With the ANCC Magnet Conference this week, it is the perfect time to share our excitement about a solution that alleviates the administrative burden nurses are facing. Our goal is to create an environment where excellence flourishes by empowering nurses to practice at the top of their license.
A significant challenge facing nurses today is the high administrative burden of interacting with the "systems" of care. The EHR is a top culprit, meaning nurses are spending up to 45% of their shift documenting to the patient record. This documentation burden, coupled with other systems in the care environment including nurse call, nutritional services, translations services, and educational programs, is taking away the ability to have high touch, meaningful interactions with their patients. This is a top dissatisfier for nurses and a challenge we can solve.
Our solution is an assistant for nurses.
As a top digital leader in the industry, Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia said, “Everybody will have an AI that is an assistant. Every single company… will have AIs that are assistants to them.”
Aiva’s Nurse Assistant utilizes the nurses’ voice for flowsheet documentation with real time validation and entry into the EHR, setting care delivery reminders and interacting with other systems in the patient room without manual processes, but rather via voice enablement.
One of many unique characteristics of the Aiva app is that it is designed by nurses, for nurses, reflecting the Magnet belief that change should come from frontline staff. Other voice enabled tools, including those embedded within the EHR, are often focused on physician and ambulatory workflows, meaning documentation is more summary-based and validation and entry to the record occurs post "dictation". This is not a typical nursing workflow, yet expansion to the nursing workforce occurs without considering the unique nursing workflows and use cases. This type of expansion often leads to low adoption. Nurses are heavy utilizers of flowsheets and "real time" documentation matters. It is key for up-to-date information to be available for provider access when they are making care plan changes and for the EHR to assist with clinical decision support. Further, if validation is not real time and is done post workflow, like batch charting, it can lead to missed, incomplete or inaccurate documentation.
Deployment of Nurse Assistant follows Magnet precepts, as well. Floor nurses and researchers are consulted to identify which tasks lend themselves to voice documentation first. Language models are refined with direct staff input and testing. And education aligns with each hospital’s unique shared governance practice, ensuring that the app integrates organically into a unit’s existing workflow and culture.
It is essential that the tools deployed to nursing are aligned with nursing-specific workflows and nursing outcome goals. For assistive technology to be truly transformational, it should connect with all the systems nurses interact with on a daily basis. We designed Nurse Assistant to be that all-in-one tool, enabling nurses to enhance all aspects of their clinical practice by using their voice.
Here's a summary of how a voice app like Nurse Assistant can help you accomplish your Magnet Model Components:
Transformational Leadership
Administrative burden decreased through an AI voice enabled assistant that functions across all care environment systems that nurses interact with daily.
Structural Empowerment
A leading practice solution for real time, accurate, and complete documentation.
Exemplary Professional Practice
Customized workflows promoting autonomy for the professional practice of nursing.
New Knowledge, Innovation, and Improvements
Redesigned current workflows with the added AI voice enablement improving efficiency, satisfaction and quality.
Empirical Quality Results
Outcomes related to nursing workflow models indicate that documentation time for high-volume tasks like patient repositioning or pain reassessment can be reduced from 3 minutes when done manually to 33 seconds when done with voice assistance. This save hours of administrative time per nurse per shift, allowing for more meaningful interactions with patients and families.
Kathleen Harmon (MS, RN), Aiva Clinical Innovation Advisor
October 28, 2024