Going Paperless.

Ever since the introduction of going paperless I have tried my hardest to change paper correspondence to electronic. Not only does it make  a huge difference to the environment but it saves having to sort and file a ton of paperwork every few months - which lets face it is a pain in the bum. I think it is very apparent that in the last few years many companies are promoting a paperless environment. Where I used to work (as a community nurse) we were quite archaic and still used 'old school' diaries to document our visits and kept paper notes in patients homes (which I personally quite liked). however just before I left they were starting to transition into the modern ways and embarking on a paperless work environment thus enabling the nursing staff to document everything with technology as opposed to pen and paper. 

The key to creating a paperless environment and ensuring that its efficacy is being able to have one platform that meets the requirements of an entire business or organisation. I find the concept of this huge, it is after all a mammoth expectation to manage a whole corporation with one platform. It's quite an exciting idea and one that should be embraced to ensure smooth running and professional capabilities from the company. Of course, sometimes change can be met with resistance so encouraging the use of technology to create a paperless environment can be quite a challenge. By using something like the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) it could offer the solution to making this transition easier. I think the concept of introducing something like the ELN into companies is great - it's simple to use, it's a way of bringing everyone together working the same way, everything you need is there within a mere touch away. It's these scientific developments in technology that is the future. 

I'm all for embracing change and helping to reduce our carbon footprint. I use technology myself all the time and think that it's a really positive move for companies to be embracing this new way of working. I can't really imagine not using technology in the workplace now. Funnily enough, a couple of weeks ago we had a power cut while I was at work and it was pretty horrendous - we had to triage patients with no access to records or previous history and had to write our assessment down, all in all it was not good and just went to show just how important technology is to a company. Here's to the future of paperless environments and embracing change in the workplace. 

* Collaborative Post.