Adapting and evolving as demand changes

Nurse call systems have been a vital part of hospitals since the Victorian era. Today’s systems are an essential part of nursing, and bear little resemblance to their predecessors. Nurse call systems today need to be functional to withstand the demands of a fast-paced hospital environment. It would be fair to say that many systems are no longer simply a nurse call system; their enhanced technology allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to access a wider range of features, transforming the way that such institutions operate, and including many advantages for nurses, both directly and indirectly.  

Medicare Systems’ MD, Derek Timoney, explains how ‘the information required these days for a nurse call system is far more than just an acknowledgment that the patient in bed 3 has pushed her call button’. He says: “The growth in technology, plus the needs of nursing staff and patients, have led to massive changes in the way the call system operates. We have seen systems with just audible or visual identification become systems with numerous functions, including emergency call, cardiac alert, and real-time data recording, along with the advent of wireless systems which can be installed in hours rather than days, all operating within the busy environment of today’s hospitals. Technology is all-pervasive in our modern-day lives, nowhere more so than the healthcare industry. Indeed, as Pamela Cipriano said in a 2009 article, ‘The technology enabled nurse’, ‘Technology is the greatest tool available to transform and innovate the delivery of nursing care’.”1

What is a nurse call system?