Anna, Head Nurse/Head of Unit at Medoma, shares her background and vision for the virtual ward. Press here to read more!
In this article, Anna, unit manager of the virtual department at St Görans Hospital, gives us insight into her work and how she and Medoma shape the future of care, where innovation and cross-functional collaboration are at the center. A crucial reason for why Anna chose to get involved was the opportunity to develop and establish Sweden’s first virtual ward it and to build perhaps Sweden's most innovative care team.
Extensive background and large interest in healthcare in the home
Anna explains that she has long experience of care at homefrom previous employment and started to work as a nurse in 2005. She lives in Lidingö with her husband and two teenage children. She has an education from Ersta's special program, which is a 4-year nursing education from Ersta Sköndal Högskola specialised in elderly care and with continuation courses in economy, geriatrics etc. Her first employment in health care was as a nurse for a night patrol, where she performed primary care at home when the health centers were closed. In addition, she has worked at Södersjukhuset in an inpatient ward and in the emergency room, as a unit manager at a health center. Additional experience of home care was gained from her time as assistant operations manager, where Anna was involved in setting up an ASIH operation with patients from Region Stockholm.
The opportunity to perform person-centered care and to create patient safety is one of Anna’s strongest driving forces. She believes that regular inpatient wards are extremely important and essential for large parts of the care process, however, she believes that Hospital-at-Home supported by digiphysical working methods can extend and facilitate several parts of the care process.
Enhancing development and productivity at the virtual ward
Large parts of Anna’s daily work include developing the virtual care model and understanding how to facilitate working processes at the ward. She is also responsible of optimizing the collaboration with St Görans Sjukhus. She highlights the importance of identifying how technology can create a productive and pleasant patient journey. Also, how technology can make the working process within the care team more effective. A concrete example is the creation of an integrated chat between the care staff to streamline communication. The staff at the virtual department and the tech team at Medoma are working closely and openly to jointly test, evaluate and improve Medoma's software platform.
Competencies required for leadership in virtual care
Anna describes that being a Head Nurse and Head of Unit at the virtual wards requires updated knowledge regarding technological progression and a broad understanding of both inpatient care and home care. It is also important to create a supportive and collaborative team. Open communication and commitment are key components to creating and maintaining a positive work climate.
"Everyone at Medoma should feel that they participate in the creation of the virtual ward. We create Hospital-at-home together and everyone's ideas and thoughts are extremely valuable. To guarantee that everyone is included, each person has a personal area of responsibility, and each team member receives extra time allocated to work within that area. For example, someone is responsible for medicines, someone else for a specific part of the technology.” says Anna enthusiastically.
Employee satisfaction
Creating and running a completely new form of care is a challenge, but Anna chooses to see it as a positive and rewarding experience. She emphasizes the importance of a motivated and flexible team to meet the constant changes and challenges that the work entails. She believes that the staff appreciate working in the virtual department where they have the opportunity to work with new methods. Measurements of employee satisfaction have shown an eNPS of 90, which is uniquely high in healthcare and other industries as well.
"Patients who receive care at home are often very grateful, which affects the satisfaction of the nursing staff. Employees in the team claim that for the first time in their working career, they don't feel anxious about going to work. This makes you understand how important it is to dare to challenge the working methods in healthcare," says Anna.
The future of virtual healthcare (Hospital-at-home)
Anna is enthusiastic about the future of Hospital-at-Home. She believes it is a stimulating way of working and that it will be an obvious element in future healthcare.
"A balance is created where you meet the patients' needs at home and complement the traditional care in situations where it facilitates and is more effective" - Anna continues.
We asked Anna if she had to switch places with someone at virtual ward, who would it be? She replied that she would like to switch places with a patient for a day. This would give her further understanding of how it feels for them and what needs to change to create the ultimate care.
In conclusion, we would like to thank Anna for sharing her thoughts and for her contribution in creating a pleasant work environment in line with Medoma's motto, Care ♥ tech.
