Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

Question 1: In what ways can informatics help health care providers overcome current or emerging barriers to care and increase access to safe, quality health care? Include a discussion of the value and challenges of clinical provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support systems (CDSS) in providing safe patient care in your response. Why are heuristic principles (human factors/usability/user centered design) important for efficient clinical information systems such as CPOE and CDSS?

Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

Question 2: Discuss the importance of interoperability between EHRs and other disparate systems and the impact on improving quality and access to care. How can workflow analysis be used to identify issues related to interoperability? Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

2 references for each question

Nursing Informatics and Technology

Question 1:  In what ways can informatics help health care providers overcome current or emerging barriers to care?

Technology plays a critical role in the transformation of the nursing and healthcare sector through improved quality services and patient outcomes. In light of the advancement in technology, nurses, like other professionals, are expected to equip themselves with informatics competencies critical to the provision of quality care to patients. Nurses need to have nursing informatics – NI skills, that go beyond simple data mining and entry.

Other critical areas that nurses can put their NI skills into use include clinical roles, management roles, and project management. This paper proposes a nursing informatics project for a chosen organization that I advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency. The Computerized Patient Record System –CPRS was chosen because it addresses the most critical functional areas of nursing informatics such as leadership, administration, and management. Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

One of the critical outcomes expected from the nursing informatics is the improvement in Interprofessional collaboration. Interprofessional collaboration has emerged as a critical tool in the provision of enhanced quality healthcare for patients. As mentioned earlier, the CPRS system works on an integrated system that allows different healthcare patients to access patient data easily and quickly from the platform (McGonigle, 2017 Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology). For example, a nurse uses the platform to diagnose a patient based on their information.

A physician can use the system to create an effective treatment plan for the patient while a researcher can use the patient system from the platform with the aim of conducting further research on complex cases to provide a solution. Through CPRS, different healthcare provides can positively communicate with each other collaboratively to provide better solutions to patient needs.

Nursing informatics provides the best chance to reduce medical errors. Nursing informatics can reduce nursing errors by up to 80% compared to the traditional health record systems (Jabour et al., 2021 Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology). Reduced medical errors have a positive impact on the quality of care for patients, improves patient safety, and helps to improve overall patient care.

For hospitals, reduced medical errors mean improved reputation, good customer relations, and reduced cost of operations. For example, medical errors cost hospitals millions of dollars every year, money that would be used on other critical ventures. Nursing informatics allows healthcare facilities to increase the level of quality provision as well as cutting down the costs of operations. Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology References

  • McGonigle, D. (2017). Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781284142990/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2008.09.010
  • Jabour, S. M., Chander, G., Riekert, K. A., Keruly, J. C., Herne, K., Hutton, H., Beach, M. C., Lau, B., Moore, R. D. & Monroe, A. K. (2021). The Patient Reported Outcomes as a Clinical Tool (PROACT) Pilot Study: What Can be Gained by Sharing Computerized Patient-Reported Mental Health and Substance Use Symptoms with Providers in HIV Care? AIDS and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03175-2

Question 2: The Importance of Interoperability between Ehrs and Other Disparate Systems and the Impact on Improving Quality and Access to Care.

Nursing informatics is a recent but critical specialty in nursing. It is a specialty that combines nursing science with nursing information technology to develop systems that improve patient care while reducing medical errors. Patient medical data has emerged as a critical factor in reducing medical errors and improving patient outcomes.

Nursing informatics is a branch of technology that allows health facilities to efficiently collect and store patient data/information leading to improved safety, quality of care, and patient outcomes. Nursing informatics is a critical information management system in the medical field as it is the driving force behind development, improvements, and improved decision-making and better clinical outcomes. Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

Data Privacy is guaranteed when using nursing informatics. The disadvantage with the paper-based system of health records is that anyone can access patient data or sensitive data belonging to a healthcare facility. Using nursing informatics, the security, privacy, and confidentiality of health information are guaranteed. To begin with, the systems of health records created by nursing informaticists are only accessible to authorized personnel.

For example, only health professionals that deal with a patient are privy to their data/information. This fact means that for anyone to access a patient’s health records, they must have the relevant authority and clearance to do so. This way, the technologies adopted restrict unauthorized access to sensitive hospital and patient information.  Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

According to Mosier (2018 Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology), the nurse informaticists are at the center of communication and information dissemination within a hospital setting. One of the major roles that the position holder will play is training team members on how, for instance, CPRS works. As a trainer, the nurse informaticists work closely with other staff such as doctors, fellow nurses, lab technicians, and the administrative staff to ensure that patient information is accurately captured and contained in the system.

Secondly, the nurse informaticists must ensure that there is a smooth flow of communication between different healthcare professionals as far as patient records are concerned (Sipes, 2016 Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology). The creation of a special office for the nurse informaticists helps him/her to effectively liaise and coordinate with other team members.

The nursing technology is an integrated platform used by different health professionals. This factor means that all professionals that deal directly with patients make the team. For this project, the team comprises nurses, lab technologists, doctors, the hospital researchers – pathologist/virologist, and the hospital’s administrative team. Nurses require the platform for data mining purposes and patient diagnosis as well as patient monitoring.

Physicians use the CPRS system to acquire patient information to make an informed decision about treatment plans. The researchers such as pathologists/virologists can use patient information contained in the CPRS system to conduct further research to find a solution for patients whose conditions require further investigation. Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology

Discussion: Nursing Informatics and Technology References

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