With nurses outnumbering providers in the medical community four to one, nurses are the “heavy lifters” and unsung heroes of most medical practices. It’s only fitting that we celebrate the critical role they play in healthcare during National Nurses Week from May 6 through 12, 2018.
At ScanSTAT, we are fortunate to have multiple nurses among our healthcare data experts. We celebrated their service throughout the week by capturing a group picture and highlighting individual team members in spotlight features internally and externally. Additionally, we shared fun nursing facts on Twitter and Facebook.
This year’s theme of “Nurses Inspire, Innovate, and Influence” is important in the midst of a nursing shortage. An aging population coupled with expansion of healthcare access has created a demand for healthcare services. Unfortunately, the United States is facing not only a shortage of nurses, but a shortage of providers as well, meaning all members of a medical office are carrying more work and responsibility. For nurses, this means not only executing their clinical duties caring for patients, but also performing non-patient facing and time-consuming administrative tasks like chart abstraction, orders completion, fulfilling records request, prior authorizations and more. Noting the theme of this National Nurses Week, ScanSTAT wants to honor nurses by allowing them to continue to inspire and influence patients rather than be stuck behind a phone or computer screen. We aim to take on those back-office administrative tasks to help nurses do what they do best – inspire, innovate, and influence through direct patient care.
As we reach the conclusion of National Nurses Week, make sure to thank a nurse for their service (especially behind the scenes!) to make our society a better and healthier place.