Week 3 Discussion Post
I currently work in Recovery (PACU) and we are on the journey to obtaining our Joint Center of Excellence Certificate through JAHCO. With, our power plans in Cerner had to be redeveloped to be in alignment with JAHCO standards. We had 2 nurses that currently work for Information Systems (IS) that have been in involved with making sure that we have the correct power plans that meet standards as well as obtaining the data needed to ensure that the power plans are an accurate depiction of what the surgeons want in their preoperative and post-operative orders. According to RegisteredNursing.org, “nurse informaticists work to develop communication and information technologies in health care. They also serve as educators, researchers, software engineers, and chief nursing officers. Using the "building blocks" listed above, they help develop evidence-based policies and procedures for organizations.” (Writers, R. N. S., 2021). The nurses involved in IS have been floor nurses or worked in recovery and understand the importance of the information that is being gathered.
Communication between the nursing staff and those involved in IS that are working on the project could be better. I have on many occasions suggested different wording or adding of additional information to my manager with no resolution. Being able to talk with IS directly and give the suggestions or at least discuss the suggestions would do nothing but increase patient satisfaction scores. “Having good communication skills is essential to collaborating on teams with your fellow nurses and colleagues from other disciplines. It is also important to patient-centered care.” (2021, April 29).
“In today’s dynamic health systems, technology plays an important role in education and nursing work. So it seems necessary to study the role of nurses and highlight the need for appropriate information technology educational programs to integrate with the ever-increasing pace of technology.”( Darvish, A., et. al., 2014) Every one of the nurses in IS were involved when we went live with Cerner, this is after those same nurses were involved with programing Cerner to fit our rural hospital needs.
Without nursing informatics, the use of technology would not be what it needs to be to properly take care of our patients.
References
Darvish, A., Bahramnezhad, F., Keyhanian, S., & Navidhamidi, M. (2014). The role of nursing informatics on promoting quality of health care and the need for appropriate education. Global journal of health science, 6(6), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v6n6p11
The Importance of Effective Communication in Nursing. University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. (2021, April 29). https://www.usa.edu/blog/communication-in-nursing/.
What is Nursing Informatics & How to Become a Nurse Informaticist. What is Nursing Informatics & How to Become a Nurse Informaticist || RegisteredNursing.org. https://www.registerednursing.org/nursing-informatics/.
Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists
Nature offers many examples of specialization and collaboration. Ant colonies and bee hives are but two examples of nature’s sophisticated organizations. Each thrives because their members specialize by tasks, divide labor, and collaborate to ensure food, safety, and general well-being of the colony or hive.
Of course, humans don’t fare too badly in this regard either. And healthcare is a great example. As specialists in the collection, access, and application of data, nurse informaticists collaborate with specialists on a regular basis to ensure that appropriate data is available to make decisions and take actions to ensure the general well-being of patients.
In this Discussion, you will reflect on your own observations of and/or experiences with informaticist collaboration. You will also propose strategies for how these collaborative experiences might be improved.
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and reflect on the evolution of nursing informatics from a science to a nursing specialty.
- Consider your experiences with nurse Informaticists or technology specialists within your healthcare organization.
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.
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.
response
I also work in the PACU and can testify to your statement about nurses partaking in numerous roles. Preparing for a JACHO visit often has a central location room, where vast amount of data is collected along with tracking JACHO’s movement throughout the hospital. The term project manager is referenced in this weeks resources. Sipes (2016) has done research on project managers that dates to the 1950’s, which is to say this philosophy is not new, but rather the challenge today is how to make a project manager more efficient. A total of 21 competencies and 167 skills was listed in the article referencing nursing informatics skillsets. If those qualifications represent a typical day, you can only imagine what goes on during a JACHO visit. I do not need to use my imagination, as I have been part of the central location room during a visit. Our task was to address how the PACU meets the benchmark standards of charting during EMR downtime. Thats right, the show must go on even when the computers aren’t; surgery, charting, and everything else held accountable. The article concludes by saying, “Project management is one of the largest but least understood essentials of NI knowledge and skill set” (Sipes, 2016).
A strategy that Feldman et al., (2018) researched for nurse leaders to utilize is the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s three phase model for improving quality outcome. The three parts which focus on addressing failure includes identification, prevention, and redesign. It is the intent that over time a failure-free operation will develop. While this cycle is basic in nature, what is interesting is that the article draws parallels between other areas of healthcare which are critical in nature. “As such, it makes sense to think about the role of health IT in reliability as it relates to healthcare quality and patient safety” (Feldman er al., 2018). The article cited an example of order alerts in EMR that were placed by IT specialists. The alerts initiated hard stops on potentially unsafe orders, which in this case incorporated pharmacy and nursing care (Feldman et al., 2018). The impact of these collaborated efforts amongst various departments serves the patient in terms of outcomes, satisfaction, and overall quality of care.
References
Feldman, S. S., Buchalter, S., & Hayes, L. W. (2018). Health information technology in healthcare quality and patient safety: Literature Review. JMIR medical informatics, 6(2), e10264. https://doi.org/10.2196/10264