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Email in healthcare: pros, cons and efficient use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2024

Stephen Ginn Open the ORCID record for Stephen Ginn [Opens in a new window]
Stephen Ginn*
Affiliation:
Consultant general adult psychiatrist employed by the Camden and Islington Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK. His clinical work covers mental health in primary care and mood disorders in secondary care.
*
Correspondence Stephen Ginn. Email: stephen.ginn3@nhs.net
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Summary

Email is a major means of communication in healthcare and it facilitates the fast delivery of messages and information. But email's ubiquity has brought challenges. It has changed the way we get things done, and working days can be dictated by the receipt and reply of multiple email messages, which drown out other priorities. This article examines email's advantages and disadvantages and, with a focus on healthcare professionals, examines what individuals and organisations can do to ensure email works for us, rather than – as can seem the case – the other way around.

Keywords

Medical technologyemailproductivity and time managementburnouttechnology-related stress
Type
Article
Information
BJPsych Advances , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , May 2024 , pp. 195 - 201
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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