NR 351 Week 7 Discussion – Informatics in Professional Nursing
When thinking about informatics and how I use it today in my nursing practice, I am amazed because 30 years ago, I decided to go into nursing to avoid the use of computers and to take care of people. Now I spend the majority of my day on the computer. I have seen the transition in the healthcare field and how informatics has been integrated into every aspect of my daily duties. According to Hood (2019) “For effective clinical practice, nurses must know how to use computers and manage enormous volumes of information” (p. 359). Over the years, I have used informatics in many different ways. Examples include retrieving patients’ past medical history, reviewing MD orders, accessing communication notes of the Interdisciplinary Health Care team members, using it to run quality measure reports, and accessing policy and procedures. This has been shown to improve patient safety, promote quality care and achieve positive outcomes.
Currently, I carry a laptop, and I am able to access all patient information for patients that my company provides care for. The ability to access patient health information without having to be onsite has critically impacted my productivity and quality of care and enables me to provide guidance to nurses working directly in the community. I am also able to review policies and procedures to ensure patient safety and quality of care. All of this information is at my fingertips, making it very helpful to me and a great resource to nurses. I find the EMR beneficial because in the past, nurses could only review charts on paper. We have dealt with poor, insufficient, and unclear quality documentation, illegible handwriting, and missing signatures. These inefficiencies have been dramatically reduced by the EMR.
The nurses and CNAs are able to view daily tasks in the electronic health record (EMR) since they carry iPads with them at all times. This helps them plan out their day and prioritize patients’ needs when delivering care to patients. They are able to document care in real-time. This makes documentation more accurate, timely, and compliant. Nurses also carry iPads with them for medication administration. Having access to a patient’s advance directive is helpful in an emergency situation. According to McCarthy et al. (2018) “Implementation of an integrated evidence-based EHR was found to improve the quality of care with associated reductions in threats to patient safety” (p. 498).
NR 351 Week 7 Discussion – Informatics in Professional Nursing
There are side effects to informatics. Securing patient health information (PHI) is imperative. Nurses often get called away from their EMR and forget to log out. Some nurses choose to save their user names and passwords on electronic devices, which is against company policy. This is a major concern legally related to PHI confidentiality. It takes constant education and holding others accountable for their actions to ensure PHI is respected by all healthcare team members. Ethical issues are another concern. Having healthcare professionals look into other patients’ charts that they are not taking care of is a violation of PHI. The Assisted Living company I work. for has been able to narrow the access to patient data by the title of the team member and community location.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (2016), The Nurse of the Future “Recognizes the importance of basic computer competencies to evolving nursing practice” (p. 26). Over the years, I have grown to chuckle at my original fear of computers and informatics. I have overcome it with education and work experience as I am evolving as that Nurse of the Future.
References-
Hood, L. J. (2018). Leddy & Pepper’s professional nursing (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. (2016, March). Creativity and connections: building the framework for the future of nursing education and practice. Retrieved from Massachusetts Department of Higher Education: http://www.mass.edu/nahi/documents/NOFRNCompetencies_updated_March2016.pdf
McCarthy, B., Fitzgerald, S., O’Shea, M., Condon, C., Hartnett-Collins, G., Clancy, M., . . . Savage, E. (2019). Electronic nursing documentation interventions to promote or improve patient safety and quality care: A systematic review. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(3), 491-501. doi:10.1111/jonm.12727
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Question 
NR 351 Week 7 Discussion – Informatics in Professional Nursing
How do you use informatics (not technology) in your nursing practice? What ethical issues have arisen or might arise from the use of informatics in professional nursing?
What have you found difficult with informatics in healthcare today? Are there times when you feel it impedes your work? Think about the next 10 years; what changes do you envision? As a consumer in healthcare, how has informatics helped or not helped with your personal care?