Find out more about eHealth

Published: 29 November 2012

A resource has been developed by the RCN to help nursing staff, including health care assistants and assistant practitioners, to understand the basics of eHealth.

eHealth is an umbrella term for the use of technology to promote, empower and facilitate health and wellbeing with individuals, families and communities.

The resource, called eHealth at Work, covers electronic patient records, telehealth and access to online knowledge. Increased awareness of eHealth will help nursing staff understand the benefits and challenges of using technology and encourage them to explore how to contribute to developments within their workplace.

With the introduction of electronic patient records, remote care and other sophisticated IT health systems, HCAs and APs, along with their nursing colleagues, need to be prepared for working in an increasingly information-intensive environment.

RCN member Lynne Vincent said: “The main benefits of using electronic patient records is that it gives you instant access to their notes. It means there is no more trying to locate those big old paper files and then trailing through the notes and then discovering that crucial bits are missing as everything is there, in one central place.”

The RCN’s aim is to embed eHealth within nursing practice and has developed a resource to help members understand some of the basics. It is important because while many of us are comfortable using technology such as mobile phones, laptops or personal computers in our private lives, we may be less sure of their role and impact in our work lives.

eHealth is focused on how technology supports nursing staff to perform their roles, improve communication and access patient information at the point of care. This could be using systems to record patient care in an electronic record, which is shared with colleagues and other organisations to support continuity and safety. 

Adoption of new technology and ways of working with patients and their families to improve self management can have an enormous impact on the quality of life. For example, telehealth involves remote monitoring of patients with long-term conditions in their own homes. Nursing staff work with the patients to review their results and plan appropriate treatment to promote disease management and possibly reduce hospital admission.

Claire Medd, a clinical specialist, said: “The key to telehealth is to use it to try and identify signs and symptoms of infection, for example, early so that intervention can take place which prevents the patient having exacerbation which potentially could prevent hospitalisation.”

It is important for all staff to have an understanding of eHealth topics such as the benefits and risks of electronic information sharing, the need for good data quality and new developments such as patient access to their health records. 

In addition, webinars based on eHealth at Work are available for those who would like more information to contribute to a discussion. More information about the RCN’s contribution to eHealth and the webinars can be found in the eHealth section of the RCN website.