Introducing Jane — The First Digital Nurse Advisor

Stepping into a busy healthcare organization, whether as a longtime clinician or a new graduate, is tough for any nurse. Regardless of experience level, it’s natural for the “newbie” to feel a little disoriented. How can supervisors and others among the leadership in nursing help their new teammate not only onboard more quickly, but also uncover their competencies in various core tasks and so ensure the best fit, or fix any hidden deficiencies early on?

Here’s how. HealthStream has introduced the Jane™ system, the first-ever AI-based competency assessment solution using a conversational format. Powered by IBM Watson, Jane is a highly reliable, effective, and evidence-based method for the assessment and validation of clinical competency. What’s more, Jane is a comprehensive system and virtual nurse advisor whose approach to ensuring the readiness and ability of your nursing staff can provide multiple benefits to your organization.

Those benefits include the ability to:

Enhance current orientation processes for newly licensed and experienced hires. Is your orientation aligning to and matching where your new hires are in their careers? New clinicians in their first job or an early career position need a far more extensive introduction than seasoned professionals who are joining your organization as the next step in their careers. Jane acts as a nurse advisor in assessing each hire, then allows you to curate unique education plans based on each individual’s specific results, rather than taking a blanket approach and putting every new hire through the same process.

Improve clinicians’ clinical competency. Jane can be deployed to evaluate the competency of existing staff and use those findings to assign training in any areas where deficiencies are discovered. Jane also can factor in evidence-based practice changes to long accepted standards and healthcare processes, to ensure that staff is providing the highest quality care.

Decrease organizational risk. Competent employees providing the highest-quality care reduce risk for the organization. Jane helps reduce the concern among leadership in nursing that clinicians may not know what they are doing or may not be following the latest evidence-based best practices.

A Beneficial Solution in Multiple Areas and Situations

Jane can be of assistance not just with employees at different experience and skill levels, but also in many different areas throughout the organization and the continuum of care. For instance:

• Targeted orientation: After completing a new-hire assessment, Jane can provide appropriate orientation that includes a thorough understanding of job responsibilities and may help a new employee contribute much more quickly and thus engage with the team more rapidly.
• Preparing for internal moves: Jane can orient employees who are cross-training to move to a different department or set of duties within an organization.
• Ongoing competency maintenance: Healthcare organizations need to be certain staff is competent and able to provide high-quality care. As part of an active learning process, Jane’s regular assessments highlight areas where remedial training may be warranted, heading off decreased job performance and employee disengagement.

Jane is an exciting, innovate solution to onboarding and resolving ongoing competency concerns. In addition to being comprehensive, Jane also is nimble—the system is built on a growing database of knowledge and critical thinking assessment and taps into a large and expanding continuing education library. Future developments include regulatory exams and associated learning relevant to the continuing care industry, making the use of Jane as a virtual nurse advisor an invaluable addition all across the continuum of care.

Learn more about Jane here.