AMA pushes EHR training for medical students
Electronic health records are playing a major role in pushing the health care industry forward to where it needs to be in terms of care delivery and patient satisfaction. The number of providers and hospitals adopting EHR systems has skyrocketed since 2012 and industry experts expect this number to continue growing in the future.
The American Medical Association recently emphasized how important it is that new health professionals learn to use EHR systems while they are in school before entering into the medical field.
EHRs a vital part of physician training
As new doctors enter the medical realm, they are faced with the challenge of adapting to an industry that is constantly evolving with the introduction of new health care reforms, federal policy modifications and mobile health advancements. This should change the skills offered from medical programs for young physicians and nurses training to enter the health care sector, as they must learn these new systems before they can successfully contribute to practices and hospitals.
The AMA announced in a press release that the organization will adopt a new initiative called Accelerating Change in Medical Education in an effort to ensure that all medical students are sufficiently trained and prepared to join the medical sphere upon graduating from school. The policy promotes practice and experience using certified EHR systems for nurses and physicians in training.
"There is a clear need for medical students today to have access to and learn how to properly use electronic health records well before they enter practice," AMA Board Member Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, M.D., said in the press release. "For our future physicians to successfully navigate the 21st century health care system, we must close the gaps that currently exist between how medical students are educated and how healthcare is delivered now and in the future."
AMA initiative set to enhance medical school training
The goal of the new policy is to enable the AMA to closely work with young health professionals and improve medical school training. It will also encourage residencies, schools and fellowship programs to make students use EHR systems and medical devices while serving patients in exam rooms or at hospital bedsides. This is vital to ensuring that patient care and communication accuracy will continue to improve as the industry moves forward.
If students learn how to work an EHR system before starting their professional careers, tasks like entering patient encounter data and clinical orders properly into the system will not be so time-consuming to learn, as they will already have mastered them.
The AMA's new Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative includes the organization's partnership with 11 leading medical schools across the country. The group is hoping to enhance medical school education for students throughout the U.S. over the coming months by slowly making EHR training a mandatory part of new undergraduate medical education programs.
Another aspect of the AMA's new policy is promoting inter-professional education, which will help students more efficiently manage team-based care once they begin their careers. The initiative will develop innovative workshops and programs to provide medical students with the chance to learn and work alongside social work, public health, pharmacy and nursing students.
In its press release, AMA officials noted that one of its underlying goals is to help make future health professionals become skilled learners who have mastered adaptive learning, as the industry will continue evolving over the course of the coming decades. The ability to quickly learn new technologies such as EHRs, remote monitoring tools and mobile health applications is vital to ensuring that they can successfully tackle the challenges that come with a growing industry.
