Decreasing Technology Burdens to Bedside Staff Through the Introduction of a Patient Technology Technician Role

Abstract

With increased technology integration into health care, the focus and time of nurses are often shifting toward technology and away from direct patient care. The goal of this quality improvement project was to implement a patient technology technician role on 3 acute care units in order to reduce the time burden of technology to nurses. During this quality improvement project, the patient technology technician role focused on addressing technology issues and ensured adequate, functioning technology supplies were available on nursing units. Outcomes assessed included self-reporting of the technology time burden, the satisfaction associated with technology, and the impact on telemetry calls from the virtual telemetry monitoring center. In the pretest survey, only 10% to 14% of bedside staff were somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with the time spent managing technology. In the posttest survey, that number increased from 92% to 96%. In the pretest survey, 64% to 83% of bedside staff reported often or frequently fixing, managing, or looking for technology. In the posttest survey that number decreased from 4% to 16%. There was also a reduction in telephone calls from the virtual telemetry monitoring center after implementation. The patient technology technician role was able to successfully relieve the technology time burden for bedside staff.