Using Your Facility's Equipment
During orientation you should have been instructed in how to use the equipment available on your unit, but you may not have had the opportunity to really understand how all things work or may not have encountered an opportunity to use something since that day and now you need to or would like to know how. Ask for help.
Some devices may be very sensitive and can be easily broken or significantly altered if you don't know what you're doing. This is true for those who may be technologically savvy as well. Sometimes devices are set up slightly differently than you may be used to, or customized for your unit or specific users in your facility.
Sometimes software has certain features turned off or eliminated altogether that another facility or user may have access to. For example, Windows operating system comes with certain games built in, but perhaps your system administrator eliminated them from the facility's computers so that users aren't playing solitaire instead of attending to patients.
Health care software can have multiple uses including documentation, scheduling, and billing. This software may have many options for tracking physicians' orders, lab tests, and results. It can also keep an inventory of supplies, charge them out as used, and reorder them. Each additional option may tack on an added charge to purchase and use. Perhaps your facility only needs to use the software for documentation and billing purposes. Therefore the inventory portions would be turned off as well as the reordering option by the software seller. If you had used this same software at another facility previously, you might be quite confused as to why it doesn't allow you to access lab results. Or perhaps the situation is reversed, and now you have capabilities you are unfamiliar with.
Default settings on certain devices may vary from one unit to another or one facility to another. Perhaps alarms have been turned off or set to low volume. This may be because of the personal preference of the unit manager, or because of interference with other devices on your unit.
A fear of ruining or messing up the controls or defaults on devices is a prime reason that some people avoid technological devices altogether or fight using them. However, if you are careful and ask for help if you are unsure or don't know how to use something at all, then this shouldn't be a problem. Technology can be your best friend and a tremendous time saver if you give yourself time to learn how to use it correctly.
