Germany is heading towards a staff shortage that is jeopardizing healthcare. Nursing care for the elderly and sick is particularly affected. The pressure on nursing staff is increasing due to the rising number of people in need of care and the worsening staff shortage. The measures that need to be taken by nursing, society and politics in these challenging times were discussed in a variety of ways at the German Nursing Day 2023.

Digital innovations can help professional carers to make their work more effective and improve the quality of care. The "i-care Award" recognizes digital innovations that enable carers in outpatient care services, day care, inpatient care facilities or hospitals to spend more time and quality on direct contact with patients and thus make care more humane. This is because there is less and less time for personal attention in day-to-day care. The international, private pharmaceutical company Servier has also presented the "i-care Award" in 2023, an award for start-ups and young companies that develop such innovations. Jürgen Graalmann, Managing Director of Deutscher Pflegetag Servicegesellschaft mbH and organizer of the German Care Day, welcomed the presentation of the "i-care Award" as a platform for innovative ideas and projects in the care sector. He emphasized how important it is to develop solutions that provide long-term relief for carers.

We know that digital applications have an incredibly high socio-economic impact and that the digitalization process as a whole will have enormous political relevance. It is still underestimated how important it is that we finally implement the digital process in Germany's healthcare system in a truly and consistently human way.

-Sandra Postel, jury member of the i-care Award and President of the NRW Chamber of Nursing.

Nurses spend around 30% of their working time every day on documentation. "No nurse has taken up the profession to spend several hours a day typing something into a computer," said Sandra Postel in her laudatory speech for voize. "You have to decide again and again in a very short space of time what is relevant information. You have to decide whether it is relevant for billing, relevant for the care process or relevant for evidence when it comes to legal issues. And this constant distinction: What am I documenting what for, is something that can really make care documentation a pain. And I would very, very much like to feel free of that as a care professional."

The voize app makes documentation easier for carers

With the app developed by voize, carers can complete all documentation directly by voice input while providing care. Information such as care reports, vital signs and movement logs can be entered freely. The artificial intelligence of voize creates the correct entries and transfers them to the existing documentation system via an interface. The simplification of the process noticeably reduces the workload for carers. Carers gain up to 45 minutes more time per shift thanks to documentation by voice input. Time that remains for actual care. voize is developing the app together with care providers. It is already in use in over 100 facilities in Germany and Austria, including Caritas Stuttgart, Diakonie Stiftung Salem, Pflegen & Wohnen Hamburg, Korian, Johannesstift Diakonie and Diakonie de la Tour.

"Receiving the i-care Award 2023 is a great honor for us and once again encourages us in our goal of using innovative AI systems to relieve the burden on caregivers," says Marcel Schmidberger, Managing Director of voize GmbH. "We would like to thank the nursing staff. Without the constant exchange with them, the development of such a practical and effective language assistant would not be possible. In view of the shortage of skilled workers and current demographic trends, we need diverse and innovative solutions to support carers. We believe that care is not a desk job and want to give carers more time for personal, interpersonal contact with residents."

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