Nurses are absolutely essential to quality patient care and are critical to delivering positive health outcomes, but all to often their voices fade into the background whenever there are discussions about healthcare IT. Today medical software company Kareo got the conversation flowing on social media with their #KareoChat hashtag, sparking some critical discussion among the nursing community about exploring the different roles nurses should play in health information technology.
The #KareoChat posed the following thought-provoking questions on their website:
- What are the benefits of having a nurse involved with health app development?
- How can more nurses and physicians get involved in the development of new health apps?
- What are the benefits to patients when there is a nurse or physician behind a health app?
- What health apps are helpful to nurses & physicians to aid in direct patient care?
- What apps are helpful for health professionals in the home care setting?
- A large part of nurses role is patient education, what are some apps that can aid with this?
Led by #KareoCHat host Nurse Amelia, responses from nurses on social media were largely insightful, judicious, and appreciative for this opportunity to participate in the discussion about health IT.
We commend Nurse Amelia and Kareo for leading this important conversation. Nurses play a huge role in healthcare; as such they should play a larger role in the development of new health technologies. With any luck, this will spark more future conversations for nurses to become involved with healthcare IT and hopefully continue to improve the spectrum of technologies available to improve patient care.
