Nursing Informatics

The objective of this synthesis paper is to present my readers what I have achieved during my graduate program at American Sentinel University (ASU). It assimilates all my course work, clinical experience, and nursing practice during this time, which presents a complete picture of how I accomplished my Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) consequences and Nursing Informatics track competencies. This paper will pinpoint my personal philosophy of nursing informatics and give a concise summary of my professional achievements, competencies developed during program of studies, and goals for life-long learning as an informatics nurse. The occupation of nursing is considered as both an art and science. Development of nursing comprises evidence‐based practice and fast integration of advances in technology. It is a field that has extensive uses in healthcare, as well as specialty practice. Educational curriculum and degree/certification are choices for nurses to pursue in this exciting field.

Nursing informatics really gained momentum in the 1980’s. The first national conference on computer technology and nursing was held (Ozbolt, J.G., Saba, V.K. 2008). Scholarships and the first educational courses on Nursing Informatics were introduced into the nursing programs at Boston College, University of New York and University of Utah (Ozbolt, J.G., Saba, V.K. 2008). The growing record of accomplishment allowed nurses to move into managerial roles (Edwards, H. 2011). By the mid ‘80’s, nearly three decades after Nurse Werley pushed for minimum data sets, was the idea finally embraced by nurse professionals (Ozbolt, J.G., Saba, V.K. 2008). Four specific elements of the minimum data set became a standard for nursing care: nursing diagnosis, nursing intervention, nursing outcome and the

The nursing field is caring, dependable, and effective. None of which could be accomplished without teamwork, collaboration and informatics. I believe these concepts are fundamental in the nursing profession. Nurses must work with other healthcare staff, the patients and their families to provide patient-centered and quality care. The use of informatics enhance both the quality of care the clients receive and the teamwork and collaboration aspect of nursing. No one nurse can do it all on their own. Nursing requires the use of teamwork and new technology.

Technological advancement is very rapidly affecting every aspect of life and is making an immense impact in Health Care. My clinical experiences as a staff nurse caring for patients can be effectively integrated with technology in the Nursing Informatics field. To make valuable contributions to the field of Nursing Informatics, I realized that a Graduate degree would be very beneficial. Therefore, I decided to pursue my MSN in Nursing Informatics to achieve my goal of using my skills and knowledge in the best possible way to make effective advancements in the field of nursing informatics for a constructive impact on my patients’ health and my colleagues.

In order to practice as a nurse informatics or NI specialist, one must know and understand the standard to which he or she is held. The purpose and function of scopes and standards of practice for nursing informatics is to provide an overview of the specialty, assist future specialists understand their scope of practice, and practice at a competent level to guide and support nursing care. The scopes and standards of practice further provides an insight into the foundation of clinical decision making processes and cognitive concepts as the nurse moves data to wisdom in the clinical setting. As a NI specialist, the informatics nurse follows the concepts, scopes and standards of practice to guide and define their profession. This paper will further discuss the principles that guides nurse informatics specialist, the scope and standards of practice, professional performance, functional areas for nurse informatics, competencies, evolution, progress, and the future the specialty.

Nurses are moving from a traditional method of performing task into the technological era. As informatics nurses recognize the need to move from the traditional to a progressive approach. There are many theorist that propose change; however, Kurt Lewin the father of psychology, introduces the theory concepts, emphasizes that the group differ from the sum of its parts. The change theory presents the three-stage model of change. The Lewins model (2011) consist of the unfreezing-change-refreeze theory. The purpose of this discussion is to examine the theories and conceptual frameworks applicable to nursing informatics, view and summarize the video, and Evaluate Applications of Theories or Conceptual Frameworks to Nursing Informatics Initiative.

Dr. Murray’s article states that nursing informatics is the combination of sciences; computer, information and nursing which helps to “manage and process nursing data, information and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of care” (Murray, 2010, p. 3). Collecting information while

* Reduction of medication errors- Barcode medication administration safeguards against wrong pt/wrong med/wrong dose errors and alerts to potential medication interactions (Goth, 2006).

Informatics is a specialty in the nursing field that is combined with certain science. As stated by ANA (2008) “nursing informatics (NI) is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice” (p. 65). ANA further focus on the functional areas rather than the role that guides the scope of practice within NI. These functional areas include: “administration, leadership, and management; analysis; compliance and integrity management; consultation; coordination, facilitation, and integration; development; educational and professional development; research and evaluation; policy development and advocacy; and telehealth” (CCN, 2015, para. 1). With these functional areas in mind, a nursing informatics specialist can perform proficiently, depending on the specific task. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the result of an interview with a NI specialist and analyze the differences and similarities between the interviewee’s functional areas with that of scholarly ones.

American Association College of Nursing. (n.d.). Master’s Education for Advanced Practice Nursing. Retrieved from American Association of Colleges of Nursing: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education-resources/MasEssentials96.pdfCipriano, P.F., & Murphy, J. (2011). Nursing Informatics, The Future of Nursing and Health IT: The Quality Elixir. Nursing Economics, 29(5), 286-282

Nursing informatics is a branch of nursing or area of specialty that concentrates on finding ways to improve data management and communication in nursing with the sole objective of improving efficiency, reduction of health costs, and enhancement of the quality of patient care (Murphy, 2010). It is also described as a growing area of nursing specialty that combines computer science, information technology, and nursing science in the management and processing of nursing information, data, and knowledge with the sole objective of supporting nursing practice and research. Various nursing theorists have formulated various theoretical frameworks or models related to nursing informatics (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2013), and they are defined as a

With the rapid growth in the implementation and use of electronic medical records, there is an increase in how we define the role of nurses and other team member’s (Deese & Stien, 2004). Along with providing optimal care, nurses are also responsible for interpreting and accurately documenting large amounts of information. According to, (Ericksen, 2009) nursing informatics is defined as the integration of nursing, its information, and information management with information processing and communication technology to support the health of people worldwide. In this

Sir, can you please step up to the glass, put your palm on the screen and follow the directions from the computer? This is where our future lies…in biometrics, computers, and science. Soon there will be no need to fill out tedious paperwork, to try to remember medications or past medical history. I know it exists in hospitals across America, I have seen it in action many times. Are we as nurses changing with the times? What is nursing informatics? Why is it important to me? How do I rate on the nursing informatics knowledge scale? What is my plan to increase my knowledge base? These questions should be at the forefront of every nurse’s thoughts. The information age has come crashing down on us from every possible angle in our lives, it

When you look at how nursing documentation affects patient outcomes consider all the benefits of informatics. Electronic charting systems allows for automation in patient safety issues. This automation can be prompts that forces a nurse to address things like abuse history, and many other requirements from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and if the nurses document, there is a history of abuse, the system can automatically send a referral to a department to follow up on the nurses charting. The clinical systems store valuable information, and re-populates, this information on later admissions. An example of this valuable information, would be a patient with the diagnosis of methicillin-resistant staph

According to Dr. Ken Majowski (Laureate, 2011) health care informatics has been in existence for at least the past two to three decades. Ozbolt & Saba (2008) state that “in the second half of the 20th century” the focus of nursing informatics was on the development of “a standardized language” (p. 199). In the 1970’s, informatics included “nursing care planning and documentation” (Ozbolt & Saba, 2008, p. 200). In the 1980’s, nursing informatics research and education led to the “establishment of data standards … unleashing the potential of nursing informatics to improve practice” thus giving nursing the opportunity to “translate knowledge to practice via decision support, and to create new knowledge from the data generated in nursing practice” (Ozbolt & Saba, 2008, p 201). In the 1990’s the “Nursing Terminology Summit Conferences” met “to develop concept-oriented reference terminology models for nursing” (Ozbolt & Saba, 2008, p. 203). The 2000’s proved to be a decade of additional progress with the call for “an electronic health record” for every