Posted: December 17th, 2022

The timing of this assignment is great because I recently received training on Epic, our electronic health record (EHR) system, from a Nurse Informaticist at my new facility, Maine Behavioral Health. She is part of a team that includes another Informaticist with a behavioral health background and two Nurse Informaticists from Maine Health, our parent entity. During the training, the Informaticist was very helpful and enthusiastic. She provided an overview of what informatics is and gave professional training on how to use Epic, particularly focusing on treatment planning.

However, I believe there is room for improvement in the training process. I spent a total of about 6 hours in training, but much of the material was not relevant to my role as a nurse. It was based on a hypothetical office visit that I will not likely encounter in my role. As a result, it is difficult for me to recall and utilize the training. I think the training would be more effective if it was integrated into the actual point of care, showing new nurses how to use the EHR to care for patients based on the tasks they will actually perform. This would be more meaningful and relevant, as it aligns with the caring theory of Jean Watson and the importance of putting the patient first and focusing on their care rather than the technology. Mosier et al. (2019) also emphasize the importance of nurse input in the development of informatics processes, as nurses have a better understanding of the tasks that need to be completed. Shala et al. (2021) also discuss the benefit of ongoing training and “at the elbow support” for nurses learning an EHR.

For example, in my new role as a nurse helping people medically detox from alcohol in a level 2 partial hospitalization program, the process is fairly straightforward. When a patient arrives at the facility from the emergency room, I will take vitals, assess them using the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for alcohol (CIWA) scale, complete a medication review, and possibly pull a prescription medication. All of these tasks could be incorporated into the training, demonstrating how to use the EHR to document and record this information. This way, the training would be more relevant and useful for my role.

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