A vital link between healthcare and the community, Community Based Nurses (CBNs) are often the face of the NHS for patients. That’s why effective patient engagement is key – but struggling to work with outdated technology not built with each of its diverse users in mind and slow, manual processes, often becomes an obstacle to engagement.

This is an issue that is increasingly urgent. In 2022, NHS England launched The Phillips Ives Nursing and Midwifery Review, an extensive examination of digital capabilities within nursing. While the findings are yet to be published, initial leaks describe a ‘severe shortage’ of nurses with digital skills.

The solution is two-fold: CBNs need additional support and training to increase their digital readiness, but technology itself has a role to play in closing the gap through ease of use, accessibility, security, compliance, and convenience. When such technology can be used from day one, with little or no training, the digital readiness of nursing immediately improves.

Solving major pain points for Community Based Nurses

The role of a CBN is complex and varied. While their remit is to deliver holistic, patient-centred care to individuals in community settings, this broad spectrum of care can include everything from wound dressing and treatment to immunisations and crisis intervention. CBNs are also essential for preventative and proactive care, promoting good health through education on healthy lifestyles, disease prevention, and condition management.

In addition, CBNs sit at the cross-section of a huge number of stakeholders – from patients themselves to colleagues across health and social care. In this context, the digital readiness and productivity of CBNs directly influences the health of the entire healthcare system. This makes it crucial that they are empowered with flexible, effective ways of working, enabled by impactful technology.

Increasing available time to focus on patient engagement

The primary role of a CBN is to engage patients, building an understanding of their health, living conditions, support network, and any new or emerging health concerns. When CBNs spend needless time on manual paperwork and data entry, this takes away from speaking and listening to the needs of individual patients.

Speech recognition like Augnito Spectra allows CBNs to securely capture patient information, observations and care plans in real-time simply by speaking. This is significantly faster than manual typing, creating time savings with every interaction. Speech-based data capture also means nurses spend less time with their heads buried in devices and more time making eye contact and building connections with their patients, leading to improved patient satisfaction.

Accessing digital tools with a fast-moving, mobile workflow

By definition, CBNs are out in the community – not sitting next to a laptop or PC with direct access to Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This often creates long delays before notes are captured in electronic files, an obstacle to swift action and collaboration. Delays also increase the likelihood of errors in documentation, with nurses under pressure to replicate notes hours after a visit.

Augnito Spectra brings 99.9% accurate speech recognition, powered by AI, to any device. As a cloud-hosted solution, Augnito can be securely accessed from anywhere on smartphones and tablets, enabling new compliant ways of working and data to be captured closer to the source. This reduces the risk of errors. Augnito is also deeply integrated with common EHR/EPR systems, allowing records captured in the field to be instantly replicated in central systems for all practitioners to see.

Dealing with isolation and a challenging  work-life balance

The nature of community-based nursing can blur the lines between professional and personal life. Community nurses are also often isolated from their colleagues, working in remote locations either independently or as part of a small team. These issues affect job satisfaction and resilience. According to a 2023 study, these working conditions are leading to an ‘exodus of staff’ in community nursing.

Digital tools can play a significant role in managing workloads, preventing unpaid overtime, and ensuring that community nurses feel supported in their work. Augnito Spectra is a flexible cost effective way to bring digital tools to wherever community nurses need them – as opposed to providing centralised tools that community nurses rarely interact with.

Beyond being available on any device, Augnito’s cloud-based medical speech recognition provides user-centric technology developed not just for nurses, clinicians, and all patient related medical personnel, but a solution that’s been developed by healthcare professionals. That’s why it enables closer collaboration between medical personnel in different locations. Nurses can share information with colleagues, specialists and consulting clinicians/physicians more easily, so they can benefit from peer collaboration and feel part of a connected team – not a ‘forgotten service’ left to fend for itself.

Learn more about Augnito

See how Augnito Spectra empowers CBNs to focus on patients, not paperwork. Request a demo to see the benefits for yourself.