By Day 3 of Week 3
Post a description of experiences or observations about how nurse informaticists and/or data or technology specialists interact with other professionals within your healthcare organization. Suggest at least one strategy on how these interactions might be improved. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain the impact you believe the continued evolution of nursing informatics as a specialty and/or the continued emergence of new technologies might have on professional interactions.
Sample post
The management of chronic kidney disease is complex, requiring constant communication with the different healthcare teams to ensure holistic care to dialysis patients. Our organization believes that treatment decisions can only be made by knowing the big picture through collaboration with specialists (Fresenius Medical Care, n.d.). To provide a seamless exchange of patient health information, a nurse informatics specialist comes into play by frequently updating nurses, physicians, nutritionists, and social workers with the latest development in information technology within our organization.
As a nephrology nurse, I receive emails from a nurse informaticist informing me of recent updates with our electronic medical records system. The role of a nurse informaticist in developing effective ways to improve data collection, retrieval, and sharing provides an effective way to improve work efficiency, giving me more time to focus on my patient's needs. It would be an excellent strategy to involve bedside nurses in developing new data applications during the planning phase as it will help focus on what is relevant and helpful to the end-users of the application.
The merging of technology and healthcare has turned into a more efficient delivery of healthcare services in many organizations. Time-consuming paper documentation, retrieval, and sharing of medical records are slowly being phased out to give way to electronic medical charting. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society reported an improvement of daily workflow among nurses as a result of electronic charting (University of Illinois Chicago, n.d.). A nurse informaticist's unique skills to integrate nursing perspective with the development of digital applications to improve patient outcome and efficiency of healthcare delivery are reflected in improved coordination among different healthcare providers achieving a safe and efficient exchange of health information (HIT Consultant, 2016).
References
Fresenius Medical Care. (n.d.). REnal IT. https://www.freseniusmedicalcare.com/en/healthcare-professionals/renal-it/renal-it-overview/
HIT Consultant. (2016, March 20). Six ways health informatics is transforming healthcare. HITC. https://hitconsultant.net/2016/03/02/health-informatics-transforming-health-care/#.X9fjy9JKjol
University of Illinois Chicago. (n.d.). The impact of health informatics on nursing practice. https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/the-impact-of-health-informatics-on-nursing- practice/
By Day 6 of Week 3
Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days, offering one or more additional interaction strategies in support of the examples/observations shared or by offering further insight to the thoughts shared about the future of these interactions.
sample response
Thank you for your insightful post Manuel. It is true that the merging of healthcare and technology improves with each passing year. Health Information Technology (HIT) is supported by
many mobile technology devices and software programs. I would offer the idea that health care team members at the bedside as well as outside department members utilize tablets with
mobile health software. This has been shown to improve the safety and quality of healthcare delivery (Ng, et al., 2018). Perhaps the bedside nurse would be able to quickly communicate lab
values for a particular patient which may indicate the need for an earlier dialysis treatment. We should attempt to view our responsibilities from all angles to enable reflective practice. Did
the information the nurse observed and chose to pass on through technology help the plan of care for the patient? Constant reevaluation of efficacy may easily be evaluated by the HIT team.
In this way, the informatics nurse can provide feedback that impacts patient outcomes in real time (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Ng, Yeow, Chye PhD, CRNP, CPC, AAHIVE, Alexander, Susan, DNP, CRNP, Frith, Karen, et al. (2018). Integration of Mobile Health Applications in Health Information Technology Initiatives: Expanding Opportunities for Nurse Participation in Population Health. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36, 209-213. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000445
sample response 2
I see chronic kidney disease patients frequently on the med-surg floor. Most of them are readmissions and come in frequently. As you stated in your discussion, we communicate with different health care teams to provide the best outcome. It is crucial to work with other specialists to deliver the care they deserve, and one cannot do that without working together (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The patients' benefits when the nurse informaticist regularly improves data collection and informs us about it. Nursing informatics will advance through creating more evidence-based data to help better patient outcomes to expand on your discussion. As Murphy stated, processing data and information has become necessary in the last decade due to healthcare professionals turning the data collected into knowledge (Murphy, 2010). As technology advances, healthcare workers will get to give patients more attention in hopes of decreasing readmissions.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Murphy J. Nursing informatics: the intersection of nursing, computer, and information sciences.
Nurs Econ. 2010;28(3):204-207.
sample response 3
I enjoyed your posting for this week! I think it is amazing your view on using nursing informaticists on managing chronic diseases. According to Sipes (2016), “nursing informatics (NI) is the specialty that integrates nursing science with information and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice.” Therefore, using nursing informatics to assist patients in managing their chronic diseases is very critical for patients to lead healthy, successful lives.
Moreover, with new advancements in digital data, we are able to advance our knowledge. According to Lopez and Tiase (2020), “this digital health revolution has transformed how clinicians document clinical encounters and how consumers access their health information, record and track their health data, manage their diseases, and promote their own wellness.” Therefore, nursing informatics not only benefits health care providers, but it benefits individuals in managing their diseases.
References
Lopez, K., & Tiase, V. (2020). Alliance for nursing informatics support and advocacy of
consumer health. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 38, 60-61.
doi:10.1097/CIN.0000000000000619
Sipes, C. (2016). Project management: Essential skill of nurse informaticists. Studies in Health
Technology and Informatics, 225, 252–256.