By Aimee Wilde, Partnerships Lead, Accurx
Nurses are the backbone of our NHS. Over 750,000 nurses are registered with the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC), making nursing the largest clinical workforce in the UK. For patients and their families, nurses are often their primary point of interaction with the health service, providing essential care and support during critical times. We all have stories – whether from our own experiences or those of our loved ones – where a nurse’s kindness and unwavering support has made the daunting prospect of recovery seem possible.
Many nurses enter the profession because they’re driven to provide deep care for others. Considering this, it tracks that one of the elements of their work that nurses report getting the deepest sense of enjoyment and satisfaction from is providing direct care to patients. In challenge to this, many nurses now face a heavy administrative workload that reduces the time and energy they can dedicate to clinical, patient-facing tasks. Non-clinical work for nurses has been growing steadily in recent years and although it’s too early to determine the definitive impact, the recent mandate for ICSs to cut their workforce by 50% could exacerbate things further.
The impact of this administrative burden on nurses is significant. It detracts from their ability to deliver patient care, creates potential issues around patient safety, and contributes to low morale and burnout. At Accurx, we regularly work with frontline nurses that echo a similar outlook and share murmurings about potentially wanting to leave their jobs. And the scale of this challenge is huge. According to RCN data, over 40% of nurses are contemplating leaving their nursing careers.
To stem this potential exodus of brilliant nurses, we must find ways to drastically reduce the time nurses spend on non-clinical tasks. Dawn Dowding, Co-Chair of the Digital Nursing Forum at RCN rightly notes “the NHS can’t afford to lose anymore nurses… and it is time that we implemented digital systems that help nurses work more efficiently”. So what can be done from a digital perspective to support nurses today? Below are three practical use cases where nurses are already using technology to empower themselves, improve productivity and ultimately treat more patients.
Nurse-led helplines: digital triage
Nursing teams in many acute specialities run service helplines, which are often the only way for patients to connect with secondary care teams. The patient demand for support via these helplines can easily become overwhelming for nursing teams that are usually already understaffed. Having to deal with such a high volume of patient requests via this medium can delay nurses from visiting in-patients and attending important MDT meetings. In attempts to mitigate this, many service helplines are only open for a set time during the morning and do not have a voicemail capability. Whilst this might help nursing teams better manage their capacity, it creates a very frustrating experience for patients – who may spend many hours on the phone trying to connect with a nursing team to no avail.
Digital patient triage offers an alternative to this. This is where patients are sent a web link to a simple, digital form where they can submit requests for support. Admin & nursing teams can review, triage and respond to requests from a single inbox, enabling patient requests to be resolved and actioned without a phone call; saving nurses significant time. This has been the case for the IBD nursing team at UHL, who introduced the use of digital patient triage in 2024. They’ve seen over a 60% increase in patient interactions that they’re able to support year on year (compared to previously only having the helpline available). They’ve also been able to help resolve 170 flare ups per month, representing an 80% increase in flares treated and also A&E admissions avoided.
Other nursing teams at UHL (including the Urology service) are also beginning to adopt this approach. Aimee Winfield, Urology Lead CNS, highlights the benefits: “Phone lines were the bane of my life… [Now] if I have 5 messages via the digital form, I’ll have a quick flick through and see who needs to be called first. Often, I don’t even need to call back and can simply reply to the patient with a text message.” Given this feedback, we urge CNIOs, Chief Nurses and Lead Digital Nurses to employ this approach and see firsthand the transformative impact it can have in empowering frontline nurses and improving productivity.
Reduce administrative tasks for nurses in clinics
In many healthcare interactions, detailed information needs to be collected from patients to determine the most appropriate, safe, and effective treatment options available. Traditionally in secondary care, this responsibility falls to nurses during clinic appointments. This can be challenging as nurses may spend a lot of time waiting for patients to recall information which rushes them to provide responses, or they have to chase incomplete information later because patients lack relevant family history or medication information.
Digital tools can empower nurses by enabling them to send patients digital questionnaires ahead of clinics. This approach has been introduced at UHCW’s Surgical Options Clinic. Previously, patients completed a health questionnaire in-clinic with nurse support. The clinic took several hours and accommodated 10 patients. Now, patients receive a digital questionnaire via Accurx, allowing them to complete it in private, at their own pace, and with medications to hand. The clinic’s capacity has doubled to 20 patients per session. Patient experience has improved, and nurses spend significantly less time on admin during the clinic and trying to contact patients to collect outstanding information.
Empower nursing teams to communicate across care settings
Patient pathways often span multiple healthcare providers, requiring Clinical Nurse Specialists to communicate with primary care colleagues. Nurses may need to share and discuss onward care plans, wound care plans, medication changes and general queries about their patients. Conventionally, communication like this across the care divide is via phone or email. But nurses can spend hours trying to get through to GP practices on the phone or spend significant time waiting for and chasing email replies.
The Heart Failure Nursing team at George Eliot Hospital experienced these challenges firsthand. They previously spent 30 minutes per patient informing GP practices of medication changes. Now, they use our digital Message GP product to send prescription changes directly to GPs, reducing the time to 5 minutes per patient. This change saves the team over four weeks of working time per year.
The road ahead
Straightforward, proven, and easy-to-use digital tools like the ones discussed can make a tangible impact on reducing the administrative load for nurses. More importantly, these tools have the potential to improve nurses’ day-to-day, prevent burnout and boost morale. By embracing these methods, we can help nurses get back to what they love and excel at -caring for patients– and ensure they remain motivated in their vital, frontline roles.
If you work in nursing and think Accurx can help, email partnerships@accurx.com
