What nurses want from an interactive patient engagement solution

Leveraging interactive patient engagement technology is one way hospitals are trying to improve patient engagement.

But what do the nurses want from this technology? Here’s what our clinical team and customers say.

Effective positive distraction

Nurses want to ease the loneliness, fear, and anxiety of a hospital stay for their patients. The SONIFI Health interactive system offers distraction options which can be active or passive. For patients that are awake and/or able, active distraction features help them pass time while in the hospital. They can actively play games or scroll through the interactive program guide to find movies or television programs to watch.

Patients may also find distraction helpful when they are looking to rest. Music, spiritual content and relaxation videos provide passive distraction for patients. These features help provide a calming atmosphere in which patients find a respite from the hustle and hum of the hospital.

Patient education

Nurses are required to educate patients about their condition, medications and procedures. Providing video education incorporates many teaching points on a given topic. The video ensures that the patient has a baseline understanding of the content presented. When the video education has been completed, the nurse can then facilitate further understanding utilizing teach-back methodology to answer questions and assess comprehension of the material.

Implications for nursing practice

Decreasing the workflow of the bedside staff is a constant consideration for healthcare administrators. Automating processes for nurses to allow for more meaningful interactions with patients is paramount to improving the patient experience. Integrating the SONIFI Health interactive platform with the hospital’s EHR, and other critical systems, has shown to ease that burden. Nurses prescribe video education easily via orders or mapping education titles to education points utilized in creating patient care plans. Once viewed, SONIFI Health sends a message back to the EHR to document that the video has been completed. This completes the education task with very little intervention from the nurse.

Patient continuum

Being a patient is an overwhelming experience for the patient and caregivers alike. While in the hospital, there is a lot of information presented that patients are expected to retain. Once home, the lack of understanding and comprehension of conditions, medications, devices and how to care for themselves or their loved ones can often become exacerbated.

Providing access to the teaching materials and videos on the patient portal is one mechanism to reinforce what was taught. Nurses can explain these features when discharging patients, knowing there are options to continue learning once a patient goes home or to another care facility.

Nurses play a big role in helping patients on the road to recovering. Having an interactive solution offers a way to provide education and entertainment to patients, leaving more time for direct patient care.