Epic has launched a new educational initiative to improve EHR usability and satisfaction among nurses.
The new program, called Nursing SmartUser classes, debuted in May during National Nurses Week. It offers four one-hour virtual courses aimed at helping nurses better utilize Epic features to save time and reduce friction in clinical workflows.
“We have about 1.7 million nurses who use Epic for their day-to-day work. One of the things that we consistently pay a lot of attention to here at Epic is trying to make the connection to our end users,” Gregg Springan, a nurse executive at Epic, told Becker’s. “One of the key things we were looking at is that nurses weren’t taking full advantage of some of the features we’ve released — so this is a way to get those tools directly in front of them so that we can try and give them a couple of minutes back in their day through efficiency wins by better using or understanding some of the key features that we’ve recently rolled out.”
The program was co-developed with input from eight health systems and features live training from Epic instructors. Three of the courses focus on inpatient workflows, while one covers high-volume ambulatory tasks, such as managing patient messages in the in-basket.
“A lot of the content is based on tools that have already been widely turned on across our customer base,” Mr. Springan said.
Emily Barey, RN, Epic’s chief nurse evangelist, told Becker’s the program is about more than education — it’s about direct connection.
“At the end of the day, our job description is pretty simple — it’s nursing happiness with Epic,” Ms. Barey said. “We didn’t want there to be any barriers for nurses to get help directly from Epic.”
Nurses can register for the free courses through Epic Earth, a launchpad within their workflow, or via a public-facing website. Since the program’s launch, more than 1,000 users have registered, with an average of 100 to 115 new requests daily, according to Epic. Nurses can also provide feedback on the courses, which is then shared directly with Epic developers.
“We’re seeing great attendance,” Mr. Springan said. “These are bite-sized courses — one hour long — and attendees are reporting that, on average, each course is helping them save upwards of 10 to 15 minutes in their daily use of Epic.”
Ms. Barey said Epic plans to track both subjective and objective outcomes from the program, including reductions in documentation time.
“We’re looking at whether time in the system — especially time on keyboard — goes down after someone completes the course,” she said. “That means more time back with the patient.”
As generative AI becomes more embedded in clinical workflows, Ms. Barey said the SmartUser initiative will evolve accordingly.
“The nature of clinical documentation is evolving fast,” she said. “As AI becomes more present in the next three, six, 12 months, we’ll adapt this program to support that new way of working. We’re building a foundation so nurses can feel confident using Epic now — and ready for what’s coming next.”
