Technology Within The Health Setting

In this discussion board post, I will compare and contrast informatics and clinical informatics. Then I will give two examples of clinical informatics found in my organization that has been found to improve patient care. I will also give two examples of how my nurse manager can utilize data management in order to improve patient care. Lastly, I will discuss why President Bush mandated that all health records be in electronic form by the year 2014.

With advancing technology such as electronic healthcare records, informatics is helping change the way nurses address everyday issues such as providing improved patient centered care and outcomes. This paper will provide an in-depth exploration of informatics and the role it plays in electronic healthcare records. The paper will then self-reflect and self-analyze my personal views related to informatics and electronic healthcare records. Finally, the paper will discuss the implications of emerging informatics technology related to electronic healthcare records on the nursing practice articulating the value of pursuing practice excellence, lifelong learning, and professional engagement, related to professional growth and development.

The video presentation by Gail Lattimer and Roy Simpson. Lattimer present the Theories and Conceptual Frameworks, which demonstrates ways nurses can use theories and concepts to engage informatics. Implementation of the Electronic Health Record (EHRs) provides a means where the nurses learn to adopt and engage technology. Technology allows the nurse to discover ways finding valid, dependable and reliable information to manage the care of the patients. Lattimer suggests nurses review the shared governance of Magnet hospitals.

Nursing informatics and technology are quickly becoming the hot buzz words for nursing in the twenty-first century. While performing research for this specific paper, the observations of how far technology has come from its inception is mind boggling. When looking back to the mid 1990’s every patient had paper charting. Nurses manually charted vital signs, nursing notes, treatments and all orders were manually written in the chart. The patient’s name, insurance information, and billing items were stored electronically. Fast forward twenty plus years and everything nurses do with, for or to a patient is filed electronically. This file today is known as the electronic health record (EHR) (Lavin, Harper, & Barr, 2015). This paper will be delving into the history of nursing informatics and technology, the pros and cons for nurses and what will be the big picture for informatics and technology in nursing today and in the future. Nursing informatics and the technology that has evolved over time are changing and quickly affecting how nurses treat, communicate, plan and document everything that they do for their patients.

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

Health care information management is a core competency for professional nurses. However, not all nurses and healthcare providers have adequate knowledge of operational informatics. Just as technology has forced medical records and documentation to evolve to computer-based charting, nurses must also progress to rise above competency in information management. According to the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform Summit (TIGER) Initiative, the vision for informatics-prepared nurses includes management and leadership, education, communication and collaboration, informatics design and technology, policy, and culture (Hood, 2010). As an educator, the focus of nursing informatics lies in word processing, spreadsheets and databases, online resources and public health information (PHI), curriculum planning, e-mail, interpretation of the electronic medical record (EMR), and online continuing education.

The authors conclude that in order to collect data for meaningful use, one must get back to nursing basics to satisfy regulatory requirements. Under direction of a nurse informaticist, utilizing electronic health records helps facilitate this.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe two health information and communication technologies (HICTs) and how they aid nurses in supporting safe, quality care, facilitating continuity of care and care coordination, and partnering with patients and families to increase participation in health care. HICT involves electronic creation, storage, exchange, and analysis of health information to advance delivery of health care. Widespread use of HICT within the healthcare industry can achieve the following goals: improve healthcare quality and safety, reduce costs and health disparities, enhance clinical research, and ensure security of patient health information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Several examples of HICTs include: electronic medical record systems, electronic prescribing, consumer health applications, and telehealth (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], 2015). Integration of HICTs in healthcare settings is valuable for all clinicians, but most importantly nurses as they are primary caregivers.

Public health informatics helps in providing valuable medical and public health information to lay people and health professionals on subjects such as prevention and health promotion (Stamler & Yiu, 2012, p. 175). Community Health Nurses (CHNs) are uniquely positioned to assist clients who have searched online while trying to make sense of their health concerns. In order to do so, CHNs must adhere to certain Standards of Practice. According to the Canadian Community Health Nursing Standards of Practice (CHNAC 2008), the use of “nursing informatics (information and communication technology) to generate, manage and process relevant data to support nursing practice” is a necessary component for CHNs to provide their clients with accurate and

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

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

Nursing informatics is the use of any information technologies by nurses about the care of their patients, the administration of health care facilities or the educational preparation of individuals to practice the discipline (Staggers, Thompson, 2002). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified the critical role of information technology in designing safe and effective health care, and to achieve this goal, healthcare professionals must receive the required training during basic and advanced educational programs (Bakkens et al., 2004). Some ways that can promote patient safety through informatics is the use of a personal digital assistant (PDA) to document clinical encounters, computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and to retrieve patient

Technology and innovation have transformed the way people function personally and professionally. In the past, writing and mailing a letter was standard but now most people send electronic messages and text messages to phones. Healthcare has been changing tremendously as well, not only are paper charts and records becoming obsolete, but now many facilities are sharing test results, visit information details, and prescribed drug lists. This move into the digital age has helped improve healthcare by cutting costs in the long-term, increasing efficiency with decreased wait times, and reducing medical errors. This evolving technology expansion, commonly referred to as nursing informatics has created many

As technology has and continues to advance so will the expansion of nursing informatics. Data from (19th annual 2008 himss leadership survey, 2008) hold this statement true showing a steady increase in the implementation of technologies. As computers became smaller, it became easier and efficient for hospitals and physicians office to implement their use. (sutton, 2007)The first computers were large, expensive, and inefficient. Now, computers are compact, inexpensive, and efficient. The smaller technology allows for portability of information. PDA’s are small enough to fit in your pocket. With these small devices, you can look up a patients medication, drug interactions, side effects, and just about anything, you could think of to

The profession of health informatics is a relatively new one, blending the use of technologies with collecting, organizing, storing, using, and evaluating health information.