How to Build Comfort with New Technology to Improve Buy-In

By Matt Phillion

Healthcare professionals and the organizations they work for face a constant stream of new technology options offering ways to improve workflows, eliminate administrative burden, and lead them to better patient outcomes.

To best implement new technologies as they arise, organizations need to consider buy-in from nurses and other healthcare professionals. The key to success includes asking for input and inviting those who will use the technology to the table for appropriate transparency and education.

Tools like real-time location services can make a big difference for efficiency and patient experience when properly implemented. What steps can organizations take to ensure staff are comfortable with new and emerging tech to increase buy-in and speed up implementation?

A good place to start is realizing just how much new information staff receive constantly, and how to elevate their understanding that emerging technology can help lessen that burden.

“There’s a lot we’re throwing at staff on a regular basis,” says Mary Jagim, MS, RN, CEN, FAEN, principal consultant with CenTrak. “They’ve got new things coming at them all the time.”

The conversation around new technology doesn’t always happen the way it should, she notes.

“There’s opportunity to do a better job with that. We’d avoid a lot of mistakes, misunderstandings, and mis-designs in products if we engaged with the users more,” Jagim explains. “We’re placing a stronger focus on incorporating the customer voice early in product design, engaging future users to understand what matters most to them.”

Reaching out to the right people

Who those voices are can be very product dependent, Jagim explains. Target your outreach for those who need and use the technology most.

“If it’s something related to equipment location, we’re talking more to folks who are involved in the day-to-day management of that equipment. If it’s material management, we need some clinical users who maintain those products and are very involved on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “If it has to do with staff duress, talk to patient-facing staff and clinical leaders.”

In essence, it’s listening to the voice of the customer.

“If it works for the staff, they’re going to be engaged and they’re going to use it,” says Jagim. “If it doesn’t work, it will be an uphill battle all the way.”

Take, for example, a new hospital building, being designed with the intent to be a “smart hospital.” You have brand new staff coming on board, learning together as a whole about the organization itself, the physical layout of the building, as well as the everyday tools at their disposal.

Design with the end in mind, Jagim says.

“Think about something like asset location. You want to configure it for those who will use it,” she says. “I’m an emergency nurse, and I know what it’s like to search for equipment. So ask: How would I look for this? How do I find ‘our stuff’ and what’s the easiest way to search and locate what I need?”

Be aware of the speed of change, Jagim points out. We are at a point in healthcare where the options for technological advancement hit faster all the time.

“I’ve been going at this for 17 years. In the last two or three years, I’ve seen the most innovation in our history,” says Jagim. “Things are starting to change and they’re modifying our approach to products and solutions.”

Highlight gains in efficiency

Choose solutions and implementation options that can help reduce those non-clinical burdens contributing to the staffing shortages occurring everywhere in the industry right now.

“The last thing we want to do is make more work for nurses,” says Jagim. “Make things easier so they don’t have to spend 20 minutes looking for a piece of equipment and give them a solution that will save them time.”

Saving time not only builds value for the organization but builds more desire to commit to buy-in among staff.

“That’s really what’s key: what you’re doing saves them time, and that brings them value, and thus it makes their job easier and less stressful,” says Jagim.

Make sure the training doesn’t feel like a burden, either, she notes.

“Training on a solution should be very simple. You don’t want them to have to struggle to figure out how to use it,” Jagim says. “Nurses appreciate the see-one, do-one, teach-one format of training. Make it active and keep it simple.”

Where you can, simplify and automate the processes.

“For something like patient locating and workflow optimization, assign a badge to the patient at the very beginning, so at the end of the visit that badge goes into a drop box with all the data and messaging you have automatically tied to it,” Jagim says.

In this way, the technology is end-to-end for the patient while also picking up some of the administrative burden.

The training format matters

There’s a real need to keep training simple but impactful so that staff can see the value and not start looking for ways to avoid the technology.

“If a solution isn’t intuitive from the start, people will naturally find creative ways to get their work done,” says Jagim. “That’s why it’s essential to have regular touchpoints with key staff, like nurse managers and frontline teams, to gather feedback early and address challenges quickly. Building strong, ongoing relationships helps ensure the solution truly fits their needs and drives success.”

Poor or insufficient training and communication are among the greatest pitfalls for implementing new technology, Jagim notes.

“The timing of training is critical,” she explains. “If it’s scheduled too far in advance, staff are likely to forget key details. My preference is to conduct training and walkthroughs shortly before go-live, keeping everything fresh in their minds and ensuring they feel confident when it’s time to start using the system.”

But training and communication doesn’t end when the product goes live, Jagim explains.

“You have to accept that change is going to happen. Shifting rules, new people coming in, new leaders,” she says. “But be open-minded and invite feedback.”

Be prepared to articulate the value new technology will provide.

“Maybe they don’t see the value right away, but we can show them the difference it will make in their day—reducing search time from 20 minutes to two minutes or increasing their rate of finding equipment when they need it to 95%,” says Jagim. “We need to use the right tools to articulate the value, how it will meet their needs and make their work simpler without the implementation becoming overwhelming.”

Ensure you’re using the right delivery method for education and training, as well.

“Keep it simple and visual to make adoption easy,” Jagim says. “Clinicians are juggling multiple priorities, so focus on concise, high-impact messages that clearly show the value and return on their time.”

Matt Phillion is a freelance writer covering healthcare, cybersecurity, and more. He can be reached at matthew.phillion@gmail.com.