Nurse-focused EHR training aims to cut burnout and prep for AI future

Editor's Note

Epic has introduced a free training program to help nurses and medical assistants reduce time spent using electronic health records (EHRs), addressing a key factor contributing to widespread burnout. According to a recent article in Fierce Healthcare, the Nursing SmartUser classes launched during National Nurses Week and aim to improve workflow efficiency through EHR skill-building.

Led by an Epic trainer, the Nursing SmartUser program offers four one-hour webinars: two focused on inpatient workflows, one on general nursing workflows, and one for clinic-based settings. Medical assistants are invited to attend the ambulatory session. The courses include 60 tips designed to reduce clicks and streamline charting. Nurses can sign up independently via Epic’s public-facing Earth portal.

As detailed in the article, the courses were co-developed with nurses and aim to help clinicians save minutes on documentation tasks—small time savings that can add up to meaningful improvements in shift management and patient interaction. The training also helps close the “last long mile” in getting EHR efficiency features adopted at the bedside.

Highlighted tools include Epic’s Brain, described as a daily schedule of events or “Outlook calendar” for nurses. The program teaches users how to personalize and add tasks or reminders within the Brain to better manage patient care. Another featured tool is macros—pre-set documentation shortcuts that auto-populate rows of flowsheet data. Although widely available, these features are often underused, according to sources cited in the article. The program also reportedly functions as a feedback loop for Epic’s development teams.

The full report offers additional detail, including Epic’s collaboration with Abridge and Mayo Clinic on ambient documentation workflows, future iterations of SmartUser, and Epic leaders’ longer-term vision of AI-driven automation for nurses.