Electronic Medical Records & Resident Education

Increases Face-to-Face Learning Time with Patients

• EMRs provide the ability to enter patient notes directly into the record. Decreasing time spent on hand-written documentation increases a resident's face-to-face learning time with patients to improve education.

Improves Quality of Care Learning

• EMRs provide instant access to treatment guidelines and resources, allowing faster turn-around time for patient care. This increases a resident's educational opportunities for hands-on patient care.

Creates an Understanding of How Systems Work Together

• EMRs integrate systems and reports from different clinical areas. A resident may review a laboratory result and then access the integrated pharmacy system for the best drug treatment.

Creates New Privacy and Security Issues

• Electronic patient information creates new policies, procedures and regulations. Residents need education on the new technology, therefore decreasing patient care learning time.

Creates Missed Opportunities

• The efficiency of EMRs may result in missed educational opportunities. A physician may instinctively click through the record instead of explaining each part of the patient's case, therefore resulting in decreased education for the resident.

Creates Lack of Uniformity

• The lack of uniformity for EMR use creates a higher learning curve for residents switching between paper and electronic records. In addition, learning issues may arise when systems are integrated at one site but not another.