Project Management in Nursing Informatics
Project Management in Nursing Informatics
Project description
Healthcare organizations have been on the frontline in embracing technological advancements in patient care to ease the work of the professionals while improving patient outcomes. This is evidenced by the conceptualization of nursing informatics. However, more could be done in terms of quality improvement to maximize the output of the numerous initiatives undertaken by the organization such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE).
The above underlines a proposal for the inception of a nursing application that if the leadership sees fit and is finally implemented, will oversee the introduction of an application on mobile play stores that is downloaded and installed by nurses on their mobile devices. The proposed app, that could be known as ‘super nurse,’ would amalgamate all technological advancements realized so far into one platform that nurses could log into easily to access various aspects of patient care. Project Management in Nursing Informatics
Background of the Problem
The field of nursing forms an integral part of patient care thereby christening the fundamentality of the availability of nurses to ensure quality of care. However, the menace of nursing shortage continues to plague the healthcare sector, and my current organization too has experienced its fair share of the challenges resulting from the issue. This has birthed problems around shifting with flexibility seen as the best means of ensuring the nurse-to-patient ratio is maintained at optimum levels amidst the nurse shortage issue (Schoenfelder et al., 2020 Project Proposal Introduction of Nursing App).
Moreover, a lot of time is usually wasted when nurses consult manually to check the duration and issues concerning changes on their shifts. This compounds the shortage problem as the eventual loser is the patient who may end up lacking a caregiver for some time due to the lapse in shifting. The app utilizes the prevalence of social media usage to create a human-friendly platform where nurses can log in to check the schedules of their shifts, plan appropriately to ensure they are always available to the patients besides accessing a plethora of patient information. Furthermore, they can also request for the changes in their shifts in advance and necessary arrangement made to ensure timely replacement of personnel.
The last aspect of the app is the incorporation of already existing technologies to ensure their efficiency. Through the EHR section of the app, the nurses can be able to access the information on patients’ conditions prior to their shifts and likewise, the preceding caregivers can update the conditions of the patients for access by other professionals.
Cost of implementation
The large chunk of financial burden will only be experienced at inception. That is through the payment of software platforms such as android and apple store to integrate the app. However, once the project is up and running, the cost incurred will be relatively low as only periodic updates will be needed to fix realized bugs. Moreover, no extra personnel are needed as the human resource department in collaboration with the nursing informaticist will oversee the efficient running of the app. Considering that it is an entirely digital system, I am affirmative of the extreme benefits associated with this technological advancement venture. Project Proposal Introduction of Nursing App
Stakeholders Impacted by the Project.
Patients
The ultimate beneficiaries of quality improvement projects within a healthcare institution are the patients. Firstly, the portability of the medium the app will be installed on, mobile phones will allow the nurses to check on the patients even when they are at home. As such, an alerting system can be made to notify the caregivers of an emergency thus the patient is assured of constant monitoring outside the ward rounds. The significantly shortened delays between shift transition nurses can actively participate in patient care continually.
Nurse Practitioners
Since it is a nursing app, the impact on the nurses is compound. Well, it comes as a blessing keeping the shortage problem at arm’s length as nurses do not have to participate in care manually which normally results in exhaustion. The nurses can continue performing roles by checking on the real-time condition of patients with the app acting as a command center allowing them to monitor the diagnosis of many patients in different care units from one place. Moreover, they are also able to prioritize the dispensation of care by monitoring the patient conditions posted on the app thus increasing job efficiency. Project Management in Nursing Informatics
Improved Patient Outcomes
Reduction of care errors
Since a single patient is taken care of by various nurses who change in shifts, the efficiency of care is tagged on the appropriateness of communication channels through which the care plan and patient condition are exchanged during shifting. As such, the app enables the nurse to frequently refer to the CPOE on their mobile devices to confirm the current patient condition, the dosage of drugs to be administered and even special conditions thus eliminating transcription inaccuracies and errors tagged on memory lapse (Prgomet et al., 2017 Project Management in Nursing Informatics). When the inaccuracies are eliminated, only appropriate care would be administered to the patients in different care units resulting in improved outcomes.
Reduction in nosocomial infections rates
Improved organization of care protocols through the app will result in the elimination of gaps such as the absence of a nurse for some time during the shift transitioning period. This ensures continuous care that results in the reduction of hospitalization period. Prolonged hospitalization is associated with the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections thereby when the care delays are eliminated and patients served and discharged promptly, the rate of HAIs would be reduced (Haque et al., 2018). The thin line between quality care and poor patient outcomes is defined by the occurrence of HAIs thus if they are eliminated it is prudent to say that patient-care efficiency has been realized.
Technologies Required in Project Implementation
React Native
This is an app development software used to create a dynamic and object-oriented cross-platform application that is necessitated by the fact that the project involves the development of an app that can be installed on different mobile devices (Martinez & Lecomte, 2017). The application of this technology will come hand in hand with the consultation of the developer covered by the initial cost.
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
This technology is already in use in the healthcare arena to interconnect infrastructures that communicate within several healthcare systems. Since the app will integrate different technological advances related to the nursing field such as the bedside vital reader that tracks the vitals of the patients in the care units and relay it to the app through the automatic data report, IoMT will be fundamental in its operation (Joyia et al., 2017 ). As such this technology would be essential in remote monitoring of shifts and patient conditions, objective reporting through alarming systems to denote emergency and precision care through in-built medical intervention guidelines.
Centralized Database Monitor
The project involves an application for the organization of manpower thus an automated evaluation system is required to monitor the log-ins by nurses and their use of the app. The centralized monitoring by the technicians provides a secondary eye to patient care thus ensuring the objectivity of the project in easing the work of nurses.
Project Team
The nurse manager
The manager acts as the project analyst and evaluates the current context of shifting among nurses and the implications of the change then table it to the rest of the team. He is also tasked with creating awareness of the project among the nurses.
Human resource department
The main role of the department is the provision of assistance and support to the system in managing manpower. Since it is the department that is involved in performance evaluation, it needs to be incorporated in the oversight of implementation by the staff. Project Management in Nursing Informatics
Private software developer
The integration of the different technologies to build a running application requires software proficiency. Therefore, the consultation and incorporation of software developer would be fundamental in initiating a fully operational nursing app.
Nursing informaticist
At the core of project implementation would be the nursing informaticist who would act as the project’s functional lead. This is through the accurate provision of both digital and nursing concepts required to conceptualize the project thus creating a flow of developmental ideas. Moreover, the individual would also be mandated with the overall provision of guidance on the roll-out phases of the project and assisting the project manager make an informed decision on the assignment of roles. Conclusively, the significance of the role of the nurse informaticist is underlined in the categorization of the project under nursing informatics.
Project Proposal: Introduction of Nursing App References
- Haque, M., Sartelli, M., McKimm, J., & Abu Bakar, M. (2018). Health care-associated infections – an overview. Infection And Drug Resistance, 11, 2321–2333. https://doi.org/10.2147/IDR.S177247
- Joyia, G. J., Liaqat, R. M., Farooq, A., & Rehman, S. (2017). Internet of Medical Things (IOMT): applications, benefits and future challenges in the healthcare domain. Journal of Communication, 12(4), 240-247. http://dx.doi.org/10.12720/jcm.12.4.240-247
- Martinez, M., & Lecomte, S. (2017). Towards the quality improvement of cross-platform mobile applications. In 2017 IEEE/ACM 4th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft) (pp. 184-188). IEEE.
- Prgomet, M., Li, L., Niazkhani, Z., Georgiou, A., & Westbrook, J. I. (2017). Impact of commercial computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) on medication errors, length of stay, and mortality in intensive care units: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(2), 413-422. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocw145
- Schoenfelder, J., Bretthauer, K. M., Wright, P. D., & Coe, E. (2020). Nurse scheduling with quick-response methods: Improving hospital performance, nurse workload, and patient experience. European Journal of Operational Research, 283(1), 390-403.
Also Read: Computerized Physician Order Entry CPOE System Documents