Inspiring Nursing Practice via E-Health

My Journey from Nursing to Informatics: What I Learned

I went to nursing school to take care of mothers and babies; health IT was not yet on my radar screen. Having been inspired by my own birth experiences, I wished to support and advocate for other childbearing women.

When it came time to go to graduate school, nursing informatics was an option about which I’d read and, because I already appreciated that technology was becoming more prevalent in my daily life, it made sense that technology would at some point change healthcare. I wanted to learn more and to be part of this change.

After graduate school, I combined the knowledge I learned about systems, process and workflows, and the importance of data, with clinical certification and became a women’s services clinical specialist. Nursing informatics certification followed and I represented women’s health nursing at health IT venues as well as through my specialty nursing organization. On the clinical practice side, I was able to articulate the informatics perspective as part of the corporate leadership team, influencing health IT solutions.

During this time, colleagues inspired me in two ways: first by encouraging me to pursue a PhD and the second to continue to work on and advocate for health IT’s value as a vehicle to visualize and empower nursing practice.

I also began to realize that I have an opportunity to inspire others to advocate for health IT that works with us rather than against us.

To read more, visit Himss blog

Can Alexa Really Diagnose Illnesses?

I think it's safe to say, he have all heard about Alexa from Amazon. If not, well Amazon's Alexa is an artificial intelligent personal assistant, designed to automate and assist people around their homes via voice commands. Simple, say, "Alexa, switch my light off" or "Turn-up my heating" or "Play some Barry White's music" and it's done without you moving a finger.

Now, a company by the name of Healthtap Doctor AI, has launched an Artificial Intelligence Doctor using Alexa's Technology. The technology was developed to diagnose people's illness by simply understanding their symptoms.

But the really sophisticated part lays in the backend where Healthtap's artificial intelligence technology parses data from all those medical records to consider what the user's symptoms most likely mean and convey that information in a human-like way.

Dr. AI will provide feedback on the user's stated problem and, if it deems necessary, connect the user with on of Healthtap's associated Doctor.

Stay tune for more updates. Alternatively, check out a basic version the Doctor AI technology on Amazon's Alexa update page.

In the mean time, you can click on the link below to watch a sample video and leave your comments in the box below. Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKyC_2E266s

Indigestible Sensor used to improve Childre's Health

The Proteus Discover digital health system uses an ingestible sensor embedded in a pill to record data about – among other things – patients’ medication adherence. The sensor sends data to an adhesive patch, which in turn sends it to a mobile device. But what are the use cases that require that kind of precision and reliability?

For the Children’s Health, a system of pediatric hospitals in the Dallas, Texas area, they turned to an ingestible sensor when other kinds of remote monitoring weren’t quite getting the job done for a population of post-organ transplant teenagers.

“What happens when you’re 15 or 16?” Julie Hall-Barrow, the vice president of virtual health and innovation at Children’s Health said this week at the Digital and Personal Connected Health conference at HIMSS17. “You want to start driving, making decisions, you’re independent, your mother is not on your hip 24-7. But the problem with this population is their mother had to be on their hip 24-7. It’s an extreme disease that requires a lot of regimen, and for a lot of kids the transition from Mom or Dad doing these things to doing it themselves is the transition from child to adult. And they have to do it, but there’s got to be a better way.”


For younger transplant patients, it sufficed to ask the parents whether they had taken their medication. But adolescent patients were much more likely to forget and to say they had taken their pills just to get the alarm to stop.

To read more: Check out Jonah Comstock on Mobile Health News

Simplifying Pre-surgery Consultations

If you're considering having an operation or your GP has suggested you may need surgery, then there are many ways to simplify your pre-surgery consultation. Gone are the days of sitting in waiting rooms and long appointments with GPs.

 

 

 

Healthcare Temps aspires to bride the gap between Hospital care & Home care.

Sometimes a trip to A&E can result in a prolonged hospital stay. Treatment of serious injuries and illnesses, such as stroke or wounding, may involve intensive diagnostic tests, blood transfusion and possibly surgery. After such treatments, some patients find themselves enduring months of rehabilitation and re-ablement services. In the late 1980s, post-hospital accounted for an average of 10%-12% of healthcare resources. Thirty years later and it has more than triple. According to recent reports, for every one person discharge from hospital, there are three-four people waiting for that bed. In other recent news, the UK’s Minister of health noted that the Government place larger emphasis on enhancing home care / post hospital care in order to free up more hospital beds for incoming patients. Consequently, the quality of home-care delivered to out-patients and rehabs must be stepped up a notch. This can be achieved through the adaptation of cutting edge technology, such as, real time mobile applications.

Post hospital care services can takes various forms and ranges from, rehabilitation therapy, reablement support, out-patient care, post-acute care and more. Two of the biggest challenges affecting the delivery and quality of post-hospital care includes the lack of qualified trained staff and cost. Some of the ways in which Heallthcare Temps is bridging the gap between post-hospital care and home care is through tele-medicine and call out care. Key advantages of these services include;

Stay tune for more  

Benefits of Virtual Care to Home Cared Patients

      Image the Elderly being cared for from the comfort of their home, without having to go to the hospital or clinic unless it's an emergency or critical appointment? Well, through real time video communication, the elderly patients at home can access medical care and support 24/7. This is what the future looks like as a consequence of Virtual care, otherwise known as Tele-health.

   Through telenursing, a registered nurse is able to provide nursing services through remote telecommunications. While aiding the patient and family with virtual learning, the telenurse provides the best practice to achieve optimal outcomes for the patient. “Telehealth nursing practice is now considered to be a sub-specialty of nursing

  Today’s healthcare industry is changing rapidly. Technology has allowed healthcare professionals to remotely access, monitor and manage patient medical needs. Telenurses are able to case manage patients with chronic illnesses, provide counseling, and coordinate care among healthcare providers. Allowing the telenurse to collect and transmit data for clinicians to interpret so medical interventions maybe applied. “Telehealth services include health promotions, disease prevention, diagnosis, consultation, education, and therapy.” (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 505).

   Secondly, through virtual care, patients become more educated. How? Opportunities frequently arise when patients are able to learn more about their illnesses via the web and can have more meaningful discussions with a nurse who can involve patient in the decision making of their health care.

    Empowerment through technology enables people who are recovering from operations or dealing with chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes use self-care devices to help with their recovery. Tele-health acts as a bridge between the self-caring patient and the guidance from the practitioner to help make recover a success.

    The fourth benefit involves saving of time and money to both. Patients who are under telenurses save time and money as they don't have to travel to see a nurse. Likewise, the clinic or hospital has more free time to deal with more urgent health care problems.

    When you're telenursing, you can still have empathetic relationships with your patients as you    care for and communicate with them. The only difference is that you're doing it via real time     video rather than in person.

A Great Tech Development for Elderly Receiving Care at Home:

Caring for the elderly has its ups and downs. On the one hand, it can be lots of fun, especially when listening to old stories about the past. On the other hand, it can be very stressful, particularly when their hearing begins to fade, dementia steps-in or they are recovering from a severe physical injury. The latter scenarios present huge challenges for family members and relatives, who are now charge with the responsibility of either providing or finding suitable quality care for their elderly love one.

 Above all else, it is inevitable that some elderly will require some form of care at home, at some stage in their life. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), by 2050, approximately two billion people will be above the age of 60 yrs.

We live in an advance world, yet technology seems revolve around the youths, whilst making the elderly feel like a fish out of water. But not for long! In recent months, a few start-up companies have started developing and/or moderating modern technology geared towards the elderly, and more so, towards elderly healthcare at home.

For instance, Healthcare-Temps aims to make life easier for elderly people requiring care at home through virtual care on smart watches. In other words, elderly people at home can now speak to a healthcare-specialist from the comfort of their home via 3G Android Smart Watches.

This application saves them time, arranging transportation, travelling to and from the clinic or hospital and avoids waiting queues. Further, if the elderly user is more serious or beyond the requirements of virtual care, they can in turn get a home visit from a healthcare professional, such as, Doctor, Nurse, Neurologist, therapist and so forth. This also put the family members at ease since they know their love ones are just one touch away from accessing a healthcare professional. Especially family members who work long hours or live in separate dwellings from their love ones.

What’s more, with healthcare-temps smart watches, the elderly receiving care at home can also check their blood pressure, heart rate, monitor motion, GPS tracker & activity and loads more. Coming soon will be alarm/panic button direct to ambulance facilities and/or key family member in times of falls or other emergency system. Tech development, like this, has the potential of cutting elderly care cost in £1,000s per month.

Another tech development that could help elderly receiving care at home, include waist-line airbags, which can cushion people, in the event of a fall, minimising hip-injury or hip-replacement surgery.

To find out more about Healthcare-Temps Smart Watches, visit care-mart.co.uk

The 10 most exciting innovations in Healthcare 2016

Coming soon

Pitfalls to avoid as a new Healthcare Temp & maximising your earnings

Thinking of becoming a healthcare temp worker? Perhaps, you do not know what to expect or maybe you want to dip your toes into the water before giving up your full time job. In this blog, we discuss five pitfalls you should avoid as a new healthcare temp worker:

1). Create digital CV profile:

By creating a digital CV profile and listing your experience and qualification, it gives potential employers a glimpse of what to expect should they hire you. Also, after every job you undertake, get the hirer to rating your performance (preferably five star) and write a review. Remember, automated healthcare companies such as, healthcare-temps tends to be highly impartial and transparent. Thus, by getting great reviews from other employers will boost your likelihood of getting more job offers. 

Note also, bidding for numerous temp jobs can be very tedious and time consuming. A very good CV profile makes it easy for employers to discover your skills and offer you the right job and salary range. 

2) Highlight your skills & training:

When hirers post a job, they tend to get numerous bids, at various salary range. Some employers tend to go for the cheapest bids. However, the best paying employers tend to look for temps with the right experience, training and skills. According to Mr. Miller, head of temp recruiting, "When it comes to recruiting temp nurses, most employers would pay £13.00 phr for a nurse who has no experience of changing peg feed or cathetherisation. But can easily pay upto £17-£18.00 phr to temps with such skills and training".

3). Ensure mandatory documents are up to date & relevant.

By law, all healthcare temps must provide the employer with copies of their mandatory documents before they enter the premises / place of work (the basic document being CRB / DBS). Other mandatory documents include, training certificates, previous employer references, professional validation, identification, NINO and rights to work in the U.K.). Ensure you provide healthcare-temps with the relevant documents so you can pass their background check and vetting procedure. Verification check box appears on your profile and it tells prospective hirers whether or not it is okay to interview you and accept your bid. Not being verified tells employers not to waste time trying to offer you a job. So, think carefully and conscientiously. 

4). Be prepared for online interviews:

Online video interviews are generally more challenging than face-to-face interviews for the simple fact that employers cannot read your body language. Nevertheless, always be prepared, look professionals and answer questions as honestly as possible. Note further, first impression counts. A recent survey revealed that most living carers tend to fail online interviews for the simple reason is that they try to multi task at interviews. Recently, one manager declined to offer a living carer a job because they left a client on the toilet unsupervised whilst trying to do an interview. 

5). Hold reasonable expectations:

Unlike working for an agency, most automated healthcare procurement platforms give temp workers / locums the freedom to negotiate their own pay rate. Be reasonable and do engender unreasonable expectations. Instead, be flexible and negotiate a pay rate that reflects your skills, training and experience and not what other people are getting. In most cases, you are building a long term relationship and a client base for future jobs. So, the last thing you want to do is sabotage future opportunities by charging hirers a ridiculous rate. Overall, no one wants to hire someone who is out to get rich quick. If the pay rate on offer is too low, for your liking, do not simply reject the hirer, Consider alternative ways to offset your cost, such as bonus payments (which included paid mileage, paid accommodation and so on). Any job offer could be a stepping stone to a long lasting career.

To start applying for healthcare-temp opportunities, visit www.healthcare-temps.co.uk

Digitising Healthcare offers huge advantages.

Like many countries around the world, most rural areas in the U.K. suffers from an under-supply of healthcare provisions, in particular, a shortage of quality healthcare professionals, such as doctors and nurses. However, putting in place a secure digital infrastructure has the positive effect of improving and access out-patients access to to quality healthcare professionals. Thus, reducing the intensive demand for healthcare provision within certain demographics. Additionally, people with reduced mobility are not deprived of key benefit as a result of expansion of digital healthcare and telemedicine. 

On the other hand, new digital healthcare companies start ups are offering numerous benefits to medical and healthcare organisations. Below, we have outline a some of key advantages organisations can goin from working closely with digital healthcare companies.

1. Eradicate staff shortage

2. Reduce waiting list for gp / hospital appointments

3. Free up hospital beds via remote outpatient monitoring

4. Free up A&E time & reduce nonemergency visits/calls

5. Healthcare pros on call 24/7

6. Post acute care at home

Post-acute care refers to a range of medical care services that support the individual's continued recovery from illness or management of a chronic illness or disability. Following a hospitalization for injury or illness, many patients require continued medical care, either at home or in a specialized facility. g M2M solutions the healthcare industry can reduce costs and at the same time improve the quality of care.

Thanks to remote monitoring, hospitals can reduce or eliminate stays. Scarce hospital beds can then be freed up for more serious cases while the majority of patients can recover at home. Tracking solutions lead to increased security for patients and the elderly and to peace of mind for relatives. Meanwhile they can remain independent for longer in their own homes. M2M devices create a whole new lifestyle, preventing illness by making fitness monitoring fun.

Healthcare-Temps digital strategy enable patients and older people to lead self-determined lives. Monitoring and tracking systems offer doctors, relatives and caregivers a constant update on a patient’s health status and whereabouts.

For more info, visit www.healthcare-temps.co.uk

Six Benefits of Automating Healthcare

Thinking of automating the provision of health care within your organisation. Here are six benefits your organisation, patients, staff and other stakeholders will gain.

1. Labor Savings

Using automation to replace manually intensive tasks that are better done by machine can be a big time saver. It doesn’t have to eliminate employees, but rather elevate them into higher-functioning roles that make use of the clinical expertise they have been trained for.

2. Improved Quality and Consistency
Automation tools are not subject to human error or fatigue, so they can help provide a consistent basis of care activities. A Texas hospital study found that greater automation in the areas of medical records, order entry, and decision support appeared to result in a reduction in deaths, complications and cost.

3. Reduced Waste
Use of paper and spreadsheets and other workarounds needed for an overfull workload can lead to a lot of waste. For example, rather than playing phone tag with a discharged patient in the free minutes between hospital nursing duties, automation can help get nurses and patients connected more efficiently.

4. Increased Predictability of Outcomes
When patients follow a standardized care path supported by automation, it is more likely they will stay on track towards predicted outcomes. Additionally, automation can help detect when a patient has deviated from the recommended care plan so the care team can intervene.

5. Higher Throughput
A nurse supported by automation tools can handle a larger population of patients at one time. Instead of scaling up and down your headcount as patient volumes grow and shrink, an automated platform can scale flexibly to address groups of all sizes.

6. Data-Driven Insights
Technology used to automate processes can also deliver a wealth of data in a continuous feedback loop that can be used for performance improvement and optimization. With every cycle, automation systems can collect data on how the process is working and use that information to improve the program. This way it improves on itself over time, becoming even more efficient, more accurate and more helpful to the team’s workload.

When looking for good areas to apply automation in your healthcare environment, a standardized, repeatable process is the first thing to look for. Within hospital walls, a common procedure that is performed on a large population of patients on a routine basis, like joint replacements, is a prime area to apply automation tools. Ask yourself this question: Which program would you rather have?

To get a one-one consultation on how we can help you automate your healthcare organisation, visit healthcare-temps.co.uk.

Healthcare-Staff-On-Demand - A Revolutionary Trend

Need a medical or healthcare professional to visit your home or the office ASAP? Perhaps, your poorly Dad has just been released from hospital after kidney surgery and needs acute home care. Or your corporation seeks a qualified GP to cover maternity leave at your private clinic? Or you need a Registered Nurses  to cover a night shift at your country side Nursing Home.

Well, help is at hand via the launch of a number of new revolutionary mobile application. Modern day technology is now revolutionising the way in which consumers and business hire medical and healthcare professionals for temporary assignments. One such company spearheading the healthcare-on-demand revolution is Healthcare-Temps. With just the push of a button, you have access to 1,000s of experience, qualified and fully vetted healthcare workers 24/7. What's more, you can hire a temp for a fraction of the cost compare to hiring them via traditional means. 

Healthcare-Temps is a web & mobile application used for finding & hiring qualified and vetted idle healthcare professionals in your area (or nationwide). The company caters for various type of hirers, such as familiies seeking home care for the elderly or children with challenged behaviour and corporations (such as Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Clinics etc). The web and mobile application is easy to use. Simply visit the site, log-on, select and interview the healthcare worker you want, then just click hire. On Healthcare-Temps, you can hire a healthcare professional from as low as £10.00 phr.

Another fast growing company that is disrupting the traditional healthcare industry is Teladoc. Teladoc enables families and out-patients to talk to a qualified Doctor via a mobile application and receive medical advice online for a small fee. These new methods of accessing healthcare professionals are quickly growing in popularity and are loved by users for their convenience and simplicity. For instance, in 2014, Teladoc handled approximately 299,000 patient consultation.

For those who are curious for more, the U.K's version of Teladoc is DrNow.com. DrNow.com, not only gives you access to a GP in the U.K., but also gives you access to pharmaceuticals: Medication on-demand 24/7.

Clearly, the medical & healthcare industry is getting a huge makeover from web & mobile apps. These revolutionary on-demand startups are reinventing the world's healthcare system through innovative proprietary software and digital mediums; addressing the unmet needs of the public and corporations by providing encrypted, cloud based services.

As the on-demand phenomenon continues to reshape the healthcare industry, newly developed app-powered services will propel the provision of domestic and global healthcare to a whole new level. The world is becoming an on-the-go economy with both consumers and corporations wanting goods and services now. The companies mentioned above are positioning themselves to enable both consumers and corporations have access to healthcare staff now, albeit 12 hrs a day or 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Healthcare-Temps plans to launch in Canada, Australia & France in 2017. The merger of mobile technology and knowledge-based services is making the healthcare industry convenient and cost efficient for patients, hospitals and other service users. 

www.healthcare-temps.co.uk

Working as a Medical Temp - 5 steps to consider.

Before you start working as a medical or healthcare temp, you need to ensure that five important areas are considered. Failing to do so could slow down your earning potential and set you back by weeks or months in terms of developing your temping career. Below, we outline five points you should consider before you start bidding for jobs.

1). Create a professional profile before you start bidding

2). Market you profile:

3). Choose the ideal client (Employer)

4). Scheduling assignments

5). Processing Invoices & Time Sheets

It's exciting times! Unlimited opportunities for healthcare temp workers.

Many healthcare temps know there is a huge demand for experience and qualified temps. However, the puzzling question on everyone's mind is; whether to stay in permanent work or become temp worker?

Well, regardless of whether the temping opportunities come from medical centres, private clinics hospitals or nursing homes, they organisations continue to face increasing patient load. Hence, the need for stand-in doctors, nurses, support workers etc, has prompted healthcare professionals to shun permanent employment, opting for the greater work flexibility and, in most cases, higher wages.

Recent surveys revealed, the demand for healthcare temp workers has gone up by about 50 per cent in the last five years. Further, with the rise of new healthcare tech companies, such as, Healthcare-temps empowering healthcare professionals, giving the freedom to chose when to work, where to work and for who to work for, the employment opportunities are unlimited.

Nowadays, healthcare temps can choose to work at a polyclinic, outpatient centre, private hospital, nursing home or where ever is less stressful but offers an equivalent or better rate of pay. typical assignments range from few nights a week, to maternity cover or specialist team project.

What's more, a healthcare temp can earn as much as two times the salary of a permanent worker, yet has double the free time to do the things that are important to them, i.e. spending more time with family. A typical pay rate for permanent RGN is £14-£19 phr, based on experience and location, compared to a Temp RGN who earns between £18-£35phr.

Amy Willis finds temp work perfectly suits her lifestyle as a single parent, as she can work three nights a week (Fri, Sat & Sun) and still be around during the week to provide support to her two young children.

To discover what healthcare temps opportunites are availble to fit around your lifestyle, visit www.healthcare-temps.co.uk

Automated Temping Made Easy

coming soon