National expert discusses health care’s future

National expert Tim Porter-O’Grady, DM, EdD, APRN, FAAN, says nurses are behind any successful changes that occur in health care facilities.

Porter-O’Grady will teach nurses how to lead hospitals in the future during a seminar titled Healthcare 2010 and Beyond: Opportunities, Choices and Changes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Westin Crown Center, 3rd Floor Century Ballroom, 1 East Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo.

The event is sponsored by Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, North Kansas City Hospital, St. Joseph Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center, St. Luke’s Hospital and the University of Kansas Hospital.

“He’s such a prolific writer and many of the things that he has written have struck a chord with many nurses, including myself,” said Mary Gambino, Ph.D., RN, director of nursing education at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

“I just thought it would be a great opportunity to get him in Kansas City,” Gambino said.

Porter-O’Grady will discuss ways nurses can embrace technological innovations in their practice.

“The general theme is really looking at the practice of nursing within our 21st century digital context,” Porter-O’Grady said.

Technologies like electronic medical records, web videos and online networks can streamline work, Porter-O’Grady said.

For instance, he suggests that nurses use Web videos to provide discharge instructions. This allows patients to view instructions at home as often as necessary.

“It’s now a no-brainer but it still seems to be an exception,” Porter-O’Grady said. “The least effective way of doing patient teaching on discharge is by doing it during discharge.”

Porter-O’Grady said nurses have to be at the forefront of these initiatives in order for them to succeed.

“The studies show that nurses are the center of the culture at the hospital,” he said. “If you can’t engage nurses and you don’t engage nurses it really doesn’t matter who you engage…. If you don’t engage nurses it’s a waste of time.”

Porter-O’Grady encourages hospitals to use technology in a way that enhances, not complicates, nurses’ jobs.

“The problem in the past has been that technologies have been layered on to work that they are already doing,” Gambino said. “You are going to have resistance if you don’t make things better for (nurses).”

Porter-O’Grady encourages nurses to utilize new technology.

“They need to embrace the digital world and the digital model,” he said. “They need to embrace the fact that the practice that they learned is not the practice that they will become.”

Though change can be difficult, Porter-O’Grady encourages nurses to stay positive.

“The one thing an individual has absolute control over themselves is the attitude they possess,” Porter-O’Grady said.

He said this positive attitude often creates a ripple effect.

“Physicians would have a lot less hard time embracing technology if nurses embraced technology,” Porter-O’Grady said.

For more information about the Healthcare 2010 and Beyond seminar, visit www.continuinged.ku.edu/kumc/healthcare_2010.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment