An update from the American Academy of Nursing's Workforce Commission

The American Academy of Nursing formed the Workforce Commission in 2000 to develop strategies for combating the nursing shortage by reducing the demand on nurses' time. Over the past 4 years, the Commission's work has focused on describing the benefits of deploying technology to enhance patient safety, enable efficient workflows, and improve nurse retention. They are currently disseminating the results of their Technology Targets Project with continued funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2006 and 2007, the Commission conducted their study, “Technology Targets: A Synthesized Approach for Identifying and Fostering Technological Solutions to Workflow Inefficiencies on Medical/Surgical Units.” The data collection engaged interdisciplinary teams of healthcare providers at 25 hospitals across the country in reviewing their normal workflow practices with the aim of assessing how technology could improve the work environment. The study found that while the use of technology has become more common in health care, it has not been designed and adopted in a way that reaches its full potential. Much of the current information system software and many of the devices and equipment systems actually add to the complexity of work environments and take nurses away from their critical responsibility of patient observation and early intervention. The findings support the need for technology interoperability, point of care devices, and workflow analysis to address the efficiency and training issues identified by > 1000 nurses and other clinicians.

With health information technology (IT) becoming a primary part of President Obama's health care reform plan, and with the significant investment for health IT in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Workforce Commission—with the results of their study—has focused its efforts on advocating for the development and deployment of health IT to include nurses and other direct care providers. Involving nurses as end-users in the early stages of system analysis and design can lead to better adoption of new technology, as well as identifying how current technology can be changed in order to achieve increased efficiency and greater user acceptance. The Workforce Commission believes that transformation of health care requires not merely the implementation of health information technology but, rather, the implementation of smart technologies that enable health care practitioners to spend more time with their patients. Involving staff in the identification, design, and selection of technologies supports the business case for investing in technologies that address safety, eliminate waste, improve communication, and improve the work environment of nurses.

The Commission's Committee on the Preparation of the Nursing Workforce has been engaged in efforts to pursue growing the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) pipeline and expanding nursing education capacity. They are currently seeking funding to facilitate their work.