking to a friend who can’t stop staring at his or her phone screen. A comparable feeling of distance and indignant behavior might be felt by the patient in the office, making the matter even worse in the professional environment.
When typing up electronic health records, nurses are entering patient background information, checking boxes, performing order entry and more. It demands a chronic hyper-vigilance and a conscious effort to stay present with the patient. As you likely know, all of this multitasking can be exhausting and stressful.
The authors of the report observed patients send signals of depression, lack of understanding and disagreement that well-intended physicians missed when medical professionals were multitasking.
As an alternative, the authors offered different collaborative care models where nurses, medical assistants or health coaches take care of electronic information while the physician provides undivided attention to the patient. These practices reported greater patient access, greater staff and physician satisfaction and higher-quality metrics.
While there has not been substantial observational data in clinics across the country, the report surfaces an important problem. And although this model is not always readily available, it’s worth keeping in mind. Whenever possible, travel nursing professionals should team up with doctor to deliver the most productive results.