Virtual Health Assistant Case Study

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.

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 Certificate has decided that the 100 bed hospital that she works in would benefit

Implementation of a computer system to replace paper documentation would require the involvement of an interdisciplinary team. This team would be comprised of several members, each with a specific job. The first member selected would be a Clinical Nurse Informaticist. This team member would be charged with giving valuable input on the software needed for nurses to properly care for and chart on their patients. With the knowledge of nursing practice and informatics, this team member would very valuable in bringing the two together in the most efficient way possible. The next team

……A recent survey by Kluwer Kluwer Health’s Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 71% of nurses are using smartphones for their job. It’s becoming the norm in the nursing workplace nowadays and the range of phone apps are moving beyond leisure. It’s not an exaggeration to say that smartphones are moving the nursing practice into a much greater height. From drug references, medication interaction disease, laboratory and safety information, nurses have access to all kinds of data to help them improve patient care.

In the modern world technology is everywhere and it affects everyone’s daily life. People are constantly attached to cell phones, laptops, and other electronics, which all have affected how people live their lives. Technology is also a large part of the healthcare system today. There are many electronics and technologies that are used in health care, such as electronic health record, medication bar code scanning, electronic documentation, telenursing, and there are many more forms of technology that impact nursing. One technology that stands out is the electronic health record. The electronic health record, also referred to as EHR, is an electronic version of a patient’s chart, and it contains is a list of the patient’s current medications, allergies, laboratory results, diagnoses, immunization dates, images, treatments, and medical history (“Learn EHR Basics,” 2014). The purpose of the electronic health record is to have a patient’s health care record available to health care providers nationwide, but the patient can decide who has access to their record (Edwards, Chiweda, Oyinka, McKay, & Wiles, 2011). The electronic health record is a very important technology in health care and it impacts nurses, nursing care, and has a significant impact on patient outcomes.

It is important to note that the implementation of health information technology should not add to the operational burden on the nurses but provide for improvements in patient care (Jacques& Howell,2015). Clancy states,” that the nurse informaticist play a vital role in the successful planning,design and implementation of information technology” ( 2015, p.535). The selection of this new upgraded software will be easily configured and maintained by the IT department. The nurse informatics specialist will assist with the design and implementation of an app system that integrates to an upgraded electronic health record ( EHR) that will display crucial patient information and vital alarm information to the healthcare providers healthcare certified mobile phone and also a centralized dedicated alarm monitoring area in the nurses station. This upgrade in the EHR will provide easy accessible information to help providers to prioritize patient needs as urgent and critical vs noncritical and can wait. The use of mobile devices displaying patient critcal information enables staff to effectively communicate and collaborate with other members of the health care team to respond to a crisis because of an actual life-threatening actionable alarm event. The use of this enhanced, upgraded EHR not only assist health care providers to prioritze actions and react more proficiently to alarms but it will also help to determine the appropriate treatment plan for the

Technology plays a vital role in today’s healthcare system. As technology advances the role of a nurse informatics is to combine technology to support nursing care by implementing, converting information, and incorporating data, in order to develop and merge applications and software imperative to the quality of care given through data management and documentation (Darvish, Bahramnezhad, Keyhanian,

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

A nursing technology revolution is around the corner. In recent years several advances have been made towards the implementation of various programs that help hospitals move more efficiently from ordering tests to admitting the patient into the hospitals proprietary system. In larger hospitals computers have been installed at nursing workstation so that nurses can chart information, view trending, and print lab reports. This is a long way from where nursing was 15 years ago.

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.

Virtual care technologies are quickly becoming recognized as a necessary component in providing greater, more convenient, access to quality healthcare. Today, healthcare professionals use telemedicine to treat and manage a wide array of acute and chronic conditions. Zipnosis is one of the leading telemedicine software-for-service (SaaS) company used by health systems throughout the country. We provide the telemedicine solutions for more academic health centers than any other telemedicine company.

Health Informatics created two main categories such as clinical and administrative information systems to meet the needs of one or more department within the health care organization. For the clinical information system, it is set to meet the needs in improving patient care. Therefore, the clinical information system (CIS) categories provide nurses information systems (NIS) that support the way nurses documents the care that given to the patients. However, to improve the delivery of nursing care, the healthcare organization must adopt a computer system that can successfully incorporate tools that will benefit nursing. There is two vendors’ software that implies these characteristics for the

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