How healthcare IT can address the nursing shortage

But if applied correctly, IT can play an important role in redefining the way nursing is conducted. It can do so by introducing flexible models of nursing education to increase the pool of qualified nursing professionals; automating and standardizing nursing workflows; eliminating paperwork; supporting patient care delivery models that address the needs of an older workforce; establishing point-of-care clinical decision support tools to improve patient safety; and making health, wellness, and patient education information available. If healthcare IT solutions are deployed in direct response to nursing's ills, particularly job dissatisfaction, the positive image of nursing can be restored, once again making it a career of choice. IT can further reverse the tide of nursing defections, which continually drain the healthcare industry of experienced and dedicated professionals. Finally, both individually and collectively, healthcare IT technologies can reorient nursing activity back towards its principal role of delivering quality patient care.