I have worked in municipal health care since 2006. Before that when I was a student, there were many different patient information systems in my practise areas and I got a chance to learn for example Effica, Mediatri and Pegasos. There ware many differences in those systems and regard a lot to learn to use them. Nowadays it is easy to work only one patient information system, Mediatri, in the same employer. The system keeps inside a lot of information of my customers: patient information of social and basic health care, laboratory, x-ray, medication, booked medical appoinments and lot of more. It is easier and faster to find out all information I need to do the job well and also is a matter on patient security as well. When I come to work, I log in Numeron application. It is installed on workstations desktop and on the phone. I can view my work shift lists and working time, I can make work shift request and approve work shift lists in Numeron. All this can be done outside the workplace. There are many different solutions used in peoples home for example the video called remote care services and the video phone-medicine dispenser combination called Anna, medicine dispenser called Evondos, security phone, various devices that monitor movement such as door alarms and the blood sugar remote measuring device.They all require employees to be trained to use them and guide customers to use them. All of these are connected by the possibility of supervising the client without the nurse being physically present, and it gives nurses time to be with clients who physically need help. There have been many cautious about the introduction of technological devices in home care to support the nursing work of the elderly, as they require a new kind of ability from the nursing staff to assess the client’s ability to function and health, as there is no physical contact with the client.
Training is also an important part to support the nurses’ ability to do customer work as a remote care service. Also, various connection problems and disturbances are part of technology solutions almost every day, and can endanger customer safety at that time. There must always be a back-up plan in exceptional situations, and during a technological disruption it is usually necessary for the nurse to have physical contact with the client to safeguard the client’s everyday life. Usually the remote care services are very liked with the clients. They can talk their everyday life with the nurse with the video contact and maybe have a nice physical excercise too. Clients also feel that remote care brings security to taking the medicine. The medicine dispenser is also liked with the clients because it is easy to use and it brings security to taking the medicine. It brings the feeling that they are taking care of.
The General Data Protection Regulation brings to my work a system in the care sector which is carefully controlled. The client’s identity must be verified. Nurses are also not allowed to look at the other clients information than those who are in a nursing relationship. The transfer of information between different registers must have consent signed by the person, which must appear in his patient records as personally signed by him. Watsapp is convenient, fast and easy way to communicate in home care. When the clients matters are discussed in the watsapp group at work, it is not allowed to publish the customer’s name, social security number or any other identifiable information.
In the future, I would like to invent a dictation device in clients registration for using of home work, that would translate the nurse’s speech directly into writing. I could use the dictation device to record client visits in home visits and it would speed up the work and make the work more humane so that I wouldn’t have to use a small smartphone to write about a client visit.
SELF EVALUATION
It’s great how many different technological solutions based on need are used in my work. It also helps to develop its own work by implementing new digital opportunities that are offered. In what situation would home care be without technological solutions? I would like to know more about nurses opportunities to influence the development of technological solutions. Could nurses possibly be involved in creating completely new technological solutions? The General data protection regulation reminds me the importance of individual data protection. It also create safe limits to my work. It is important that the information of my clients does not get to the outsiders, because I wouldn`t want my own client information to be viewed for the other people than who are in a nursing relationship with me.
Comments on other people`s blogs:
Hey, As you told about the changes brought about by the entry into force of the data protection regulation at your workplace, we have had to change our way of thinking a lot and remember every moment in our client work that we are not allowed to talk about clients’ affairs in any situation in front of others. Data protection means a lot in nursing work and I agree with you that it’s a good thing, because there are many sensitive things that you don’t want your neighbors to know about, for example. Sometimes, as a resident of a small town, it feels like people know a lot about other people’s affairs 🙂 And that kind of information is certainly not related to data protection matters in any way.
Hi Tuula, it was interesting to read your blog and wonder how the traditional purchase of glasses could change in the future. The future prospects you mentioned in relation to the purchase of glasses sound like they will make the purchase of glasses much easier, since the process will be much faster. Nowadays, it takes a few weeks to get glasses, when an appointment is first booked for an eye examination and then the glasses are ordered. If even the only glasses are broken, it could be challenging weeks to wait for new ones. How reliable would those vision checks be without a human? And how would you experience it yourself when customer contacts would decrease? After all, your job is a service profession.