It's that time again - an opportunity to read the best in the nursing blogosphere collected all in one place for your reading pleasure. That's right, Change of Shift is up at Emergiblog and has lots of excellent posts. From a refresher course in anatomy to a discussion of whether or not you are a "Beth", you can't help but learn from these excellent bloggers.
As a new and somewhat infrequent blogger, this collection generally inspires me to keep at it, to try again, to reach out and share as these writers do. Please don't hesitate to click the link and see just what I mean by that!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Do Mouse Clicks Matter?
"Click this link, which will open a box with a drop down menu. Click the item you want to select, click ok, clickety click." "Click here, double click there, click to select, right click, then left click, followed by a triple axel with a clicking dismount."
OK, the HIS vendor du jour didn't exactly say these things, but it seems that it is a message being received and debated. Who makes up the audience to whom I refer? Well, there are physicians, nurses, unit clerks, Radiology techs, Materials Management coordinators, Information Systems team members, Patient Accounting specialists, Vice Presidents of Professional Services and Finance and Patient Care, and...oh yeah, the CEO.
We've just had a week of demonstrations by various HIS vendors. A recurring question that has come up has been ease of navigation and "how many clicks" it takes to perform the documentation and ordering functions of a variety of applications. There has been plenty of discussion related to the importance of minimal mouse clicks to improve clinician commitment to, and adoption of, various electronic documentation systems. At the same time I have picked up on the opinion, voiced by those in the Information Systems areas, that additional clicks here and there shouldn't really matter.
Among the challenges in all documentation, electronic or paper, is the ease with which a clinician can depict a complete and accurate story of the care a patient receives. Important within that clinical story is the need to meet regulatory and financial requirements. It's a balancing act to achieve the right amount of documentation, yet still provide for the maximum amount of clinician time at the patient's bedside. Having to click the mouse 14 times in order to describe a wound is not the best use of time. When multiplied over and over again with a team of patients of varied acuity levels, it becomes a huge burden.
Ease of navigation is crucial to the success of any system and, when looking to replace one, becomes a highly debated issue. So my question is this....do mouse clicks really matter? Why? Why not?
OK, the HIS vendor du jour didn't exactly say these things, but it seems that it is a message being received and debated. Who makes up the audience to whom I refer? Well, there are physicians, nurses, unit clerks, Radiology techs, Materials Management coordinators, Information Systems team members, Patient Accounting specialists, Vice Presidents of Professional Services and Finance and Patient Care, and...oh yeah, the CEO.
We've just had a week of demonstrations by various HIS vendors. A recurring question that has come up has been ease of navigation and "how many clicks" it takes to perform the documentation and ordering functions of a variety of applications. There has been plenty of discussion related to the importance of minimal mouse clicks to improve clinician commitment to, and adoption of, various electronic documentation systems. At the same time I have picked up on the opinion, voiced by those in the Information Systems areas, that additional clicks here and there shouldn't really matter.
Among the challenges in all documentation, electronic or paper, is the ease with which a clinician can depict a complete and accurate story of the care a patient receives. Important within that clinical story is the need to meet regulatory and financial requirements. It's a balancing act to achieve the right amount of documentation, yet still provide for the maximum amount of clinician time at the patient's bedside. Having to click the mouse 14 times in order to describe a wound is not the best use of time. When multiplied over and over again with a team of patients of varied acuity levels, it becomes a huge burden.
Ease of navigation is crucial to the success of any system and, when looking to replace one, becomes a highly debated issue. So my question is this....do mouse clicks really matter? Why? Why not?
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