Nurses as Change Agents

Nurse leaders must lead from the forefront in adopting technologies that will enhance their productivity and performance at the workplace.  As a nurse facilitator, the nurse can adopt Everett Roger’s five characteristics of innovation (Sahin, 2006). The characteristic of relative advantage refers to the extent to which an innovation is better than its predecessor.  The nurse facilitator would highlight the advantages of the EHR over the use of the manual system. The nurse facilitator can mention factors such as time saving, minimizing workload and reduction of patient errors as some of the advantages of the EHR system. The second characteristic entails demonstrating how the innovation is compatible with existing values.  The nurse facilitator demonstrates that the adoption of the EHR system would improve patient care, enhance patient safety and boost patient satisfaction levels (Lavin, & Barr, 2015). 
The third characteristics entail demonstrating how innovation is easy to understand and use. The nurse facilitator will reassure that system adopts the basic information technology practices.  Additionally, the facilitator will reassure the nurses that they will receive training before installation of the system. The fourth characteristic focuses on the trialability of the innovation (Rogers Everett, 1995).  The facilitator will take the nurses through an EHR-use session and demonstrate the ease of use.   The facilitator can ask for volunteers to test the system during the meeting. In most instances, resistance to new technologies arises when the employees are unfamiliar with the operations/functions of the innovation.  The fifth characteristic entails the demonstration of observable results (Van de Ven, & Rogers, 1988).  During the trials, the facilitator can display the use of the system on a large projector so that all nurses (in the meeting) can see the ease of use.  The facilitator can also introduce the system in one department e.g. the administration office so that nurses can have an actual feel of how the system simplifies their work.
Reference
 Lavin, M. & Barr, N. (2015). Health information technology, patient safety, and professional nursing care documentation in acute care settings. The online journal of issues in nursing.  Vol. 20(2)
Rogers Everett, M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. New York, 12
Sahin, I. (2006). Detailed review of roger’s diffusion of innovations theory.  The Turkish journal of educational technology.  Vol. 5(2); 3
Van de Ven, A. H., & Rogers, E. M. (1988). Innovations and organizations critical perspectives. Communication research, 15(5), 632-651

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in nursing paper writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for medical essay writing service online.