Nurses' Communication Skills to Take Center Stage at Informatics Workshop

This month we're gearing up for our 4th annual Nurse Informatics Workshop, to be held at our Canton facility on April 27th and 28th. Our theme this year focuses on nurses' critical roles as facilitators of communication, and leaders in the effort to improve the quality of patient care. We have a number of great speakers lined up for the workshop, who will provide some fascinating perspectives on industry trends, customer achievements, and MEDITECH technologies. Patricia Dykes, senior nurse informatician at Partners HealthCare System, Inc., will share the results of a national survey measuring the impact of nursing and interdisciplinary communication on health care. We will also hear from Berkshire Health System's Director of Clinical Informatics, Mimi Hassett, on the changing role of the nurse informaticist, and how we can continue to provide the highest level of care amidst today's increasingly complex health environments. The ability to administer effective care at the patient's bedside is key for nurses, and several presentations will share our customers' successes in this area. With 118 sites installing MEDITECH's Bedside Medication Verification (BMV) this year, we anticipate a great deal of interest in Deborah Harris' session on her experience with BMV at Howard County General Hospital. Likewise, attendees won't want to miss seeing Mary Jo Grendel of Ohio Valley Medical Center, who will be speaking on the benefits of documenting at the point of care.

As usual, MEDITECH's Development team will provide an exciting glimpse into their most recent efforts in the Nursing arena—including a general overview of product functionality, the new Oncology application, and the redesign of the MAGIC Medication Administration Record. Throughout the event, there will be plenty of time for attendee comments and questions, especially with the addition of new roundtable discussions during the lunch hour! Our workshop speakers will be assigned to different lunchtables in our atrium, to facilitate lively discussion and expand on session topics.

Participants will include:

• Berkshire Health System's Mimi Hassett on the role of a nurse informaticist

• Howard County General Hospital's Deborah Harris on BMV implementation

• St. Joseph's Health System's Michelle Woodley on process redesign

• Ohio Valley Medical Center's Mary Jo Grendel on using point-of-care devices

• MEDITECH's Lincoln Brewer on Oncology Management

• MEDITECH's Steve Newton on Oncology Management

• Zynx Health's Pat Button on evidence-based medicine

• The Institute for Health Metrics' A.G. Breitenstein on outcomes measurement.

The registration form and agenda for the Nurse Informatics Workshop are now posted on-line. In the past our workshops have filled up very quickly and we have had to close registration. This year, we are thrilled to give nurses the option of attending our conference remotely via WebEx. We hope this provides an affordable solution for those of you who are unable to attend in person due to budget constraints. We also anticipate this will help to balance the full capacity attendance we have seen at each of the last three workshops. Continuing Education contact hours will be provided for either method of attendance upon submission of session evaluations at the close of the event.

We look forward to another exciting workshop and hope that many of you from the nursing community will join us again this year!