This post is for any and all nursing managers, educators, directors, researchers, or executives- actually anyone working at a hospital that is given one monitor for their desk. Would you ever consider allowing you work to give you an desk the same size as when you were in elementary school?

I hope I am not speaking for myself when I as ABSOLUTELY NOT. There is no way we could work on a space that small, and at this point if anyone has a desk that size I'd suggest you start looking for another job. How could we possible accomplish what we need to with that little space?

So how is your digital desktop any different. Anyone who has tried to write a paper on their computer, or do any sort of multitasking knows you end up with a ton of windows open and you spend a lot of time flipping between them copying information or looking for something. Using a second monitor can be extremely useful for productivity. Consider for minute how much easier you can ignore email notifications if you could see all of you emails in your second monitor and assess if it is worthy of interrupting your current task. Reading, paraphrasing and transcribing information that you need for a report, memo or email also become a lot easier if you can have both documents open at the same time. Scheduling and time management can be improved by leaving it open in your second window.

Depending on your workflow there are a number of ways that having a second monitor can tremendously improve you workflow. It becomes up to each individual to test it and to find out hot to use it in order to become more effective. A study by microsoft found that a second monitor increases productivity on average 9-50%. Here is an example of a legal nurse that made the switch and won't consider going back: Legal Nurse.

Now for those of you who are still skeptical, I will assume it is the cost, lets think it through. If we assume that an employee gets a starting salary of $40,000 (thinking conservatively... hopefully). A few days of orientation add $350 in instructors/human resources time, possibly divided by the number of attendees so a minimum of $10 just to keep it conservative. Now this is just a ball park, but you have the cost of an office or cubicle plus heating, electricity and office supplies (desk, binders, tacs, etc) which adds up to thousands of dollars. You have to also higher a manager, human resources, and accountants in order to manage, develop and pay this employee another large investment. Then depending on the contract, there can be many more costs for vacation, education, travel, and cellphones, all in the thousands and possibly tens of thousands of dollars for the organization per year.

After all of those logical investments why not add the $199 dollar screen, which dollar per dollar will see the highest return in productivity for that employee? Think about it.

Now if you are a manager start to offer your employees that work all day on computers a second monitor. If you are an employee present the business case for your boss, and if all else fails use my fall back plan and bring your own. After I have started using a second monitor, there is no way I would let an organization waste my time by giving me a computer that slows me down.