The Nursing Informatics Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has successfully implemented an innovative quality improvement project at advancing the computer skills of nursing professionals across the organisation.
Aligned with the changing healthcare landscape and the fast-paced developments in health information technology, the project involves training nurses on the new Clinical Information System (CIS), an electronic patient records system, which includes the patient’s healthcare history, medication list, clinical notes and other important information. CIS has been applied across all HMC hospitals and will be put into practice at other HMC facilities in the near future.
Entitled “Innovating the CIS training experience of nurses at HMC,” the project will lead to the development of a multi-step training programme to equip nurses with the required computer skills to avoid any potential challenges when using the new electronic records system, and to ensure the best outcomes for patients.
Dr Wasmiya Dalhem, executive director of Nursing Informatics Department at HMC, said, “The implementation of CIS is HMC’s endeavour to embrace technological health advancements. As nurses are the backbone of a healthcare organisation, we consider them key players in leading change at HMC. By improving their computer proficiency and enabling safe electronic health documentation, HMC has reaffirmed its commitment to provide the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to its patients.”
Under the project, the nursing informatics team introduced several best practices, including developing a unique evaluation tool to assess nurses’ Microsoft Office proficiency; creating a comprehensive database of nurses comprising a score matrix to categorise nurses’ computer skills in four categories high, average, low, and unclassified; and delivering basic computer orientation courses to all nurses who scored average or lower. Nurses were reassessed on the skills after six months of the training course.
The team established a multi-dimensional training approach, introducing online training videos and brochures with readily available resource materials for nurses to access at any time.
The project has garnered acknowledgement as an innovative approach in patient care at the Cerner Middle East Regional User Group conference held earlier this year in Dubai. It also received an award of recognition at HMC’s Stars of Excellence 2015 award ceremony.
HMC
