An incompatibility of workflow between care home staff and residents has plagued their relationship probably ever since care homes became a thing. After all, a resident can be completely fine when staff checks up on them but be in a critical condition only minutes later. With age comes an unpredictable fragility and a need for quicker response times from care home nurses.
While admission into care homes has skyrocketed in recent years, the amount of care home workers in circulation remain stagnant. Each staff member ends up taking on more responsibility, and because of that, they devote less than enough time to meet each resident’s needs. When residents need a nurse’s assistance, they often seem not to be available.
How do we combat this problem?
The solution is an emphasis on innovative and modern nurse call technology. Here’s the thing. Nurse call technology has been around since the 1850s, first starting off as a series of bell rings and then evolving into the chunky wall phones you see in old movies.
Rather than an absence of nurse call technology, it’s the fact that the current version is ineffective and has so much more potential. Out with the old, and in with the new.
The Modern Nurse Call Technology
Modern nurse call technology says goodbye to chunky and slow wall phones and incorporates the typical cell phone that you see. How does it work? An operator will receive messages and then relay that to the specialized cell phones of staff. This transition has several key benefits that include: maximizing efficiency, improving patient experience, better workflow.
Prior to a centralized nurse calling technology that utilized cell phones, staff needed to actually go into a room and pick up the phone. That’s a lot of wasted time. If all staff were busy or transitioning from room to room, the resident’s call would have potentially gone unnoticed. With a centralized operator, that will never happen. Residents can be rest assured as they will always hear a compassionate voice whenever they need something.
With the ability to seamlessly carry a cell phone, nurses will easily know when a resident requires assistance. Along with text message software that gives detailed information about the resident’s needs, nurses can prioritize who they need to assist first — along with all necessary items they need to bring.
A centralized operator can also assist in the workflow. For one, if the call is accidental — which is quite common — nurses will not be interrupted from what they are working on. And secondly, a centralized operator can allocate the correct people to the appropriate assistance.
Modern nurse call technology is an upgrade from the traditional and manual communication system; it creates a stronger sense of efficiency and satisfaction for both parties.
At the end of the day, resident satisfaction is what matters the most. Care homes are entrusted to take care of residents, and modern nurse call technology can assist in this important matter.
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