Good care takes time – above all time for personal attention. The ultimate objective for any clinic is to promote the health and well-being of its patients. Nursing homes also aim to care for residents not only by maintaining their health, but above all by enabling them to live in dignity and encouraging company. However, the nursing service in particular is facing growing challenges: At care units used to fullest capacity, the everyday work life of most nursing staff is often characterized by highly demanding and time-consuming working conditions. Many activities have to be coordinated and handled with a great deal of documentation effort. In addition, nursing staff have to accept frequent interruptions in their workflow and at the same time meet the growing demands of patients and their relatives.
The constant tension resulting from this not only makes nursing work appear less attractive, it is also at the expense of one of the central aspects of nursing: human attention. But this is exactly what caregivers consider as the original motivation for their work: they understand their profession as a highly meaningful, helping activity that focuses on people.
As a result, the goal is to relieve the workload of nursing staff, to improve communication between them and their patients, to simplify work processes and to create more time for caring.
A patient activates the call button
Many reasons can cause a patient to make a nurse call by using the call button. Not all of them require immediate action by the nurse. The call button is not only used for urgent requests, but also when a patient simply wishes to obtain information or to have a window opened.
The DAKS alarm server directs the nurse call to the assigned nurse
Nurse Anna only receives nursing calls from patients who are personally assigned to her on her mobile terminal. On the display, she can see from which patient the call originated. If Nurse Anna is busy with an emergency, she can reject the incoming nurse call and forward it to other nurses. When she accepts the call, the nurse call alarm stops for all other nurses. A green flashing corridor signal lamp indicates that a nurse is taking care of the nurse call.
Talking to the patient by telephone clarifies their needs
Without having to leave her current work place, Nurse Anna can establish a voice connection to the patient at the touch of a button. The dialogue with the patient helps her to evaluate the priority of the call and to decide whether an immediate interruption of her workflow is necessary. This allows Nurse Anna to save many trips and better organize her work. If the patient just wanted information and had his request answered by telephone, Nurse Anna can cancel the nurse call alarm right from her telephone device.
Nursing duties can be organized effectively
If the patient's request does not require an immediate reaction, but cannot be clarified via telephone either, Nurse Anna can "memorize" the nurse call on her device. The signal light continues to show a green flashing light indicating that a nurse has accepted the call. Nurse Anna can now complete her current task and subsequently look after her "memorized" nurse call. Should a preset time span be exceeded before her arrival at the "memorized" resident, the alarm will be restarted.
The entire alarm process is documented
DAKS provides a detailed logging of all broadcast calls triggered by the call system. The logging supports the documentation of nurse call processing and nursing activities and can be used as an effective and audit-proof basis for the evaluation and optimization of processes and nursing quality.
Relieving the strain on employees
- Fewer and more relevant alarms for each nurse reduce the overall exposure to alarm signals.
- Answering calls over the phone helps reduce walking distances and interruptions.
Satisfying the patients
- The nursing staff can devote more time and attention to the individual patient.
- Patients don't have to wait long for a reaction and feel better looked after.
Increasing efficiency and safety for those in charge
- By relieving the workload, stress notices and staff absences due to illness can be reduced.
- The overall nursing quality increases.
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