Transforming Healthcare with Technology and Empathy: Alexandra Aglieco

 

CareYaya Health Technologies (00:00)
But if you'd like to talk a little bit about yourself, just so I can get to know you before we go to the actual stuff, that'd be great.

Alexandra (00:03)
Sure. Sure, sure. So I am a family nurse practitioner and I've been a family nurse practitioner since late 2021. Prior to that, I was a registered nurse. So I got my start. I'm from Connecticut. So all my school up to now has been in the state of Connecticut. I worked at Yale New Haven Hospital primarily during my nursing career.

with some other practice mixed in there, but the majority of my experience was in the operating room there. And then I became a nurse practitioner, moved down to the South Florida area. So I was living in Fort Lauderdale. The company that I worked for serviced pretty much the Broward and Dade areas. So that was, we call it an FQHC, so Federally Qualified Health Center. So primarily servicing, we call it the underserved population. So those,

with healthcare barriers, no insurance, maybe living in the poverty level, things like that. And so that's the primary, that is primarily my APRN experience. Moved up here to North Carolina to start my doctoral nursing degree program. And I transitioned a little bit into an academic role, working as a teaching assistant for the school, but I am still practicing and looking to get.

I'm actually starting a position in the area next month. So I'm trying to balance my academic and my clinical role and maintain both of them.

CareYaya Health Technologies (01:39)
That's so exciting. Are you looking to become a professor, like an adjunct, or what are you trying to do with the academic?

Alexandra (01:44)
Yeah, you know, so I am in one of the certification programs that I'm in here at UNC is called Educational Certification Program for nursing professionals. So I definitely love the academic environment, but at the same time, I would never want to let go of the clinical portion. So some way to, you know, integrate both of those things is like my broad goal.

CareYaya Health Technologies (02:06)
awesome that's so exciting congrats

Welcome to the Future of Caregiving podcast. My name is Isabel Matsukas and I'm hosting Alexandra and we are so excited to get to know you. Thank you so much for joining me with CareYaya today to talk about the future of caregiving. It's my understanding that we're both currently putting in our time at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The beginning of my academic journey seems to be the potentially culmination end of yours and I'm sure you have experienced an undergrad before you applied to UNC. So CareYaya caregivers,

are able to obtain hours with us to boast on health professional applications. So what would have been like an ideal role for you as a nursing student, as an undergrad?

Alexandra (02:50)
Thanks so much for having me. So I would say that any healthcare exposure is going to be beneficial for students looking to apply to healthcare undergraduate programs, whether that be nursing or another field within the healthcare disciplines. So many students that I've seen and worked alongside have worked as patient care technicians, emergency medical technicians, or even just volunteer hours at hospitals. Having been immersed in the healthcare setting in any way really gives...

a nursing student or an applicant an advantage as well as the knowledge and experience to see what it's really like in the field. I think it's really difficult for high school students to fully understand what being a nurse is or any healthcare professional is. We're asked to commit to a program like that at 17 or 18 years old and I think because of that we really don't know what we're signing up for. So any experience in any kind of healthcare setting is going to be a benefit.

to both undergrads coming in from the high school setting, as I said, as well as those who are pursuing a second career in nursing, as many do. Additionally, I would say really a focus on leadership is key when you're entering the field of nursing. So I would encourage both incoming and current nursing students to get involved in as many extracurricular activities as possible, get engaged in the student body, the campus community, but specifically in leadership positions.

So don't just be a member of the committee, be some sort of organizational role in the committee. That's going to better prepare nursing students to be pioneers when they enter the field, as well as drive a more progressive and ambitious nursing workforce.

CareYaya Health Technologies (04:29)
Awesome, thank you. You mentioned like high school students and people committing to a whole career at the age of 17, 18 years old. So our caregivers don't have their CNA or most of our character caregivers don't have a CNA. What benefits do you see to not only like the caregiving side, but the patient side as someone who might not have that training yet? Like, do you see benefits to like having a caregiver without that kind of nursing ability?

Alexandra (04:58)
Absolutely, I think caregiving per se is something that is innate in someone's personality. So I don't think you necessarily can be taught how to be a caring person or how to have empathy. I think that's a skill that we're born with and it's something we can kind of develop and capitalize as we're going through healthcare professional programs. So, you know, maybe being a caregiver without the medical training can help people to...

kind of identify those skills within themselves and kind of open those doors to, you know, maybe open their eyes to see maybe I do have this capability, maybe I would be really good in one of these roles.

CareYaya Health Technologies (05:37)
We agree, we were actually just talking about this morning how the bedside manner part isn't taught in most academic programs, so being part of Carey Yaya as a caregiver teaches you how to have those conversations with people and be a human instead of just a caregiver.

Alexandra (05:43)
Great.

Yeah, highly debated concept, I think.

CareYaya Health Technologies (05:55)
Yeah, for sure. So let's switch into a little bit more academic roles. From talking with you previously, we learned that you're looking to kind of put that clinical and academia perspectives together and have a little bit of both in your future. So would you please give us an outline of your experience in your doctorate and master's programs, maybe specific projects, rounds, whatever you want to talk about would be great.

Alexandra (06:21)
Yeah, so I completed my Masters of Nursing program, which was to become a family nurse practitioner at the University of St. Joseph, which is a really small little nursing school in central Connecticut. So that was a big difference from here at the University of North Carolina. But it was such a wonderful experience there. We had smaller class sizes and more opportunities to work really closely and get to know students and faculty. I felt like the faculty there was really hands on with us.

And one of the most advantageous parts was the assistance that they provided with us to finding our clinical placements. So this is kind of a hot topic issue when it comes to nursing programs as well as nurse practitioner programs, BA programs, things like that. So we're always struggling to find enough clinical placements and quality clinical placements to prepare us for what we're trying to do once we're professionals. So sometimes programs will provide those placements and sometimes they're totally on your own.

So it can be a really daunting process, especially with some of these online programs. You're expected to just maybe cold call or show up, knock on doors, things like that. And that's a lot of times not appreciated by the organization that you're trying to get in touch with. So at University of St. Joseph, the program was super supportive in helping me find these quality clinical placements in such a variety of settings. So I got to see kind of like across the board.

in terms of outpatient settings, so like primary care, I got to do long -term care, community health, some psychiatry, things like that. So I think that really prepared me to be well -rounded in the field because even though as nurse practitioners we're kind of siloed in our specialty, you're gonna see patients of all kinds and you're gonna still go back to those skills in your daily practice. And then, you know, I consider myself a lifelong learner and I can never stay out of school for very long, so.

Of course, shortly after I became a nurse practitioner and I practiced for a little while, I decided to embark on another educational journey, which was to pursue a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree here at the University of North Carolina. So a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree is essentially the implementation of a large quality improvement project. That's really the focus of the whole degree. We kind of learn how to set it up, implement it, assess the effects, and then kind of analyze it and...

and then disseminate it to a larger audience. That's really the guideline or the outline of the whole program. So I decided to pursue this because I had an area of focus that I was passionate about. It's an issue that I wanted to make change for. So my specific area of focus, I'm trying to create a practice change or some sort of implementation to better address...

CareYaya Health Technologies (09:00)
you

Alexandra (09:12)
specific issue of stimulant abuse in patients who are stable in opiate use recovery, opiate use disorder recovery, I'm sorry, using medication assisted treatment programs. So specifically they're in treatment for opiate use disorder, they are stable in that but still struggling with abusing stimulant drugs. So this is an issue I saw all the time in my practice and we don't have a ton of medical guidelines or guidance, evidence based.

recommendations on how to treat this specific population of patients. So that's why, and my passion for this population really drove me to seek out this degree. So I'm hoping we're going to make some big changes here in a couple years.

CareYaya Health Technologies (09:56)
That's awesome, thank you. It sounds like you're doing excellent work. We agree. So at the University of St. Joseph, where you became the Family Nurse Practitioner, you were the recipient of the Excellence in Clinical Practice Award. So first, congratulations. And second, I'd love to hear about your work at St. Joseph and what led to this award.

Alexandra (10:00)
So.

So the Excellence in Clinical Practice award was given to me actually at the culmination of the Family Nurse Practitioner program. So I was chosen for this based on the reviews of my various clinical instructors that I was precepted by throughout my program. And so I think that my eagerness to learn and my drive to be as engaged as possible in every clinical rotation really led to this achievement. So I approach every clinical experience with

the goal of learning as much as possible. And so I took on as much responsibility as I was able to legally and within the guidelines of what's appropriate for students as I could in order to try to mirror the professional role and just fully prepare myself for practice. And I am the type of nurse or nurse practitioner where I always take every opportunity to learn something new and I never turn down a challenge. So that's something that I think.

kind of shown through as a clinical student in the NP program and it's something that I take with me into practice.

CareYaya Health Technologies (11:25)
That's great. Thank you. It really shines through how you are a lifelong learner and you're back in academia. That's great. I bet. So previously you mentioned like the small classroom hands -on learning experience and maybe that's partially why you were able to take on as much as you could and really kind of drive through learning, your learning environment at University of St. Joseph. So at CareYaya something we...

Alexandra (11:31)
It's addicting.

CareYaya Health Technologies (11:53)
advertised to our caregivers is this is hands -on experience. Like you are actually with a patient. Now, we're companionship care, so we don't say that we're medically trained. We don't say things that we're not, but we are companionship care and that can prevent rehospitalizations. It can make sure people are taking those safety precautions that they might not on their own. So how could being in a hands -on learning environment with a patient...

Alexandra (12:00)
Thank you.

CareYaya Health Technologies (12:21)
where you're an undergrad or you don't have those qualifications yet to do more, how could that benefit you when you are able to do more?

Alexandra (12:30)
Well, I think it definitely focuses on the compassionate, caring aspect of nursing care. I keep saying nursing care, but really it expands to any healthcare discipline, right? So as nurses, we're one of the disciplines where we're having the most contact with the patient throughout the day, you're in and out of the room, especially when you're working on like a hospital floor. So I think getting that exposure to patient care, being, as I said, immersed in that setting,

but maybe not using your hands -on clinical skills as much, but more focusing on your therapeutic communication skills, your ability to provide a listening ear to someone that needs it. Because let's face it, as nurses, as healthcare professionals, we are so rushed to get everything done in a certain amount of time. We have a lot of pressures on us to get certain things done. A lot of times that's financially motivated or, you know,

the powers that be, pressures of management. So we have a lot of balancing to do in order to get everything done, fulfill our full responsibilities. So sometimes we just simply don't have the time to sit there and hold someone's hand and talk them through. Sometimes it's the hardest, worst time of their entire life. So that being said, we can't lose sight of that as nurses. That's key to...

our profession and what we're trying to do and the philosophy of nursing as a whole. So I think if you don't have the qualifications to do the clinical aspect of care, you can really focus on strengthening that part and refining those skills and learning how to listen, learning how to provide therapeutic communication and feedback to validate their feelings without giving false hope or information or things like that. It really can help you.

CareYaya Health Technologies (14:24)
you

Alexandra (14:26)
to refine those skills.

CareYaya Health Technologies (14:28)
Yeah, I really think it's important for everyone. I mean the patients at the forefront of everyone's focus. So as many people that can to help them either understand their condition or help them medically or like emotionally through that time I think is important and that's everyone's goal.

Alexandra (14:44)
Absolutely. I would say they're equally as important.

CareYaya Health Technologies (14:48)
Great, so let's focus on that patient care aspect. So you were an RN in the operating room in Connecticut for a couple of years. Feel free to expand upon that if you'd like. But after looking through these, I'm sure you saw a lot. You had a lot of experience in different sectors of the hospital. So do you have any stories relating to how the hospital played a role in that patient care or what you as a nurse were able to do?

Alexandra (15:13)
So I saw a lot. So I was working in the operating room at Yale New Haven Hospital, which is one of the busiest in the country and it's a level one trauma center. So we saw a huge variety of different kinds of cases. I got to rotate around the various specialties. So that allowed me to gain a lot of experience in, as I said, a variety of cases. So major cardiac, neuro, sometimes down to as routine as like an outpatient cataract surgery. I did a lot of work with the eye surgery team.

And those cases are a lot of times, well, that's not true. It's a variety. But my point is I saw a wide variety of different things. And so those years in the operating room are some of the ones that I remember most fondly of my career. So the experience really instilled in me how to collaborate with the interdisciplinary team. A lot of times when you're working in the operating room as a nurse, you are the only nurse in the room. There's many other people in the room, but you may be the only nurse.

So you really have to learn how to work effectively as a member of the team. And it taught me how to remain calm under pressure. A lot of times surgery can be a really, oh sorry, it taught me how to remain calm under pressure. Many times surgery can be a really high stress environment. Definitely allowed me to develop a thick skin and learn how to put certain aspects of the day aside and really focus on patient advocacy.

Because in surgery you're in a situation where the patient literally cannot speak for themselves So you are the patient's voice and you have to make sure that you are maintaining that throughout everything that you do So I'll give you an example One of our biggest pressures as operating room nurses was to be on time and to avoid any delays Because if you have a delay it affects the whole rest of the day Sometimes you have ten cases in one day So if you have a delay in the first one of the day, it's gonna affect the whole rest of the day Everybody has to stay late. Nobody's happy so

When, to give a little bit of a jargon, but when your room is ready, as an operating room nurse, you're setting up your room when you're ready to go and the patient can come in, you, on the computer system, we call it greening the room. So the management was always on us to green our room by a certain time each morning. So as a nurse, as I said, we're the patient's biggest advocate, so we really had to learn how to fulfill this expectation and get the room greened.

by the certain time without compromising any safety or quality aspects of care because we have to maintain that that's our responsibility as nurses, arguably more so than the other staff in the room. And I think that we were able to do this, and when I say we, I'm talking about the whole team of nurses I worked with in the operating room, but I think we were able to do this successfully because we really standardized everything that we did. So we had a clear routine of how we assemble each room every morning, how we set up each case.

how we prepare each patient for surgery and the questions we ask in the pre -op setting. And I think streamlining our work in this way really helped us to ensure that each patient received the same high standard of quality care and it minimized any errors. And that's something I think can be a really helpful strategy in all aspects of nursing care.

CareYaya Health Technologies (18:23)
Awesome, thank you. So I know that being in the OR, you probably were very familiar with patients coming back for a follow -up appointment or a visit, but that's different from hospital readmit -its, correct? So that's kind of a big issue in the system. Were there cases where patients didn't fully need to be in the hospital but weren't ready to be on their own at home yet? And I mean, that readmit -its question is kind of, I'm sure that's an issue. So were there ways in which...

Alexandra (18:34)
Absolutely.

CareYaya Health Technologies (18:51)
or how are there ways in which patients are able to go home safely but not have the concern of being readmitted.

Alexandra (18:59)
Yeah, so this is a really hot topic in healthcare right now, especially after the pandemic. This has been something that's really kind of been uncovered. And we know as healthcare professionals that patients just tend to do better at home. They heal faster, they have lower risk of infections and complications, especially if we're talking post -operatively, and their mental health is better at home. So overall, better outcomes when patients are able to go home. That's why we always focus on trying to get them discharged as soon as possible.

And we can all agree as healthcare professionals that the home just provides a better environment for healing than the hospital in general. This is accepted. But that being said, being at home also comes with a multitude of risks. And the major one that comes to my mind is just the decreased opportunity for assessment. So we're not able to assess them as frequently as we want because we have to get to their home. So that's the issue. This is the pros and the cons of bringing people home.

I think the evolution of telemedicine is a huge opportunity for advancement in this area. So with video calls, we can assess patients from anywhere and as frequently as we need to. Usually sometimes even more frequently than if they were admitted to the hospital. So this is something that is being implemented in many major healthcare organizations. So for example, I know that University of North Carolina Health Center has a program called Advanced Care at Home. So in that program, they're doing exactly this. So they have...

trained staff to identify patients who are considered, they're still considered inpatient, so they're not discharged from the hospital, but they're deemed safe to go home and get most of their care via telehealth with some at -home visits as well. And the University of North Carolina Health Center is just one example, but this is being implemented by many major healthcare organizations across the country. Something I think is only gonna grow in the coming years, and we're gonna see...

As a result of this, we're going to see better patient outcomes, most importantly. We're going to see better patient satisfaction. And we're going to see decreased healthcare costs. So many benefits to be had from the growth of this concept.

CareYaya Health Technologies (21:06)
Yeah, we were actually just talking about at the digital literacy session that I was at this morning, we were talking about how AI is starting to be used in these telehealth appointments. And I mean, you might have patients that aren't able to log on to their computer correctly or click the link or things like that. And that's something that a care -yaya caregiver could help with if you don't have family around. I mean, you don't want to be paying the full price for somebody that has all these certifications just to click a link. So that's definitely something where companionship care could have some benefits.

So, CareYaya works to prevent hospital re -admittance since our caregivers can be higher to those on those like risk, those risk factors that you talked about. I mean, the risks we always think about since we're in elder care is the risk of falling, the risk of taking the wrong medication at the wrong time, things like that. And having somebody there to kind of just make sure you don't fall over or maybe you are putting your shirt on correctly so that you don't trip and fall, like things like that. What?

other kinds of support beyond technology? Do you think patients might need in their home that could prevent hospitalization?

Alexandra (22:14)
So one of the first things that comes to my mind would be doing an at -home assessment, making sure there's no tripping hazards. So big one that comes to my mind is like a rug. A lot of people don't realize how easy it is to trip over those things. They might need assistive devices in the bathroom. They might need, sometimes if cognitive decline is an issue, they may need help cooking.

using things that could be a fire hazard, things like that. Sometimes they just need another person there just to be like a watchful eye. And I think sometimes too, especially if family support is lacking, having another person there is hugely beneficial to the patient's mental health and that's gonna help optimize and maximize their abilities. So if they feel like they can, so we can empower them, they're gonna do better.

CareYaya Health Technologies (23:09)
Right, yeah, we agree. I mean, I saw that with my grandma. Like when she had people around, she could walk to the bathroom on her own. But when she didn't, she wouldn't. And then that just, she would get weaker and weaker and then hospitalization. So you're.

Alexandra (23:13)
Me too, that's exactly it.

Absolutely. Even just the mental stimulation of having someone to talk to is hugely beneficial.

CareYaya Health Technologies (23:30)
Right. So you are in UNC's Doctor of Nursing Practice program now, but you were in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale area. It's my understanding that you worked on the implementation of the remote patient monitoring system there. Would you please tell us more about your experiences with that down there, kind of work you did, things like that.

Alexandra (23:52)
So my experience as a family nurse practitioner in, I call it the metro, Broward and Dade areas, because as I said, I was in Fort Lauderdale, but we service pretty much the whole, we had patients from Broward and Dade counties, so that's Miami. We serviced a high percentage of individuals who did not have insurance, were living below the poverty line, and oftentimes were homeless. So of course, when you're working with disadvantaged populations like this, we are introduced to a multitude of barriers that just come along with that.

So for example, several of our patients did not have a mobile phone at all, let alone access to like cellular service or Wi -Fi. They just didn't have a phone. If they were homeless, of course they didn't have a place to go that would have cellular service or Wi -Fi or internet connection at all or a private place to even do a telehealth appointment. And another major barrier that I saw often was transportation. So oftentimes patients didn't have a car.

or they didn't have a bus route that was accessible to them or they could not afford a bus pass. So multiple barriers to care that we were facing on a daily basis. So in response to this, I along with the team of providers that I worked with implemented what we called the remote patient monitoring system. So this was essentially a kit that was given to the patients and it contained a tablet, a blood pressure cuff, a scale, a glucometer and an oxygen saturation monitor.

And it was given to the patients that us as providers identified as appropriate, and we were specifically aiming towards those with some sort of metabolic syndrome diagnosis, so like hypertension or diabetes. And it was given to patients free of charge, so that eliminated a whole barrier that would have prevented many patients from being involved in the program. And so the implementation of these kits was huge because it allowed for much more frequent assessment of the disease indicators.

such as blood pressure, weight, blood sugar. So we actually were able to assess these indicators more than if we only were able to assess them when they came in, because we could do it several times a day. And when you're working with patients who have these barriers to care, one of our biggest struggles is patients who just become lost to care. So they just stop coming at all. We can't get in touch with them. So the remote patient monitoring system virtually eliminated this.

because we were still able to assess patients frequently when they were not able to physically get to us. So sometimes somebody couldn't come in for like a month, but I was still able to have like daily assessment of their disease indicators. So it was, yeah, it was, yeah, it is, it's great.

CareYaya Health Technologies (26:26)
That's incredible, sorry.

So do you see it sounds like the work was mainly for people who were not able to afford care or access care due to like income restraints? Is that correct?

Alexandra (26:48)
Well, I would say that I think that that's just because that was a high percentage of our office population as well, but it wasn't strictly for someone who had like a fall under certain income constraints. So if it was open to anyone that wanted to be involved and we deemed was appropriate, so they had to have certain diagnoses.

CareYaya Health Technologies (27:12)
Okay, so do you see that this remote patient monitoring system might be something that people in, or people maybe not in skilled nursing facilities since they wouldn't need this access, but people in maybe independent retirement living communities or assisted, some sort of assisted facility where they can't drive themselves to the hospital or maybe they only have a shuttle that takes them once a week or once a month or something? Could this be something that would be beneficial to them?

Alexandra (27:42)
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like it's a huge step forward for outpatient care and it can really be beneficial to people living in any setting. So we've really found a way to eradicate a major barrier to health care that we've been struggling with historically. Even as you said, skilled nursing facilities, I even feel like it could be beneficial in that setting. Although they have the staff to assess these things regularly, one of the major benefits of the program was that

when they used the kit to assess these disease indicators, it went directly to our electronic health record. So it was like streamlining that data and we could immediately see it. So not only did we get to frequently assess, but we could kind of anticipate problems before they happened and kind of intervene if the numbers are starting to go in a certain direction, we can catch that as early as possible.

that eliminates readmission right there. So I think it kind of, it extends to a variety of settings because in a skilled nursing facility you have the staff, but even if the staff is providing the assessments, like working with the patient to use the kit, at least we're still able to get those numbers. In an at -home setting, that's a perfect opportunity for a caregiver to help the patient utilize it right there. And so it allows us to, you know, be more astute in our care, for sure.

CareYaya Health Technologies (29:09)
That's awesome. We're trying to expand into skilled nursing facilities and market it to families and the program directors there as this is an additional step your residents could benefit from because I mean they only have X amount of nurses and they have like multiple like so many more patients or residents than they have nurses and so adding either this remote monitoring system with the pair of a carey -i -i caregiver like that would be a perfect addition to residents.

Alexandra (29:40)
Absolutely, yeah, I see a huge opportunity there.

CareYaya Health Technologies (29:43)
Yeah, so continuing with this advance in technology, first, let me congratulate you on the progress of your article regarding TikTok culture and how social media is changing the healthcare landscape. So there are clearly some dangers posed with increased social media presence nowadays, especially in the healthcare environment with regulations and manners and how that kind of portrays. But let's talk about training and education so that technology can be used as a benefit in the healthcare landscape.

At Carriaya we're teaching these digital literacy sessions to residents at assisted living facilities. We make it fun. We use AI generated art therapy. So you can, I taught two residents this morning how to type in what they want to see and then you draw some lines and colors and it makes a beautiful picture for you. So that's just something fun that we at Carriaya are able to contribute. But how do you think social media can be used as a positive in elder care?

Alexandra (30:27)
Okay.

I feel really strongly on this issue. I think we need further training on social media etiquette and health care educational programs overall. So when I was in my Bachelor's of Nursing Practice program, so my BSN program, which was in the mid to early 2010s, I remember being taught pretty much universally. They just said, don't do it. Don't put anything about your practice on social media. It was just like a hard no. And so when I entered practice as a registered nurse,

That's what I did. And I observed the same thing with the other nurses that I worked with. We all followed the same sentiment. I think we were all taught pretty much the same attitudes towards social media at that time. But that was before the explosion of social media platforms like TikTok, which has created this complete 180 and social media culture. And this is a really fascinating phenomenon that has emerged. So TikTok is the first social media that's shown us the view counts.

So that creates this motivation to post the most attention grabbing content as possible. So that's why I think it's unique and it's so successful compared to other platforms. And there's even a specific niche of TikTok videos called Nurse Talk. So if you're a new nurse entering the field and you're a TikTok user, you have this motivation to try to get views because that's what the app creates and does to our brains. And then you have a built -in opportunity to reach an audience that you already know is interested.

So I think if it's used properly and we can use social media as healthcare professionals as an opportunity for education and awareness, we can reach a really broad audience and we can defy geographical boundaries in that way. So there's definitely many benefits we can do. I think the danger in lies with the overlap of the psychological phenomenon of TikTok to try to motivate us to post the most shocking information as we can. And...

As healthcare professionals, the fact that we are just exposed to crazy things on a daily basis and we become blind to it. So I think as healthcare professionals, we need to just remember who we are outside of the app. Remember to uphold our professional standards as well as patient privacy and advocacy while using the app and just maintain our responsibility for benevolence and doing the best thing for the patients.

CareYaya Health Technologies (33:07)
We agree. So what are some ways in which you'd recommend we transfer that education to their nurses and caregivers? Do you think there's anything that CareYaya can do? I mean, we're already teaching these digital literacy sessions to residents, but maybe we could broadcast that to the staff as well.

Alexandra (33:21)
Absolutely. I think nurses and caregivers who are providing these digital literacy sessions should undergo training themselves. I don't know if that's something that's already in place. But we need to make sure that they're fully understanding the population that they're educating. So one of the things I personally experienced as someone who's grown up with technology, there are certain aspects of technology that are just obvious to younger generations who have grown up with it that's not obvious to maybe an older generation that.

came into technology later in life. So for example, I remember when I was a nursing student and I worked in a hospital unit with mostly other nurses who were older generations, so like Baby Boomers and Generation X. So this is my first experience as a nurse who was using the electronic health system EPIC. This is like the major health, the major electronic health system used by all the, usually the bigger organizations. So because of...

me being I'm somewhere in the middle of millennial and gen Z. But because of that, using Epic just came super easy to me. I didn't have to even think about it. It was so easy to navigate and I got the hang of it really quickly. But I watched the other nurses that I was working with struggle with it, like on a daily basis. So to give you an example, for me, or anyone who's younger and is, you know, grown up with this culture of technology, when you see a downward arrow, arrow pointing down, we know,

Instinctively, that usually means save or download. We don't even have to think about it, we just know that. If we see an arrow that goes in a circle, we know that means refresh. We just automatically know that. So it's almost like having another native language that we grew up learning that the older generations do not have. So little digital nuances like this are not as obvious. So I think that's something that we really need to remember if we're gonna teach a digital proficiency to elders as well, because those are the type of things that they're gonna really struggle with.

And sometimes it's so obvious to us we don't even think about pointing that out.

CareYaya Health Technologies (35:23)
Yeah, that's such a good point. I mean, we're trying to teach chat GPT to residents at independent living facilities where maybe you need to start with Google first. That's such a good point. I remember we got my grandmother an iPhone and she had no idea what it was. It didn't have the home button and her iPad had a home button. And you just figure out that you swipe up to go home and you don't click a button. So it's things like that that maybe we need to focus more on with the older population.

Alexandra (35:33)
Yeah, sick.

Hehehe.

Yeah.

CareYaya Health Technologies (35:52)
and then we've ChatGBT in there because AI is integrated into every technology now. And so I think it's helpful to start with such a simple feature like ChatGBT and be like, tell me a joke, and then it generates five jokes for you. Is that something they can understand?

Alexandra (36:09)
Yeah, absolutely. You kind of simplify it and then work your way up, I think.

CareYaya Health Technologies (36:13)
Agreed, agreed. Thank you so much for joining us today. Do you have anything else you would like to touch on or expand upon that we didn't fully cover?

Alexandra (36:23)
I think so. I would say just becoming professional in social media and understanding our own implicit biases in terms of understanding technology is really going to be key. And I think that you guys, what you're doing has a really unique opportunity to make a huge impact in care. So I really am excited to see how you guys do with that and what you do going forward.

CareYaya Health Technologies (36:49)
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us today. Our caregivers are going to be much more suited to put their best foot forward in helping patients reduce re -hospitalizations and hopefully figure out how to use CHAT GPT. It was so interesting talking with you about tech in the healthcare industry. Thank you.

Alexandra (37:05)
Thank you so much for having me.