Like most tools on the market, clinical management software was created to solve a specific problem.
Whereas many career-focused institutions rely on learning management software (LMS), nursing and Allied Health programs need to manage more than curriculum guidelines, course schedules, attendance, and grades.
To address this challenge, many schools wind up using paper that is easily misplaced, spreadsheets that are cumbersome to manage, and other internal processes that are highly manual and useful only in their specific use-case.
Enter clinical management software—a unified, secure way for everyone involved in the clinical process to track skills, progress, time, and attendance in a way that fits their specific program.
One of the challenges we see time and again, however, is that not all clinical programs have the right software in place (or use it to its full potential, even if they do have it).
If you want to streamline your clinical management process, keep reading. Here are four features that every nursing and Allied Health program needs from their clinical management software.
5 Essential Features of Clinical Management Software
1) Easy System Access While Maintaining Security
Over the course of a student’s clinical experience, their skills and knowledge will be evaluated by many different instructors—both within the institution and in the field.
One of the limitations of standard LMS software is that they require licensing fees for everyone who uses the system. However, clinical evaluators in the hospital aren’t school employees, which often creates a legal issue for the software license.
So, it’s important that your CMS is easily accessible for administrators, program coordinators, instructors, clinical evaluators, and anyone else that needs it.
By creating role-specific, program-specific, and user-specific permissions, you can be confident that your CMS is available to all key stakeholders while maintaining data privacy and system security in accordance with FERPA.
Allowing non-employees to access and edit student clinical records without worrying is a peace of mind that all program coordinators deserve.
Streamline clinical education management
from attendance to accreditation
2) Highly Customizable Settings to Meet Unique Program Needs
The needs of every clinical management program are as varied and unique as the students enrolled in them.
What’s important to one institution isn’t necessarily a priority for another. The requirements for a nursing program are going to be different from a doctoral program, which will be different yet from other Allied Health programs.
That’s why it’s important that your CMS software be customizable to fit your needs.
To ensure that your clinical management system works best for your program, students, and course structure, you should be able to customize:
- User access and permissions
- Time and attendance tracking
- Skills progression
- Scheduling
- Communication preferences
- Evaluation forms
3) Guardrails to Ensure Objectivity
One of the most essential elements of clinical management is that students receive honest, objective evaluations. This is non-negotiable to ensure quality standards.
The good news is that your CMS software can help with this. Here are a few ways to ensure that, as much as practically possible, your system guarantees objective evaluation and reliable data.
Example 1: Controlling Clock-In and Clock-Out Tracking
To make sure that time-tracking is accurate and not being manipulated, you can set up limitations so that students can only clock in and out of their clinical shifts in real-time instead of after the fact. Implementing the reject inaccurate pin feature restricts student clock-ins and clock-outs to locations within the defined geofence.
Example 2: Setting Up Secure Reporting
In addition to the security requirements we covered above, it’s also important that everyone feels complete trust in the information that’s being shared and that it’s only going to the right audience.
Sometimes, instructors are hesitant to share honest feedback with the program coordinator out of concern that the student may see it and get upset. Creating a full trust in the system is essential to ensuring objectivity.
4) Build-In Communication Tools
Clinical management software should not only be used for tracking skills and clocking hours, but a unified hub of communication.
Your CMS platform should facilitate communication from instructor to student, instructor to program coordinator, from administrators to instructors, between students, and whatever else may be needed.
When this is done well, your CMS actually creates a sense of community by empowering students to ask questions, share experiences, and support one another. That “we’re all in this together” feeling will help foster relationships that will help them succeed during their clinical challenges.
5) Centralized Clinical Recordkeeping
One of the most essential features of clinical management software is the ability to consolidate accreditation and program outcome data into one central location. This is a must-have for both Nursing and Allied Health programs.
With all of this key performance data in one centralized hub, you can:
- Set up notifications and alerts for unreviewed or standard deficiencies
- Track qualitative or quantitative standards
- Show a complete history of each standard being tracked and any historical logs of changes in the data
That way, administrators or program coordinators have the ability to easily pull data to provide evidence for institutional oversight and accreditation from groups like the Board Nursing (BON).
And, clinical management software works best when it’s part of a larger software ecosystem that is designed for student retention and success. When the CMS is connected to financial aid software, a CRM, an SIS, and an LMS for didactic learning, institutions are able to get complete insights into the student journey, deliver exceptional student experiences, and create the best student outcomes.
So, if you’re ready to make sure that your clinical management software:
- Provides clear insights into student competency and evaluation
- Facilitates communication, including nudges and milestones
- Supports evidence-backed career placement
- Maintains compliance, security, and stays audit-ready
- And fosters objective evaluation of all clinical students
Then explore Portico’s platform to streamline clinical education management from attendance to accreditation.
Trajecsys Clinical Management, powered by Portico, connects program directors, instructors, and students in one comprehensive mobile platform. Read more about it here or Schedule a Demo to get started.