Proposal for the Role of Nursing Informatics in Health Care
There is a requirement for robust data management practices to provide care services effectively. Nursing Informatics aims to enhance patient care delivery by integrating multiple systems. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) describes nursing informatics as combining information systems, nursing, and computer science to convey and manage information, expertise, awareness, and data in the nursing practice (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). Because of the fast changes in technological breakthroughs, nursing is increasingly reliant on nursing informatics.
Role of the Nurse Informaticist
Those who work as nurse informaticists transfer medical data into the IT system. An expert in the use and development of medical technology and the provision of healthcare is a nurse. To ensure that other healthcare technologies and electronic health records perform well in the real world, nurses rely on their education and expertise in inpatient care to collaborate with IT experts uniquely (Egbert et al., 2019). Nurse informaticists have a wide range of responsibilities due to the growing complexity of electronic health records and advancing healthcare technologies. It provides digital record management from paper and current evidence-based care standards to design data systems and system upgrades. These developers also build electronic health record designs that are effective and easy to use, and as a result, the electronic health record data is analyzed to identify the areas that need improvement in terms of budgetary control and patient care. Working with federal agencies and legislators, they aim to provide rules and legislation that promote healthcare technology and enable compatibility with the technical requirements of both patients and providers (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). Additionally, healthcare experts create and execute healthcare technology such as home care management, patient surveillance systems, and performance tracking efforts.
Nurse Informaticists in other Health Care Organizations
According to an Illinois University Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences who presented his findings in Chicago, the healthcare industry is now dealing with three issues. The older population, the frequency and presence of chronic illnesses, and the scarcity of national healthcare staff and physicians are all factors that contribute to the problem. Nurses, in particular, employ informatics to solve the issues they face, so it has a tremendous influence on the ability of nurses to care for patients.
To solve patient care problems and provide patients with the highest possible quality of care, nurses in informatics work together with their colleagues in the field. Respect, the capacity to maintain trust, problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making are some of the talents they use (Cummings et al., 2020). It is also important for them to recognize the contributions of others to the patient’s quality of care. Patients’ specific outcomes are improved when nurses participate in multidisciplinary teams’ symposiums in which they can serve as representatives or members and develop group skills such as resolving conflict and reaching consensus. They also learn to compromise while using their creative problem-solving abilities to help patients reach their goals and outcomes. Patient cases that potentially benefit from a multidisciplinary team conference are identified, planned, and participated in by the nurse informaticists. The experts discuss and agree on the best approach to patient treatment as a group.
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement
Technology in healthcare enhances healthcare by aligning best practices in nursing with clinical care and workflows, improving procedures, guidelines, processes, and clinical policies, reducing medical costs, improving treatment and care continuity on both ends, enhancing new medical equipment testing, and reducing medical errors. The platforms for clinical cooperation and communication simplify healthcare workflow organization. The more the technologies and data access are integrated, the better the results will be. Health care is improved by nurses’ full involvement in technology in health care, which aligns guiding principles in nursing with healthcare delivery and workflows, guidelines, and procedures, improves practices and clinical policies, reduces healthcare costs and inefficiencies, enhances care and treatment consistency on both ends and also chooses and tests new medical equipment (Egbert et al., 2019). It allows healthcare practitioners to maintain their patients’ medical records securely. Mental health information, for example, needs special safeguarding because of its sensitivity. Patients have the option of deciding how much information they want to share with others. Secure measures must safeguard private health information.
An efficient electronic health record system may be created by fully involving nurses in the planning process. Healthcare flow helps medical institutions and hospitals discover areas in which information technology may increase efficiency and productivity. The cost of health informatics services rises due to the usage of technology devices, and because of the rise in the cost of healthcare services, the market for these electronic devices is lucrative.
Opportunities and Challenges in Implementing the Proposal
Interprofessional cooperation is one such opportunity that nurse practitioners may make use of. Through it, they can work together with other medical professionals and patients as well as scientists and educators. The discipline of nursing informatics, on the other hand, is faced with ever-changing and complex practice settings, such as the promise of nursing informatics competence to increase clinical decision-making abilities. There are, however, barriers to informatics growth in nursing practice due to the advancement of technology. With an aging population, rising healthcare costs, an increasing number of elderly patients and critically ill patients, a scarcity of nurse educators and nurses, and a shift in the demographics of the health workforce, the nursing practice in the twenty-first century is facing numerous challenges (Cummings et al., 2020).
An interdisciplinary team may facilitate healthcare cooperation. Organizations must work together to achieve success. Healthcare technologies that are extremely effective are a characteristic of an interprofessional partnership. It is possible to enhance patient outcomes and the quality of patient care when nurses and other caregivers work together on an equal basis. It enhances patient safety and quality by enhancing coordination and communication among healthcare workers.
Recommendation
In order to keep up with the rapidly evolving and varying care settings, human resource department managers and the chief nursing officer must regularly review and evaluate the education curriculum, conferences, training strategies, and the program in place for making preparations for the new registered nurses, as well as appoint a nursing informaticist to the position. Other opportunities from the position include:
Removing obstacles to care and
Transforming education.
Leading and collaborating.
Valuing and celebrating diversity in
References
Cummings, E., Bichel-Findlay, J., Procter, P., Hübner, U., Honey, M., & Day, K. (2020). Nursing Informatics Education: A Global Perspective. In Informatics Education in Healthcare (pp. 153-166). Springer, Cham.
Egbert, N., Thye, J., Hackl, W. O., Müller-Staub, M., Ammenwerth, E., & Hübner, U. (2019). Competencies for nursing in a digital world. Methodology, results, and use of the DACH- recommendations for nursing informatics core competency areas in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Informatics for Health and Social Care, 44(4), 351-375.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
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Question
Assessment 1
Nursing Informatics in Health Care
Write a 4–5 page evidence-based proposal to support the need for a nurse informaticist in an organization who would focus on improving health care outcomes.
Proposal for the Role of Nursing Informatics in Health Care
Introduction
Nurses at the baccalaureate level in all practice areas are involved in nursing informatics through interaction with information management and patient care technologies. Nurses must not only demonstrate knowledge of and skills in health information and patient care technologies but also how to use these tools at the bedside and organizational levels. Moreover, nurses need to recognize how information gathered from various health information sources can impact decision-making at the national and state regulatory levels.
Preparation
To successfully prepare for this assessment, you will need to complete these preparatory activities:
Review assessment resources and activities.
Conduct independent research on the nursing knowledge and skills necessary to interact with health information and patient care technology.
Focus your research on current resources available through peer-reviewed articles, professional websites, government websites, professional blogs, wikis, job boards, and so on.
Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and authoritative sources.
Interview peers in your network who are considered information technology experts.
Ask them about how information technology advances are impacting patient care at the bedside, at the organizational level, and beyond.
Scenario
For this assessment, assume you are a nurse attending a meeting of your state’s nurses association. A nurse informaticist conducted a presentation on her role and its impact on positive patient and organizational outcomes in her workplace. You realize that your organization is undergoing many technological changes. You believe this type of role could provide many benefits to your organization.
You decide to pursue proposing a nurse informaticist role in your organization. You speak to your chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager, who ask you to prepare a 4–5 page evidence-based proposal to support the new role. In this way, they can make an informed decision as to whether the addition of such a role could justify the return on investment (ROI). They need your proposal before an upcoming fiscal meeting. This is not an essay, but instead, it is a proposal to create a new Nurse Informaticist position.
One important part of this assessment is the justification of the need for a nurse informaticist in a healthcare organization and references from relevant and timely scholarly or professional resources to support the justification for creating this nurse informaticist position. The term justifies means to show or prove that the nurse informaticist position brings value to the organization. This justification must include evidence from the literature to support that this position will provide a return on investment for the organization.
Proposal Format
The chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager have asked you to include the following headings in your proposal and to be sure to address the bullets following each heading:
Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
What is nursing informatics?
What is the role of the nurse informaticist?
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
What is the experience of other healthcare organizations with nurse informaticists?
How do these nurse informaticists interact with the rest of the nursing staff and the interdisciplinary team?
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
How does fully engaging nurses in health care technology impact:
Patient care?
Protected health information (security, privacy, and confidentiality)?
In this section, you will explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse informaticist and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients’ protected health information, particularly privacy, security, and confidentiality. Evidence-based means that they are supported by evidence from scholarly sources.
Workflow?
Costs and return on investment?
Opportunities and Challenges
What are the opportunities and challenges for nurses and the interdisciplinary team with the addition of a nurse informaticist role?
How can the interdisciplinary team collaborate to improve quality care outcomes through technology?
Summary of Recommendations
What are 3 4 key takeaways from your proposal about the recommended nurse informaticist role that you want the CNO and the HR manager to remember?
