NURS 4040 Managing Information and Technology Assessment 1: Nursing Informatics in Healthcare Paper

NURS 4040 Managing Information and Technology Assessment 1: Nursing Informatics in Healthcare Paper

Nursing Informatics in Healthcare

Healthcare organizations rely massively upon information and data to provide quality care to the proximal patient populations. For instance, data from patient records, outputs from electrocardiograms, radiographs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT) scans provide justifications for care delivery. According to McGonigle & Mastrian (2018), valuable information in healthcare should exhibit various characteristics, including accessibility, security, timeliness, accuracy, utility, verifiability, and relevancy. It is essential to note that an absence of valuable information and data compromises healthcare professionals’ ability to provide timely, convenient, patient-centered, evidence-based, and effective care. As a result, healthcare institutions perceive the need to enhance the role of nursing informaticists to leverage nursing informatics effectively.

What is nursing informatics?

Nursing informatics integrates data, information, knowledge, and wisdom into nursing to improve practices and enhance decisions. Although the definition of nursing informatics (NI) has undergone revisions due to the consistent advancement in information management approaches, the American Nurses Association (ANA) defines NI as “the specialty that integrates nursing science with multiple information and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage, and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice” (Kassam, Nangle & Strudwick, 2017, p. 1). Based on this definition, it is valid to argue that nursing informatics supports interprofessional healthcare teams in their decisions, roles, and settings to realize strategic goals and desired outcomes.

What is the role of the nurse informaticist?

The American Nurses Association (ANA) presents nursing informatics as a specialty that integrates data, information, knowledge, and wisdom into nursing practice. As a result, nurse informaticists are specialists tasked with overseeing the effective integration of these components into healthcare practices and processes. According to Hebda et al. (2019), informatics specialists have advanced skills specific to health-information management and computer technology. They assist organizations in implementing new information technologies, assessing data quality, and using information systems. Also, nurse informaticists educate other employees on new systems, technologies, and workflows. Finally, they play a significant role in enhancing data security, privacy, and confidentiality by guiding healthcare organizations and professionals to implement various data safeguards, including physical, technical, and administrative data protection mechanisms.

Nurse Informaticists and Other Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare organizations benefit from the integration of nursing informatics into clinical practices and processes. Hebda et al. (2019) contend that nurse informaticists have advanced health information and computer skills that enable healthcare organizations to manage information and integrate data, knowledge, and wisdom into nursing practices. The benefits of enhancing the role of nurse informaticists include improved patient care, ensuring data privacy, security, and confidentiality, efficient workflows, and increased return on investment.

How nurse informaticists interact with the rest of the nursing staff and interdisciplinary team

Nurse informaticists participate effectively in interdisciplinary approaches for improving the integration of information, data, knowledge, and wisdom into nursing practice. Therefore, they collaborate and interact with the rest of the nursing staff members, including nurses, physicians, organizational leaders, and IT experts, in various activities, including triaging, implementing new technologies, and improving systems. According to Kassam, Nangle & Strudwick (2017), nurse informaticists provide guidance and support to others in applying advanced knowledge and technologies like clinical decision support systems and genomics. Their interactions with other team members facilitate the integration of knowledge, data, information, and wisdom into nursing practice.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Healthcare Technology

Improved Patient Care

Nurses play a forefront role in providing quality care. However, technology developers often exclude them when implementing health technologies. According to Dykes & Chu (2020), nurses understand care demands, intricacies of patient populations, organizational structures, and infection control practices. Therefore, their full involvement in healthcare technology should inform the innovation process from idea generation to diffusion. It is essential to note that involving nurses in healthcare technology can improve patient care by eliminating medication errors, improving care processes, and promoting timely and convenient care delivery.

Protected Health Information

Equally, involving nurses in healthcare technology can improve interventions for protecting health information and ensuring data security, privacy, and confidentiality. Dykes & Chu (2020) contend that nurses understand organizational systems, including system functionality and information interoperability dimensions. As a result, involving them in healthcare technology can bolster interdisciplinary interventions for ensuring data security, privacy, and confidentiality. According to Kruse et al. (2017), healthcare organizations should implement technical, physical, and administrative data safeguards to avert and recover from cybersecurity threats, including phishing, ransomware, hacking, and system disruptions. Nurses’ involvement in healthcare technology can promote the effectiveness of various protective interventions, including data and system encryption, regular risk assessments, developing security and recovery plans, and other technical and administrative mechanisms for securing data. Improved

Workflow

The failure to involve nurses in healthcare technologies can hinder systems’ functionality and outcomes. Improved workflows mean effective, timely, and convenient care practices and processes. According to Alolayyan et al. (2020), advanced technologies such as electronic health records systems (EHRS) save time, improve queue management, and enable healthcare professionals to prevent mistakes, including medication errors. Therefore, involving nurses in healthcare technology can contribute to smooth operations and translate to convenient workflows.

Reduced Costs and Increased Return on Investment

Initially, technology developers excluded nurses from healthcare technology because of the prioritization of cost over functionality and the perception that nurses lacked prerequisite technological knowledge and skills. However, it is essential to note that involving nurses in healthcare technology can reduce the costs of implementing new technologies and systems by improving systems’ functionality and reducing the subsequent necessity for workarounds (Dykes & Chu, 2020). Further, nurses’ participation in all stages of implementing healthcare technologies can facilitate the return on investment by reducing medication errors, improving workflows, promoting patient care, and saving on the costs of compensating for medication errors.

Opportunities and Challenges

The nursing informatics specialty is ever-expanding due to the overarching need to integrate knowledge, evidence, data, and wisdom into nursing practices. Similarly, the need to leverage nursing informatics prompts nurses to familiarize themselves with emerging health information technologies like big data, data mining, and free-text analytics (Hebda et al., 2019). While these current developments present ideal opportunities for the advanced role of nurse informaticists, healthcare organizations face various challenges when integrating nursing informatics into practice. Mitchell & Khan (2019) argue that resource constraints, staff shortages, and a lack of appropriate skill mix are challenges facing healthcare organizations when integrating new technologies into clinical practices. Therefore, it is vital to address these constraints to capitalize on the limitless emerging opportunities for nursing informatics.

Summary of Recommendations

Undoubtedly, nurse informaticists play a significant role in improving the integration of advanced health technologies, health information, data, knowledge, and wisdom into nursing practice. The possibility of leveraging nursing informatics and health technology translates to multiple benefits, including enhanced queue management, prevention of medication errors, improved decisions, and supporting the tenets of evidence-based practice. Secondly, nurse informaticists collaborate with other staff members to oversee and promote the implementation of new technologies and systems. Interprofessional collaboration contributes to convenient workflows, nurses’ involvement in healthcare technology, and improved patient care. As a result, the organization should hire a nursing informaticist to capitalize on these opportunities and realize the return on investment for healthcare informatics and information technologies.

References

Alolayyan, M., Alyahya, M., Alalawin, A., Shoukat, A., & Nusairat, F. (2020). Health information technology and hospital performance the role of health information quality in teaching hospitals. Heliyon, 6(10), e05040. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05040

Dykes, S., & Chu, C. H. (2020). Now more than ever, nurses need to be involved in technology design: Lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(7-8). https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15581

Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals (6th ed.). Pearson

Kassam, I., Nagle, L., & Strudwick, G. (2017). Informatics competencies for nurse leaders: protocol for a scoping review. BMJ Open, 7(12), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018855

Kruse, C., Smith, B., Vanderlinden, H., & Nealand, A. (2017). Security techniques for electronic health records. Journal Of Medical Systems, 41(8), 127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-017-0778-4

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Mitchell, M., & Kan, L. (2019). Digital technology and the future of health systems. Health Systems & Reform, 5(2), 113-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2019.1583040

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

 

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.

Introduction
As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are encouraged to complete the Team Perspectives of the Nurse Informaticist activity. Completion of this will help you succeed with the assessment as you explore the nurse informaticist\’s role from the different perspectives of the health care team. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.

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.

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 health care organization and references from relevant and timely scholarly or professional resources to support the justification for creating this nurse informaticist position. The term justify 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.

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.
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 health care 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?

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

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?
This is the section where the justification for the implementation of the nursing informaticist role is addressed. Remember to include evidence from the literature to support your recommendation.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
Submission length: 4–5 double-spaced pages, in addition to title and references pages.
Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Citations and References: Cite a minimum of three current scholarly and/or authoritative sources to support your ideas. In addition, cite a minimum of one current professional blog or website to support your central ideas. Current means no more than five years old.
APA formatting: Be sure to follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references. For an APA refresher, consult the Evidence and APA page on Campus.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

Competency 1: Describe nurses\’ and the interdisciplinary team\’s role in informatics with a focus on electronic health information and patient care technology to support decision making.
Define nursing informatics and the role of the nurse informaticist.
Explain how the nurse collaborates with the interdisciplinary team, including technologists, to improve the quality of patient care.
Justify the need for a nurse informaticist in a health care organization.
Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information.
Explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients’ protected health information (privacy, security, and confidentiality).
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.
Create a clear, well-organized, and professional proposal that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.