Paper
Saturday, November 3, 2007
28
Development of a Nursing Portal: A Tool to Enhance Nurses' Access to Information
Sally Welsh, MSN, RN, CNAA-BC, Nursing, Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah, GA, USA and Cheryl Hartzog, RN, ADN, Information Systems, Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah, GA, USA.
| Learning Objective #1: identify benefits of developing a Nursing Portal |
| Learning Objective #2: identify potential components in a Nursing Portal |
The concept for the Nursing Portal was identified in response to complaints received from the nursing staff regarding the time and difficulty they experienced in accessing patient information in our various clinical information systems. A team, consisting of I.T. staff and nurses worked together to design the layout and content for the portal. The purpose of the portal was to provide nurses with links to patient information via a single web interface. The Nursing Portal was launched in September, 2006. A series of training sessions were conducted. Each nurse was assigned a unique password. A quality monitoring /auditing process was also implemented per our hospital policy. The specific capabilities of the Nursing Portal include access to clinical information such as lab and radiology results, transcription, demographic and flow sheet information, physician orders, medications and pathology reports. The information may be viewed, and/or printed. There are specific links to the other clinical systems; HEO (order entry), EMSTAT (ED), PACS (radiology) and APACHE (critical care). The nurses can use the “home” tab to create a personalized web page. The system contains links to the Internet, Micromedex and GroupWise; however, the nurses can also add additional links. The Nursing Portal also serves as a general communication tool for Nursing. The Portal “Home” page contains 2 banners, one for nursing news and one for hospital news. The “Nursing” section contains links to Shared Governance, Magnet Updates, Nursing Newsletters, Professional Practice Model, Nursing Town Hall Presentations, Nursing Grand Rounds and “Caring Moments.” Other portal sections include: Research and Evidence-Based Practice, Pharmacy, Best Practice Protocols, Hospital Policies, Phone Directory and Information Services.The Nursing Portal has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the nursing staff. The portal has increased the nurses’ abilities to obtain information in a timely manner.