Q&A: Nursing and the integration of technology at HIMSS25

LAS VEGAS – Lavonia Thomas, nursing informatics officer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, sat down with MobiHealthNews at the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas last week to discuss how nurses are implementing digital tools that help improve patient care. 

MobiHealthNews: Why is stewarding the integration of new technology via change management processes and coordinated protocol important?

Lavonia Thomas: It’s about how we bring technology and devices into the nursing practice.

It is all about vetting it with nurses; it is the change management. It is really talking to nurses about it to determine if the technology is even seen as beneficial. And if it is not seen as beneficial but that is a gaffe, then how do we get there?

Once something is approved, whether it is a change or whether it is a new piece of technology, we have a platform where we have subject matter experts, nursing informatics specialists along with my leadership team. I see it as almost as tentacles of information sharing so it gets back down to the front line.

MHN: MD Anderson has been promoting comprehensive well-being and mitigating burnout by investing in nurses with broad professional, educational development and personal well-being opportunities. How successful has that initiative been? Do nurses feel engaged in the process?

Thomas: We are having some great success in nurses’ engagement and their feeling of being highly engaged.

A nurse is not going to tell you, “I love the electronic health record” or certain things about technology.

What is important is that they feel that they are heard, that their feedback is taken into the design and development and that their workflows are assessed.

We are having some really great success from our engagement scores that we do through KLAS research.

We are showing a high degree of engagement. Nurses feel very engaged in the process.

When we are compared to other organizations, we certainly have a high engagement score – again, driven by the nurses feeling that they have a say, that they have information, that they understand what is happening and they have the ability to have it addressed.

MHN: You said that you have set a model for other institutions by integrating key feedback from frontline nurses in healthcare decision-making? How has that been received? 

Thomas: We have a great deal of support. We have a very robust informatics program designed solely for nurses, and they are staffed by nurses in nursing informatics specialist roles. 

In addition, we have the support from individual units to have at least two nurses, if not more, per care delivery unit as subject matter experts attending monthly meetings where they are both able to provide feedback to us to take back. They also take back information to the front line. 

The organization continues to support a very robust nursing informatics infrastructure, which enables us to be at elbow support [right there, alongside, ready and waiting to help] to hear nurses as they are interacting with technology to give us feedback.

This is one of the benefits of having a robust nursing informatics team because change must be planned for and supported beyond actual go-live. Having someone at the elbow and in person is key to change management for MD Anderson nurses.

MHN: What is next in digital transformation for nursing?  How are informatics leaders driving meaningful change?

Thomas: One effort that we have been undertaking for two years now is the thorough review along with staff nurses of the documentation and flowsheets. Looking at every flowsheet, looking at every entry, looking at the multitude of choices that they have and streamlining those.

We have been able to eliminate some flowsheet rows, some flowsheet groups. We have been able to consolidate so there is not as much clicking.

And that has all come from nurses providing us with what is excess and what needs to be maintained. That has been the huge efficiency that we have been working toward building.

It is not one and done when you roll anything out, whether it be some new documentation, whether it be a new device. It takes time, it takes talking about that it is coming, it takes talking about it when it is there, and then it requires [continued support and refinement] once it is there.

What we have in place is a team that supports the preparation for change, introduction of new technology/workflow and supports all along as the technology is incorporated into the workflow.  

This is vital as it helps refine and build efficiency as nurses gain a better understanding for use and then provide feedback.