The integration of technology has been so profound in the last ten years that it has forced individuals of different ages to adapt. This evolution of people and technology has occurred simultaneously. Many have been reluctant to the change. However, technology has made our lives easier, at times for the good and others for the bad. The same concept of people and technology can be applied to nursing informatics. According to Nursing Informatics Deep Dive “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” (QSEN, 2012). Similar to technology, many do not see the importance of informatics and how it is relevant to patient care. Health informatics improves expert decision-making, nursing collaborations with other disciplines, quality of care, and reduces clinical errors. Therefore, it is important for nursing students graduating with baccalaureate degrees to gain informatics knowledge through various activities and projects. Back in the stone ages, nurses, doctors and other disciplines had a hard time communicating with each other. The lack of communication was due to their documentation being charted on paper, which delayed decision-making on a patient’s plan of care. This is no longer the case. Nursing informatics has created systems in which different disciplines can input a patient’s information at the moment of assessment.
Through education and clinical experience, I have gained the knowledge, skills, and proficiency that have prepared me an expert acute care nurse. This has developed the root of my personal philosophy of informatics. This philosophy holds the exceptionality of every individual and the certainty that everyone has the ability to improve his or her knowledge if directed in the right direction. Based on this, my ambition as an informatics nurse is to use
Nursing informatics (NI) has become a vital part of healthcare delivery and has become a defining factor in the selection, execution, and assessment of technology that supports safe, exceptional quality and patient-centered care. Nursing has become so uniform. The data in patient records has become a valuable resource and has improved assessments and overall patient care. Before the launch of nursing informatics throughout the second half of the 20th century there were not any real standards for language. The use of data restricted the function and
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.
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.
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.
After many decades elapsed, nowadays, the quality of human life is growing better. Human beings always search and invent new things in order to meet their needs. There are not only changes in the way that people dress and behave, but also there are many changes in forms of entertainment. In the past when technologies had not developed much, people usually entertained by getting together to dance, sing, or listen to music; many of them went to a small bar in the community to drink or play cards. Today is completely distinct from the time in the past. With innovative science and modern technologies, the entertainment has become easier and more convenient for all people. Everyone can relax and amuse themselves wherever and whenever with modern electronic devices such as cell phone, tablet, LCD TV, laptop, etc. Therefore, technology has become part of our life. Many people say that we could not do anything without technology; it helps people to make work easier. In fact, technology not only impacts our daily lives, but it also has a strong influence on the criminal justice system. If law enforcement officers apply technology to their investigations, it will assist to make the investigations less difficult and more efficient. So, what has the technology already helped to make an improvement in the criminal justice field, and how has it impacted on the law enforcement?
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
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.
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
Nurses can review vital signs history for a patient to spot abnormalities and creating a baseline with a few clicks of a mouse and identify inconsistencies and changes in health quickly, which saves not only time but lives too when using nursing informatics. Opportunities in nursing care can be discussed with management and the nursing informatics team to better serve patients. There is a huge push to reduce costs in healthcare and nursing informatics helps save money while improving patient care. Various members of the healthcare team can now look at the same patient's chart at the same time at many healthcare facilities. Nursing informatics professionals look for ways to improve the patient experience so that redundancy and waste are removed, but they try to keep the nursing process in mind to avoid sacrificing the level of care provided. Most jobs in this field are in hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical and research companies, and healthcare consulting companies. The locations of available jobs are similar to those offered to a traditional nurse, but it is clear that this position is considered niche and the traditional nurse would have more job opportunities (“Johnson & Johnson Discover Nursing”, 2014).
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