Lead Gynaecology Cancer Nurse Specialist Mary Brinsdon has become a keen user of the Dorset Care Record in recent months, using the shared care record nearly 500 times during May.
Mary, who has been a gynaecology and oncology clinical nurse specialist at University Hospitals Dorset for the past eight and a half years, found out about the shared care record from colleagues.
“We were told about if by other health professionals who were using it and saying how many benefits it had and so we signed up. It’s very easy to use – just a click from our Electronic Patient Record to the Dorset Care Record.”
Mary is involved in the cancer patient’s treatment pathway and says it is really important to be able to have the most up to date medical history available. We need this for when we discuss our patients at our weekly Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs) and for planning patient treatment.
“We do have GP information but it’s not always up to date. With the DCR I can see, for example, if a patient is asthmatic or whether she has had a hysterectomy by looking at her past medical history.
“The benefits of the DCR is that it has up to date information available and our nurse practitioners and gynaecological nurse practitioners are all using it and finding it really beneficial.
Mary also runs a monthly nurse led endometrial cancer follow up clinic, where she can look at the DCR to see how the patient is faring or if anything has changed.
She says it’s very useful when, for example, a patient is unable to remember the name of the medication.
“I use the DCR a lot for medication history and allergy information and it would be fantastic if the shared care record included more information on patient weights as this would be really helpful when planning chemotherapy treatment,” she added.
Ends