A 68-year-old obese male presents to the clinic with a 3-day history of fever with chills, and Lt. great toe pain that has gotten progressively worse.

Question 1

/ 4 pts

Scenario 1: Gout

A 68-year-old obese male presents to the clinic with a 3-day history of fever with chills, and Lt. great toe pain that has gotten progressively worse. Patient states this is the first time that this has happened, and nothing has made it better and walking on his right foot makes it worse. He has tried acetaminophen, but it did not help. He took several ibuprofen tablets last night which did give him a bit of relief.

HPI: hypertension treated with Lisinopril/HCTZ .

SH: Denies smoking. Drinking: “a fair amount of red wine” every week. General appearance: Ill appearing male who sits with his right foot elevated.

PE:  remarkable for a temp of 100.2, pulse 106, respirations 20 and BP 158/92. Right great toe (first metatarsal phalangeal [MTP]) noticeably swollen and red. Unable to palpate to assess range of motion due to extreme pain. CBC and Complete metabolic profile revealed WBC 15,000 mm3 and uric acid 9.0 mg/dl.

Diagnoses the patient with acute gout.

Question:

Explain the pathophysiology of gout.

Your Answer:

Question 2

/ 4 pts

Scenario 1: Gout

A 68-year-old obese male presents to the clinic with a 3-day history of fever with chills, and Lt. great toe pain that has gotten progressively worse. Patient states this is the first time that this has happened, and nothing has made it better and walking on his right foot makes it worse. He has tried acetaminophen, but it did not help. He took several ibuprofen tablets last night which did give him a bit of relief.

HPI: hypertension treated with Lisinopril/HCTZ .

SH: Denies smoking. Drinking: “a fair amount of red wine” every week. General appearance: Ill appearing male who sits with his right foot elevated.

PE:  remarkable for a temp of 100.2, pulse 106, respirations 20 and BP 158/92. Right great toe (first metatarsal phalangeal [MTP]) noticeably swollen and red. Unable to palpate to assess range of motion due to extreme pain. CBC and Complete metabolic profile revealed WBC 15,000 mm3 and uric acid 9.0 mg/dl.

Diagnoses the patient with acute gout.

Question:

Explain why a patient with gout is more likely to develop renal calculi.

Your Answer:

 

Question 3

/ 4 pts

Scenario 2: Osteoporosis

A 78-year-old female was out walking her small dog when her dog suddenly tried to chase a  rabbit and made her fall. She attempted to try and break her fall by putting her hand out and she landed on her outstretched hand. She immediately felt severe pain in her right wrist and noticed her wrist looked deformed. Her neighbor saw the fall and brought the woman to the local ER for evaluation. Radiographs revealed a Colles’ fracture (distal radius with dorsal displacement of fragments) as well as radiographic evidence of osteoporosis. A closed reduction of the fracture was successful, and she was placed in a posterior splint with ace bandage wrap and instructed to see an orthopedist for follow up.

Question:

Discuss what is osteoporosis and how does it develop pathologically? 

Your Answer:

Question 4

/ 4 pts

Scenario 3: Rheumatoid Arthritis

A 48-year-old woman presents with a five-month history of generalized joint pain, stiffness, and swelling, especially in her hands. She states that these symptoms have made it difficult to grasp objects and has made caring for her grandchildren problematic. She admits to increased fatigue, but she thought it was due to her stressful job.

FH: Grandmothers had “crippling” arthritis.

PE: remarkable for bilateral ulnar deviation of her hands as well as soft, boggy proximal interphalangeal joints. The metatarsals of both of her feet also exhibited swelling and warmth.

Diagnosis: rheumatoid arthritis.

Question:

The pt. had various symptoms, explain how these factors are associated with RA and what is the difference between RA and OA? 

Your Answer:

 

Question 5

/ 4 pts

Scenario5: Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

A 28-year-old obese, female presents today with complaints for several weeks of vision problems (blurry) and difficulty with concentration and focusing. She is an administrative para-legal for a law firm and notes her symptoms have become worse over the course of the addition of more attorneys and demands for work. Today, she noticed that her symptoms were worse and were accompanied by some fine tremors in her hands. She has been having difficulty concentrating and has difficulty voiding. She went to the optometrist who recommended reading glasses with small prism to correct double vision. She admits to some weakness as well. No other complaints of fevers, chills, URI or UTI

PMH: non-contributory

PE: CN-IV palsy. The fundoscopic exam reveals edema of right optic nerve causing optic neuritis. Positive nystagmus on positional maneuvers. There are left visual field deficits. There was short term memory loss with listing of familiar objects.

DIAGNOSIS: multiple sclerosis (MS).

Question:

Describe what is MS and how did it cause the above patient’s symptoms?

A 22-year-old female student was brought to her college student health department by her boyfriend.

Question 1
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 1: Schizophrenia

A 22-year-old female student was brought to her college student health department by her boyfriend. He was concerned about the changes in her behavior. The boyfriend noted that she has been hearing voices, and seeing things that are not there. She also thinks that there are people that want to harm her. She told her family that she cannot finish college as the voices told her to quit because she is “dumb”. The boyfriend relates episodes of unexpected rage and crying.

PMH: noncontributory

FH: positive for a first cousin who “had mental problems”.

SH: Denies current drug abuse but states he smoked marijuana every day during junior and senior years of high school. Admits to drinking heavily on weekends at various fraternity houses.

PE: thin, anxious disheveled female who, during conversations, stops talking, tilts her head and appears to be listening to something. There is poor eye contact and conversation is disjointed.

DIAGOSIS: schizophrenia.

Questions

1. What are known characteristics of schizophrenia and relate those to this patient.

Your Answer:

Question 2
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 1: Schizophrenia

A 22-year-old female student was brought to her college student health department by her boyfriend. He was concerned about the changes in her behavior. The boyfriend noted that she has been hearing voices, and seeing things that are not there. She also thinks that there are people that want to harm her. She told her family that she cannot finish college as the voices told her to quit because she is “dumb”. The boyfriend relates episodes of unexpected rage and crying.

PMH: noncontributory

FH: positive for a first cousin who “had mental problems”.

SH: Denies current drug abuse but states he smoked marijuana every day during junior and senior years of high school. Admits to drinking heavily on weekends at various fraternity houses.

PE: thin, anxious disheveled female who, during conversations, stops talking, tilts her head and appears to be listening to something. There is poor eye contact and conversation is disjointed.

DIAGOSIS: schizophrenia.

Question:

1. Genetics are sometimes attached to schizophrenia explain this.

Your Answer:

Question 3
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 1: Schizophrenia

A 22-year-old female student was brought to her college student health department by her boyfriend. He was concerned about the changes in her behavior. The boyfriend noted that she has been hearing voices, and seeing things that are not there. She also thinks that there are people that want to harm her. She told her family that she cannot finish college as the voices told her to quit because she is “dumb”. The boyfriend relates episodes of unexpected rage and crying.

PMH: noncontributory

FH: positive for a first cousin who “had mental problems”.

SH: Denies current drug abuse but states he smoked marijuana every day during junior and senior years of high school. Admits to drinking heavily on weekends at various fraternity houses.

PE: thin, anxious disheveled female who, during conversations, stops talking, tilts her head and appears to be listening to something. There is poor eye contact and conversation is disjointed.

DIAGOSIS: schizophrenia.

Question:

What roles do neurotransmitters play in the development of schizophrenia?

 

Your Answer:

Question 4
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 1: Schizophrenia

A 22-year-old female student was brought to her college student health department by her boyfriend. He was concerned about the changes in her behavior. The boyfriend noted that she has been hearing voices, and seeing things that are not there. She also thinks that there are people that want to harm her. She told her family that she cannot finish college as the voices told her to quit because she is “dumb”. The boyfriend relates episodes of unexpected rage and crying.

PMH: noncontributory

FH: positive for a first cousin who “had mental problems”.

SH: Denies current drug abuse but states he smoked marijuana every day during junior and senior years of high school. Admits to drinking heavily on weekends at various fraternity houses.

PE: thin, anxious disheveled female who, during conversations, stops talking, tilts her head and appears to be listening to something. There is poor eye contact and conversation is disjointed.

DIAGOSIS: schizophrenia.

Questions:

Explain what structural abnormalities are seen in people with schizophrenia.

 

Your Answer:

Question 5
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 2: Bipolar Disorder

A 44-year-old female came to the clinic today brought in by her husband. He notes that she has been with various states of depression and irritability over the past 3 months with extreme fatigue, has lost 20 pounds and has insomnia. He has come home from work to find his wife sitting in front of the TV and not moving for hours. In the past few days, she suddenly has become very hyperactive, has been talking incessantly, has been easily distracted and seems to “flit from one thing to another.”. She hasn’t slept in 3 days. The wife went on an excessive shopping spree for new clothes that resulted in their credit card being denied for exceeding the line of credit. The wife is unable to sit in the exam room and is currently pacing the hallway muttering to herself and is reluctant to talk with or be examined the ARNP. Physical observation shows agitated movements, rapid fire speech, and hyperactivity.

DIAGNOSIS: bipolar type 2 disorder.

Question

1. How does genetics play in the development of bipolar 2 disorders?

An 11-year-old boy is brought to the clinic by his parents who states that the boy has not been eating and listless.

Question 1
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 1: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)

An 11-year-old boy is brought to the clinic by his parents who states that the boy has not been eating and listless. The mother also notes that he has been easily bruising without trauma as he says he is too tired to go out and play. He says his bones hurt sometimes. Mother states the child has had intermittent fevers that respond to acetaminophen.

Maternal history negative for pre, intra, or post-partum problems.

PMH: Negative. Easily reached developmental milestones.

PE: reveals a thin, very pale child who has bruises on his arms and legs in no particular pattern.

LABS: CBC revealed Hemoglobin of 6.9/dl, hematocrit of 19%, and platelet count of 80,000/mm3. The CMP demonstrated a blood urea nitrogen (BUN) of 34m g/dl and creatinine of 2.9 mg/dl.

DIAGNOSIS: acute leukemia and renal failure and immediately refers the patient to the Emergency Room where a pediatric hematologist has been consulted and is waiting for the boy and his parents.

CONFIRMED DX: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was made after extensive testing.

Question

1. Explain what ALL is?

 

Your Answer:

Question 2
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 1: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)

An 11-year-old boy is brought to the clinic by his parents who states that the boy has not been eating and listless. The mother also notes that he has been easily bruising without trauma as he says he is too tired to go out and play. He says his bones hurt sometimes. Mother states the child has had intermittent fevers that respond to acetaminophen.

Maternal history negative for pre, intra, or post-partum problems.

PMH: Negative. Easily reached developmental milestones.

PE: reveals a thin, very pale child who has bruises on his arms and legs in no particular pattern.

LABS: CBC revealed Hemoglobin of 6.9/dl, hematocrit of 19%, and platelet count of 80,000/mm3. The CMP demonstrated a blood urea nitrogen (BUN) of 34m g/dl and creatinine of 2.9 mg/dl.

DIAGNOSIS: acute leukemia and renal failure and immediately refers the patient to the Emergency Room where a pediatric hematologist has been consulted and is waiting for the boy and his parents.

CONFIRMED DX: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was made after extensive testing.

Question

1. Why does ARF occur in some patients with ALL?

 

Your Answer:

 

Question 3
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 2: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)

A 15-year-old male with known sickle cell disease (SCD) present to the ER in sickle cell crisis. The patient is crying with pain and states this is the third acute episode he has had in the last 10-months. Both parents are present and appear very anxious and teary eyed. A diagnosis of acute sickle cell crisis was made.

Question

1. Explain the pathophysiology of acute SCD crisis. Why is pain the predominate feature of acute crises?

 

Your Answer:

 

Question 4
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 2: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)

A 15-year-old male with known sickle cell disease (SCD) present to the ER in sickle cell crisis. The patient is crying with pain and states this is the third acute episode he has had in the last 10-months. Both parents are present and appear very anxious and teary eyed. A diagnosis of acute sickle cell crisis was made.

Question

1. Discuss the genetic basis for SCD.

 

Your Answer:

 

Question 5
4 / 4 pts
Scenario 3: Hemophilia

8-month infant is brought into the office due to a swollen right knee and excessive bruising. The parents have noticed bruising about a month ago but thought the bruising was due to the attempts to crawl. They became concerned when the baby woke up with a swollen knee. Infant up to date on all immunizations, has not had any medical problems since birth and has met all developmental milestones.

FH: negative for any history of bleeding disorders or other major genetic diseases.

PE: within normal limits except for obvious bruising on the extremities and right knee. Knee is swollen but no warmth appreciated. Range of motion of knee limited due to the swelling.

DIAGNOSIS: hemophilia A.

Question

1. What is the pathophysiology of Hemophilia

 

Your Answer:

 

A 29-year-old female presents to the clinic with a complaint of hirsutism and irregular menses. She describes irregular and infrequent menses (five or six per year) since menarche at 11 years of age. She began to develop dark, coarse facial hair when she was 13 years of age, but her parents did not seek treatment or medical opinion at that time.

Question 1

/ 4 pts

Scenario 1: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

A 29-year-old female presents to the clinic with a complaint of hirsutism and irregular menses. She describes irregular and infrequent menses (five or six per year) since menarche at 11 years of age. She began to develop dark, coarse facial hair when she was 13 years of age, but her parents did not seek treatment or medical opinion at that time. The symptoms worsened after she gained weight in college. She got married 3 years ago and has been trying to get pregnant for the last 2 years without success. Height 66 inches and weight 198. BMI 32 kg.m2. Moderate hirsutism without virilization noted.  Laboratory data reveal CMP within normal limits (WNL), CBC with manual differential (WNL), TSH 0.9 IU/L SI units (normal 0.4-4.0 IU/L SI units), a total testosterone of 65 ng/dl (normal 2.4-47 ng/dl), and glycated hemoglobin level of 6.1% (normal value ≤5.6%). Based on this information, the APRN diagnoses the patient with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and refers her to the Women’s Health APRN for further workup and management.

Question

1.     What is the pathogenesis of PCOS? 

Your Answer:

Question 2

/ 4 pts

Scenario 1: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

A 29-year-old female presents to the clinic with a complaint of hirsutism and irregular menses. She describes irregular and infrequent menses (five or six per year) since menarche at 11 years of age. She began to develop dark, coarse facial hair when she was 13 years of age, but her parents did not seek treatment or medical opinion at that time. The symptoms worsened after she gained weight in college. She got married 3 years ago and has been trying to get pregnant for the last 2 years without success. Height 66 inches and weight 198. BMI 32 kg.m2. Moderate hirsutism without virilization noted.  Laboratory data reveal CMP within normal limits (WNL), CBC with manual differential (WNL), TSH 0.9 IU/L SI units (normal 0.4-4.0 IU/L SI units), a total testosterone of 65 ng/dl (normal 2.4-47 ng/dl), and glycated hemoglobin level of 6.1% (normal value ≤5.6%). Based on this information, the APRN diagnoses the patient with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and refers her to the Women’s Health APRN for further workup and management.

Question

How does PCOS affect a woman’s fertility or infertility? 

Your Answer:

Question 3

/ 4 pts

Scenario 2: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)

A 30-year-old female comes to the clinic with a complaint of abdominal pain, foul smelling vaginal discharge, and fever and chills for the past 5 days. She denies nausea, vomiting, or difficulties with bowels. Last bowel movement this morning and was normal for her. Nothing has helped with the pain despite taking ibuprofen 200 mg orally several times a day. She describes the pain as sharp and localizes the pain to her lower abdomen. Past medical history noncontributory. GYN/Social history + for having had unprotected sex while at a fraternity party. Physical exam: thin, Ill appearing anxious looking white female who is moving around on the exam table and unable to find a comfortable position. Temperature 101.6F orally, pulse 120, respirations 22 and regular. Review of systems negative except for chief complaint. Focused assessment of abdomen demonstrated moderate pain to palpation left and right lower quadrants. Upper quadrants soft and non-tender. Bowel sounds diminished in bilateral lower quadrants. Pelvic exam demonstrated + adnexal tenderness, + cervical motion tenderness and copious amounts of greenish thick secretions. The APRN diagnoses the patient as having pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

Question:

1.     What is the pathophysiology of PID? 

Your Answer:

Question 4

/ 8 pts

Scenario 3: Syphilis

A 37-year-old male comes to the clinic with a complaint of a “sore on my penis” that has been there for 5 days. He says it burns and leaked a little fluid. He denies any other symptoms. Past medical history noncontributory.

SH: Bartender and he states he often “hooks up” with some of the patrons, both male and female after work. He does not always use condoms.

PE: WNL except for a lesion on the lateral side of the penis adjacent to the glans. The area is indurated with a small round raised lesion. The APRN orders laboratory tests, but feels the patient has syphilis.

Question:

1.     What are the 4 stages of syphilis 

Your Answer:

fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the following:

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources on healthcare policy and regulatory/legislative topics related to health and nursing informatics.
  • Consider the role of the nurse informaticist in relation to a healthcare organization’s compliance with various policies and regulations, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
  • Research and select one health or nursing informatics policy (within the past 5 years) or regulation for further study.

The Assignment: (1 page not including the title and reference page)

Create a 1-page fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the following:

  • Briefly and generally explain the policy or regulation you selected.
  • Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on system implementation.
  • Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on clinical care, patient/provider interactions, and workflow.
  • Highlight organizational policies and procedures that are/will be in place at your healthcare organization to address the policy or regulation you selected. Be specific.
  • Use APA format and include a title page, in-text citations, and reference page.
  • Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.

role description for a graduate-level nurse to guide his/her participation on the implementation tea

To Prepare:

  • Review the steps of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and reflect on the scenario presented.
  • Consider the benefits and challenges associated with involving a nurse leader on an implementation team for health information technology.

The Assignment: (2-3 pages not including the title and reference page)

In preparation of filling this role, develop a 2- to 3-page role description for a graduate-level nurse to guide his/her participation on the implementation team. The role description should be based on the SDLC stages and tasks and should clearly define how this individual will participate in and impact each of the following steps:

  • Planning and requirements definition
  • Analysis
  • Design of the new system
  • Implementation
  • Post-implementation support
  • Use APA format and include a title page and reference page.
  • Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.

synthesize the peer-reviewed research you reviewed. Format your Assignment as an Annotated Bibliography.

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources and reflect on the impact of clinical systems on outcomes and efficiencies within the context of nursing practice and healthcare delivery.
  • Conduct a search for recent (within the last 5 years) research focused on the application of clinical systems. The research should provide evidence to support the use of one type of clinical system to improve outcomes and/or efficiencies, such as “the use of personal health records or portals to support patients newly diagnosed with diabetes.”
  • Identify and select 4 peer-reviewed research articles from your research.
  • For information about annotated bibliographies, visit https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/annotatedbibliographiesLinks to an external site.

The Assignment: (4-5 pages not including the title and reference page)

In a 4- to 5-page paper, synthesize the peer-reviewed research you reviewed. Format your Assignment as an Annotated Bibliography. Be sure to address the following:

  • Identify the 4 peer-reviewed research articles you reviewed, citing each in APA format.
  • Include an introduction explaining the purpose of the paper.
  • Summarize each study, explaining the improvement to outcomes, efficiencies, and lessons learned from the application of the clinical system each peer-reviewed article described. Be specific and provide examples.
  • In your conclusion, synthesize the findings from the 4 peer-reviewed research articles.
  • Use APA format and include a title page.
  • Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.

Post a brief description of general healthcare technology trends, particularly related to data/information you have observed in use in your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Describe any potential challenges or risks that may be inherent in the technologies associated with these trends you described. Then, describe at least one potential benefit and one potential risk associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care for the technologies you described. Next, explain which healthcare technology trends you believe are most promising for impacting healthcare technology in nursing practice and explain why. Describe whether this promise will contribute to improvements in patient care outcomes, efficiencies, or data management. Be specific and provide examples.

Healthcare Technology Trends, Challenges, and Risks

Overall, the general technology trends within healthcare aim to create or expand electronic health records with robust capabilities that improve patient care and outcomes (HealthIT.gov, 2022). My current employer does not utilize an electronic health record for our services, but we do utilize a state-sponsored immunization database (Kansas Department of Health and Environment, n.d.). Before this electronic database, paper copies of immunization records were utilized. Most of our clients have stayed at numerous foster home placements before admission, and the frequent location changes and transfers made verifying their immunization status difficult. The adoption of an electronic database for immunization records has improved our ability to ensure our youths are adequately immunized and to communicate this information between case team members easily. One potential risk is that this database is dependent upon manual data entry by healthcare providers. Therefore, it is vulnerable to inaccuracies created by human error.

Data Safety Benefits and Risks

One benefit of this technology is that it can store immunization information for any Kansas resident. In addition to immunization records, other personal health information, such as demographics and insurance information, can be entered. Despite the benefit of users being approved before registration, the opportunity for patient data to be accessed unjustly remains. Privacy and security concerns are prevalent within healthcare technologies due to the sensitive nature of personal health information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).

Promising Technology

The advent of applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to healthcare systems could dramatically change nursing practice. McGonigle & Mastrian (2022) state that technologies like these are discovering trends and relationships within data sets that likely would not have been discovered for years using current research methods. Evidence-based practices can be established and implemented much sooner with AI systems’ speed and analyzing power. With AI clinical decision tools that utilize current evidence-based practices, healthcare providers can more confidently develop treatment plans and provide care accordingly. To build user trust, some AI systems provide a rationale for each prediction or suggestion, referred to as explained artificial intelligence or XAI (Loh et al., 2022). These are examples of improvements in efficiency and patient outcomes.


As a result of rapid technological advances, the healthcare industry is experiencing the most significant transformations in the world market, particularly in healthcare information. With the advent of digital technologies, healthcare systems have been transformed, allowing new ways to share health information and tools for diagnosing and treating patients. Mobile apps, social media tools, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other tech-based information-sharing devices increased dramatically following technological advancements. Our organization is experiencing these technological trends at an increasing level, forcing it to adapt to new conditions to manage and distribute information. In the wake of these vital future trends, the organization has had to change dramatically, transforming into a digitalized tech corporation where healthcare professionals utilize updated methods and procedures to manage, deliver, and secure healthcare information. It is predicted that technology will continue to play an essential role in the organization, radically transforming how systems are used. The advancements in technology have enabled our organization to implement many healthcare information technology trends aimed at improving the quality of care and the satisfaction of our patients. Electronic health records (EHRs), social media, and mobile apps/telehealth are some of the general healthcare technology trends I have observed in our organization. Data is managed electronically in our organization, making it easier for authorized users to access the information instantly when needed. We use an electronic health record beyond standard clinical data collection in the provider’s office, where patients’ medical and treatment histories are recorded. Based on the use of digital technology, the patient’s care is viewed from a more comprehensive perspective. Patients’ medical histories, treatments, diagnoses, medication plans, immunization dates, laboratory tests, results, radiology, and allergies are included to assist providers in making informed decisions. Our organization has also recently utilized social media and mobile apps to enhance a connected care environment. Telehealth is becoming a more popular means of accessing health care for more people. The organization uses mobile devices and computers to access and manage healthcare services remotely using digital information and communication technology. This trend has enhanced quick information sharing between patients and their general practitioners (Orji & Moffatt, 2018). As a result of the use of social media and mobile applications, remote complaints can be resolved by raising awareness of medical care and treatment through mobile apps and social media. The use of health information technology is a crucial part of the provision and delivery of care within the organization.

Nevertheless, with the growing engagement of healthcare professionals, they need to consider updating their knowledge and skills to evaluate the appropriate use of these technology trends. Electronic health records (EHRs), social media, and mobile apps can significantly impact care delivery. Lack of knowledge and skills regarding the system is one of the challenges associated with these trends. Physicians who are new to the organization or need more training regarding how to operate involved devices may need help navigating the system. If physicians fail to use the system correctly, they will likely make errors resulting in adverse patient outcomes. Connectivity is another challenge. As a result of network issues, social disturbances, and interruptions in communication, devices may fail to send information on time. Ensuring physicians are competent in using these technology trends is crucial to ensure they receive adequate education and training.

As a result of using these technologies, there are potential benefits as well as risks in terms of data security, legislation, and patient care. Access to information is one of the benefits of data security. Keeping patient data safe for future use is one of the benefits of an electronic health record. The system allows doctors to access a patient’s information quickly by entering the patient’s name and date of birth. A risk factor associated with these technologies is privacy concerns (Gupta & Alam, 2022). Anyone with access to a computer can access the information stored on these devices. A lack of patient data privacy assurance will prevent most patients from providing vital information when seeking medical care, resulting in poor health outcomes. Despite a few challenges, these healthcare technology trends are expected to impact nursing practice significantly. Apps and social media tools have improved care delivery to patients living in remote areas, resulting in improved patient outcomes. With the rapid development of technology, people enjoy using these technologies to seek medical care. Using digital technologies, such as mobile apps and social media, many individuals in communities are taking responsibility for their health care. Health professionals can educate patients on maintaining a healthy lifestyle by using mobile apps and social media. Thus, these technology trends are essential for nursing practices. As a result of the devices, people can receive guidance on how to control specific diseases, particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is occurring in areas with limited access to healthcare facilities. Since technology is here to stay, it is crucial to incorporate these trends into healthcare systems to improve them. When combined with the appropriate skills and knowledge, these trends can enhance the efficiency of care delivery, patient outcomes quality, and data management. Nurses and patients must be well informed about a disorder to make informed decisions regarding its diagnosis and treatment.


From a patient’s perspective, healthcare technology trends provide greater opportunities for participation in care. Patients can communicate more often with their healthcare provider through an electronic health record portal, get personal real-time health status through wearable technology, and visit their provider without ever leaving their homes. On the other hand, from a provider’s perspective, healthcare technology trends improve patient health outcomes. Healthcare providers can access external patient data through a health information exchange, identify quality measure trends for a large patient population through a clinical data registry, and obtain recorded images of a patient’s gastrointestinal tract through capsule endoscopy. These healthcare technology advances are currently in practice for the patients and providers at the gastroenterology practice where I work.

Data breaches are a significant risk whenever protected health information (PHI) is shared or transferred. In an exploratory analysis, Yeo and Banfield (2022) found that healthcare organizations pay millions yearly for breaches due to human behavior, such as carelessness and negligence, theft, and scammers. Electronic health records, health information exchanges, and patient portal applications all house PHI that is vulnerable to inadvertent disclosures by both patients and healthcare personnel and intentional misuse by criminals.

Telehealth played a vital role in keeping patients and healthcare providers connected during COVID-19. Even when mitigation efforts slowed and organizations adjusted back to in-person visits, many patients found telehealth services more convenient than leaving home, driving to their provider’s office, parking, and waiting their turn in a lobby. However, according to Khoong et al. (2022), telemedicine negatively impacts patient safety. Limited data collection results in diagnostic errors, lack of physical exams constrain medical decision-making, and misunderstandings lead to medication errors or adverse drug events (Khoong et al., 2022).

Undoubtedly, electronic health records improved access to health information, and telehealth improved access to care. Both technologies have tremendously benefitted healthcare providers and patients. To improve the state’s future pandemic response, the New York State Bar Association recommended a public policy to eliminate telehealth restrictions (Lytle, 2022). While this recommendation may be specific to New York, it led other states through early mitigation efforts, and a recommendation to remove restrictions on telehealth would potentially benefit everyone. Though the rules behind telehealth were initially waived through the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, loosening the limitations for an extended period may improve compliance amongst patients with mental health problems, anxiety, or competing priorities. People who have demanding jobs or are caring for aging parents may find telehealth more reasonable than visiting a provider’s office in person.

Currently, people have access to prescriptions and healthcare providers nationwide through technology, specifically telehealth services. People suffering from frequent urinary tract infections or men with erectile dysfunction can obtain prescriptions for treatment without ever having to establish rapport with a healthcare provider. Though convenient and efficient, limited patient-provider interaction poses a considerable risk due to heavy reliance on the patient’s skills in using technology and potential gaps in information sharing between patient and provider.


One of the biggest trends I have noticed in my practice is the use to telemedicine. It was not particularly new to the rural hospital I had worked at as we used it often for consults with specialists and for overnight admissions. However, with the pandemic I saw an even bigger increase as larger hospitals were full and we were now faced with managing more complex patients for longer periods of time. Aside from the inpatient side of telemedicine I also witnessed an increase in telemedicine for primary care visits, especially if symptoms were considered high risk for a covid-19 diagnosis. This trend proves true outside of my observations as data was collected stating in 2019 accounted for 2.1 million telemedicine visits, but within 2020 that number increased to 32.5 million (U.S Government Accountability Office, 2022).  While the dramatic increase was largely impacted by the pandemic I anticipate now that we have access to this technology the use will expand to reach out to rural communities, those who cannot arrange transport, and other opportunities. The use of telemedicine has had a huge impact on management of chronic conditions due to the availability for more frequent check-ins (Health Resources & Services Administration, 2022).   Again, the pandemic initiated a higher need for telemedicine care but the opportunities will continue in healthcare it has been used in various specialties such as psychiatry, ophthalmology, dermatology, and neurology (Shen et al, 2021). As these specialists are often not on site of may healthcare facilities it allows for a quick interaction that can get treatment started sooner.  I see the importance of mental health and psychiatry providers using telemedicine the most. Through my time working in the ER and during a research project on pediatric mental health in rural communities I found access to these specialists is rare.  Expansion and continued technology improvement for telemedicine I predict will make it one of the standards of care in many communities.


I have observed and utilized many technology trends in healthcare that have been effective in nursing practice. One trend in technology that is utilized at the hospital I work for is the sharing of patient information and electronic health records (EHR) between the hospital, clinic, and skilled nursing facilities. This sharing of information is described as interoperability which several systems operate together to exchange information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022-a). Nurses and providers in the hospital clinic system can access most of the same patient health information that nurses and providers can in the hospital. Even a few local skilled nursing facilities can access some of the patient’s health information while in the hospital. A system like information sharing of patients’ EHR is also an aspect of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is electronic devices connecting with each other to supply real-time data and analysis without human interference (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022-b). IoT is a way that computers and devices have been connecting healthcare providers to patient information in real-time throughout the clinic and hospital system efficiently.

EHRs and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the most effective for data sharing of information; however, some challenges exist. One challenge is that IoT and real-time data sharing require safe, reliable, and private Wi-Fi. The absence of a real-time monitoring system can lead to severe failures like damage to essential equipment connections due to the late detection and recognition of unforeseen situations (Hulsen, 2020-a). Another challenge with data-sharing in healthcare is an ethical consideration. There might not be transparency in data-sharing with healthcare institutions and patients. Transparency is trust, and healthcare institutions should also inform patients about the specific goals of the data-sharing collaboration (Baric-Parker & Anderson, 2020). In experience, patients have been unaware that nurses can access information about prescriptions filled at local pharmacies or access reports from clinic visits. Transparency with data sharing is a must.

There are benefits to data-sharing and potential risks associated with data-sharing and legislation. One benefit of data-sharing is that when programs like GIFT-Cloud are used, GIFT-Cloud supports relationships between multiple healthcare and research institutions while satisfying patient privacy requirements, data security, and data ownership demands (Hulsen, 2020-b). Data-sharing programs and devices add exceptional patient care that efficiently accesses health information and is all-around consistent between all healthcare providers involved in the care. One risk with data-sharing is the issue of privacy. In 2007 Minnesota’s Governor initiated the Minnesota Health Information Exchange (MHIE) to encourage patient safety and increase healthcare efficiency across the state, it raised substantial concerns about security and privacy, and new questions resulted about the definition of when and how patient consent is mandatory to exchange data electronically (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022-c). MHIE is an example of when legislation like Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is involved in privacy and confidentiality acts in health care and EHRs.

A promising healthcare technology trend in nursing practice is the use of smartphones. There are many ways smartphones can be utilized in nursing practice now and in the future for efficient patient care. A healthcare application can use a decision help method to triage patient signs and symptoms, solve questions about or provide perspective for a disease or illness, and provide patient education and emergency precautions (Grys, 2022). Smartphones and applications can be crucial to patient care because the tools would allow for rapid response from providers to answer patient questions via messaging, and downloaded information could create a quick symptom algorithm to remind the nurse to message or call the provider if an acute symptom arises. Smartphones and applications can improve patient outcomes in this of many ways.


Healthcare technologies are intended to enhance patient safety, simplify administrative tasks, and improve the quality of healthcare delivery. Electronic health records (EHR), patient portals, and mobile apps are some of the general healthcare technology trends I have observed in the organization I work.

The electronic health record (EHR) is a digital record that can provide comprehensive health information about patients/clients. It is meant to disseminate information about patients to healthcare providers, laboratories, imaging centers, pharmacies, clinics, and other organizations involved in patient care. This information is required to make sound clinical decisions about the patient. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The advancement in healthcare technology has brought about significant changes that cannot be overestimated. These changes include how information is being transferred within the healthcare providers and on a need-to-know basis. At the organization where I work, we are experiencing these technological trends with upgrades being done frequently to ensure that the organization and workers are abreast with the latest information technology to deliver and manage healthcare. Healthcare providers and patients can communicate and relate with each other via the patient portal and smartphones. Patients can schedule appointments, track their laboratory results, and participate in their care, (patient engagement). These have indeed improved patient outcomes and reduced the rate of hospital readmissions.

Also, the rate of errors, particularly medication errors has reduced due to the digital means by which medicines are being pulled (from the pyxis) before administration. Errors are prevented through better access to patient data and error prevention alerts (HealthIT.gov. 2018).

Critical laboratory results are disseminated as soon as the result is out, and nurses can take prompt and necessary action. These in all have helped to maintain patient care, safety, and outcomes.

Inherent challenges or risk

With the trend in technology, the risk of complexity is inevitable due to the lack of knowledge and skills associated with the usage by some users (healthcare providers). Hence, education and training must be provided through short programs to support knowledge and practice and prevent errors.

Potential Benefits and Risk

The potential benefits associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care for the technologies described include enabling healthcare providers to make clinical decisions due to access to patients’ health information. Also, the benefit of Computerized physician order entry gives room for care to be given as soon as the order is entered. (Menachemi, & Collum, 2022). Legislation has imposed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) policy to ensure the privacy of patient information and make it more difficult to access electronic data inappropriately. Likewise, a potential risk associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care is increased medical errors due to overdependence on technology and poorly designed system interfaces or lack of end-user training.

The healthcare technology trends are promising for impactful nursing practice. Mobile apps like the Tissue Analyst on smartphones allow nurses to improve the quality of care rendered. For instance, the app can help to analyze patients’ wounds and help the nurse give appropriate wound care. This will also help patients/client build trust in the nurse.


With our fast-paced and ever-changing technological advances, it comes as no surprise that healthcare and what is available to us as both providers and patients has also changed. Over the past decade, we have seen the implementation of electronic health records, the use of smart devices to monitor certain health conditions, the ability to order prescriptions from our phones, and the communication of health information between facilities, along with many other amenities. There are many pros to using technology in healthcare, including the storage and easy retrieval of patient information, as well as more ease of sharing with other providers; decreased medication errors because of safety nets that have come with technology; and easier communication with patients, through patient portals (ACOG, n.d.).  

In my facility, the main thing that comes to mind with technology is our wireless monitors we use on our laboring moms. They are very handy to use and allow them to have a more comfortable experience during labor and delivery. They can move around more, take a bath or shower, and it allows them to get more rest if they are here overnight for an induction because nurses are not coming into their room constantly to readjust their monitors. These wireless monitors trace the fetal heart tones, the mother’s heart rate, and uterine contractions. The information is transmitted directly into our charting system, OBIX, just as it would be with the wired monitors. These monitors, unfortunately, do come without hassle. When they choose to work, they are phenomenal; but, as with all technology, most of the time they come with issues. The signal on the monitors cuts in and out often and any Bluetooth device in the patient room will interact with the signal and cause the monitor to stop working. It also causes signal issues if the battery pod on the patient is not in a direct line with the monitor. When the signal cuts in and out like this, especially if a patient is on Pitocin, it could potentially cause legal issues down the road if there were to be an adverse event with that delivery. The other issue I have noticed with these monitors is the uterine contraction sensitivity. If you do not turn down the sensitivity, it appears that the patient is contracting more than she is. The sensitivity button must be toggled every so often, so it can be a nuisance to constantly have to remember to toggle the sensitivity off. These monitors could use a lot of improvement, which I am sure will come with time.  

The year has just begun, and I was already able to find an article discussing the different health care technology trends of 2023. This article listed 17 different trends that will grow throughout the year, and the one that I found the most notable was smart implants. The idea behind smart implants is that they will allow for cures for certain disabilities, patient rehabilitation, and more effective rehab methods (TATEEDA, 2022). These smart implants utilize 3D printing, which is amazing in and of itself. By utilizing the 3D printing method, costs can be reduced, and patients would have shorter wait times for their implants or prosthesis. There is even the option of certain smart implants to be created for cardiovascular and neurological issues.  Neural implants to help restore certain functions related to blindness and paralysis have already been developed and are hoped to be released by the company, Neuralink, in 2023 (TATEEDA, 2022). Smart implants are a wonderful advancement to healthcare, and they have numerous capabilities. They are a diagnostic tool that can allow for continuous monitoring of certain patients, while improving patient outcomes and allowing for personalized care of patients (Ledet, Liddle, Kradinova, & Harper, 2018). The further advancement of technology like this will continue to improve patient outcomes and their quality of life with certain chronic illnesses. Although, I do fear that our society will continue to rely on these technologies and because they know these options are available, will not put their health as a top priority in the first place. If we have the means to fix something, what is the point in ensuring it does not break?  


One of the dynamic and important industries is healthcare. It is one of those sectors with many chances for innovation due to its ongoing need and improvements in its output, quality, accessibility, and price. Telemedicine and remote healthcare are two developments in healthcare technology that I have noticed in my nursing practice; during the first few months of the pandemic, the percentage of healthcare consultations conducted remotely increased dramatically, from 0.1% to 43.5%.

The care delivery model was upended by social distance and orders to stay at home. Yet, many physicians and health systems quickly adopted telehealth and virtual care models after realizing the advantages they can offer for patient care, (Savarkar V. 2021) believes that as a result, telemedicine will likely prove robust long after the epidemic and will establish itself as a long-lasting and essential fixture in the healthcare ecosystem.

Describe any potential challenges or risks that may be inherent with these technologies 

Due to the inherent limits of the remote exam, doctors must be aware of when to request a patient’s in-person visit to prevent missed diagnosis and increased cyber liability, mainly when healthcare providers interact with patients through several devices worldwide. High-tech privacy issues include: Is the video visit interface HIPAA compliant? Additionally, in conventional forms: Household members may cut off conversations at either end. Some patients have less access to care since 50% of senior citizens in the United States lack internet connectivity, (Lau, J. et al., 2020). On the other hand, when remote visits are accessible via a mobile device and don’t require a computer, many patients can receive telemedicine, according to several hospitals that serve low-income populations. Despite this, many areas lack enough internet speed, and some patients cannot use telemedicine portals due to a language barrier or a lack of technological knowledge.

Discuss at least one potential benefit and one potential risk associated with these technologies for each of the following topics: data safety, legislation, and patient care 

The potential benefits are that most patients have greater access to care, including those who live in rural areas, those with chronic conditions, and those who cannot pay for the expenditures associated with an in-person visit and time away from work. Facilitates more regular contact, which improves the ability to manage chronic diseases. The monitoring of blood pressure, blood sugar, and other crucial data parameters are already enabled by at-home equipment. Reduces infection risks for individuals with immunosuppression and COVID-19 and those who have recently had surgery, (Mehrotra, A. et al., 2020). It is also a simple risk to see the dangers of collecting data at home: user mistakes, erroneous findings from modest gadgets, and compatibility issues. Views the increase of at-home devices as a trade-off where, on the one side, one increases patient comfort and ease, which leads to higher compliance.

Example: Healthcare providers can precisely monitor vital signs in real-time thanks to the heart rate, stress, and blood oxygen detectors included in the latest generation of wearable technology. Even “virtual hospital wards” have been created due to the pandemic to manage the care of many patients receiving treatment at home using centralized communication infrastructure.


The healthcare sector has undergone several changes and adjusted to new circumstances since the COVID-19 pandemic began, seeing the most considerable market-wide transformation. The use of the healthcare IT industry has given rise to critical future trends in healthcare that will continue to influence it. New instruments for diagnosis and therapy have been developed thanks to rapid technological advancement. Methods used by medical professionals today would have been unthinkable decades ago. Healthcare is becoming more and more digital. Information may be shared thanks to data engines and hospital information systems quickly. Solutions for remote medical treatment and increased health awareness are additional examples of innovations. Over the next five years, 80% of healthcare providers intend to increase their investment in technology and digital solutions, according to the HIMSS Future of Healthcare Report (2022). Growing industries include telemedicine, genomics, personalized medicine, and wearable technology.

Some trends I have observed in my nursing practice include the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is a grouping of medical software and hardware that communicates with internet computer networks to link to healthcare IT systems. Wi-Fi-enabled medical devices provide the machine-to-machine connectivity that forms the core of IoMT. IoT devices connect to cloud infrastructures like Amazon Web Services, allowing for the storage and analysis of collected data. IoMT is another name for IoT in healthcare. The development of healthcare information technology includes a significant amount of wearables and trackers. Their main advantage is that they give doctors accurate, real-time information about patients’ health conditions.

Additionally, the use of HIPAA-compliant video conferencing platforms such as zoom, skype and google meets has been adopted in the organizations that I have worked with to safeguard the security and privacy of people’s medical information as well as other protected health information (PHI). Lastly is the use of electronic health records. A patient’s paper chart gets converted to digital form in an electronic health record (EHR). EHRs are patient-centered, real-time records that securely and promptly make information accessible to authorized users. An EHR system is designed to go beyond the typical clinical information recorded in a provider’s office. It can encompass a broader view of a patient’s care, even though it does include the treatment and medical histories of patients. In addition to containing a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, prescriptions, treatment plans, dates of immunizations, allergies, radiological pictures, and laboratory and test results, EHRs are a crucial component of health IT. Give professionals access to evidence-based instruments to decide how to treat patients (HealthIT.gov.n.d.).

One of the main risks involved with this trend is the problem of data breaching. The number of weekly attacks on the healthcare industry reached an average of 626 per organization by the end of 2021 and is still steadily increasing. According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than 40 million patient health records were compromised in 2021 because of the vulnerability of 50% of internet-connected hospital devices. Therefore poses a risk to the patients and healthcare providers as their privacy is invaded (Dykes et al., 2017).

Telemedicine is the development in healthcare technology that is most likely to impact nursing practice significantly. Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare remotely using technology to identify, treat, and prevent diseases and conduct research to enhance health (Serper & Volk, 2019). Telehealth allows monitoring patients while they are away and providing care. This dramatically improves health outcomes for chronically ill patients and those having trouble receiving care owing to geographic location issues. For patients with chronic conditions, telehealth, which has been proven to enhance health outcomes, helps to keep track of the progress and compliance with prescribed therapies. It also incorporates family members into the care. Lastly, enhanced cybersecurity integrated with EHR will be the foundation of nursing informatics in the future. Hackers threaten secure and crucial patient data in the healthcare industry. To handle the larger datasets, evolving health information systems will need new cybersecurity systems (Dykes et al., 2017). Building secure data interchange platforms to protect private data will be a future trend in health informatics. For data security, computer systems will be updated and encrypted. Through safe gateways, the exchange of electronic data interchange would be made simpler. Thus promoting patients and organizational outcomes.


Healthcare technology has become universal.  The goal for electronic health records is to help control healthcare cost.  The USA has been challenged with a healthcare system that is expensive.  The USA continues to work at improving the quality of patient care and at the same time controlling expenses (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).  The definition of an electron health record according to health IT (n.d.) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart.  If our goal is to have patient centered cost effective healthcare the pressure is demanding on healthcare system and providers (Ahmad et al., 2022).

I have noticed in my current role as the nurse navigator that EMR increases patient participation, keeping the patient involved and current with their healthcare.  Electronic medical records help keep healthcare cost down by providing the patient’s health information in one location.  By having the patient’s information in one location providers are less likely to order unnecessary or duplicate test.  Electronic medical records also provide easy access for the providers and reduces the providers time, also reduces healthcare cost (Abdulrahman Mohammed Al et al., 2018).  Patients can communicate to their providers through their EMR allowing them to be involved and responsible for coordinating their care.

We will always be faced with challenges associated with EMR.  One of the challenges associated with EMR is the cost to implement and to maintain the system.  Small organizations or private providers will not have the capital to start an electronic medical records system (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020).


There are several healthcare technology trends that I have observed in the healthcare industry including electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, wearable technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and 3D printing. One challenge with telemedicine is that it requires a reliable internet connection, which may not be available for some patients or in some areas. There is also a risk of inadequate treatment or misdiagnosis when medical care is provided remotely, as healthcare providers may not have access to all of the information and tools they would have in an in-person visit.  Wearable technology poses a challenge because the accuracy of the data it collects may vary. There is also a risk of data privacy, as these devices may contain sensitive personal and health information that could be accessed by third parties (Skiba, 2017).

The benefits and risks could be considered two in the same. The heightened security of these technologies to prevent patient information from being misused could make it more difficult for healthcare providers to access and use the information they need to provide high-quality care, potentially leading to reduced efficiency and effectiveness (Skiba, 2017). However, the level of accessibility and effective use of these technologies can help build trust between patients and healthcare providers.

I believe that telemedicine and wearable technology have the most potential to impact healthcare technology in nursing practice. Telemedicine allows nurses to provide medical care remotely, which can be especially useful in rural or underserved areas where access to healthcare is limited (Potter et al., 2016). It can also be used to follow up with patients after they have been discharged from the hospital, helping to prevent readmissions. Wearable technology can help nurses to monitor their patient’s health data in real time, allowing them to identify potential issues early on and intervene before they become more serious (Wu et al., 2016). This can help to improve patient outcomes and reduce the need for hospitalizations, specifically in the elderly population who can then live more independently for longer. Wearable technology can help to reduce the workload of nurses by automating certain tasks and providing more efficient ways of gathering and analyzing patient data. This can allow nurses to spend more time on tasks that require their expertise and care, such as patient education and support.

In terms of data management, both telemedicine and wearable technology can help to improve the completion and accuracy of patient data, as they allow for real-time data collection and analysis. This can help to inform treatment decisions, improve patient outcomes, and improve patient and healthcare provider communication (Wu et al., 2016). Additionally, both telemedicine and wearable technology can help to reduce the risk of data breaches, as they can use secure communication and data storage methods. The use of telemedicine and wearable technology in nursing practice has the potential to contribute to improvements in patient care outcomes, efficiencies, and data management.


At the facility where I currently work, there is an overarching goal of transforming all patient documentation and interactions to a computer-based format that will be stored in electronic health records [EHR] (HealthIT.gov, 2019).  The process is four-fold, with most of the documentation done in the EHR, scanning documents such as consents into the EHR, transforming documents that require signatures into editable versions on tablets where the patients can sign or generate digital signatures, and allowing patient’s responses to enter EHR into two categories: permanent record and non-permanent records. The facility has also developed its own Facebook page and Twitter Account and hired a Social Media Manager to add content or respond to content to be at par with the current trend of increased social media use (Skiba, 2017).  Adding to this, efforts to increase patient satisfaction scores have led to the development of interoperability software to increase patient participation in their own care; patients can document responses to interventions such as pain or nausea (Rao-Gupta et al., 2018).

There is a consensus that the efforts have resulted in increased patient participation and increased patient satisfaction scores, which are updated quarterly. However, this progress has brought on challenges, one of which is privacy. Whenever patients are admitted, there is increased anxiety in the patient, family, and friends resulting in a demand for instantaneous diagnostics outcomes and an unbounded ability to view the health records (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).  The patients and designated representatives can create patient access portals to view the EHR and can, therefore, access labs, imaging, and physician documentation. Unfortunately, patients and families share this information on Facebook and other social media outlets. The result of this is that they end up receiving different treatment suggestions and additional testing that only increase frustration and anxiety for the patient. This has necessitated educating patients and their families on the importance of not posting on social media and of the concept of being monetized by big data companies such as Facebook and Google (Rothstein, 2021).

Technology is ever-evolving, with improvements targeted toward improving the quality of care and patient outcomes, all while simplifying work and effort for healthcare providers. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence facilitate interdisciplinary and interprofessional communication. For example, when a chest x-ray is captured, AI and ML can generate a preliminary result identifying pneumonia and generate an interdisciplinary approach to treating pneumonia: recommended antibiotics, nursing plan of care, and speech therapy evaluation which can then be edited as necessitated (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).  This ensures nothing is missed, resulting in good outcomes for patients.


Healthcare technologies are evolving and converging so fast in this digital age. These technologies in healthcare are mainly for the purpose of improving care

One of the healthcare technologies being used in the facility where I work is Electronic Medical Records System (EMRs). EMRs are online medical records of the standard medical and clinical data from a provider. (HealthIT.gov).  is a digital aversion of typically find in providers paper chart. (HealthIT.gov). These include medical history, diagnosis medications, immunizations dates, lab results and allergies. It is a digital version of paper charts in Physicians office,  clinicians, and hospitals

Potential Challenges inherent in this technology.

One of the potential challenges inherent in this technology  is Inability of the facility to maintain the system in all care areas. As stated in McGonigle & Mastrian,2022) EMR is a complex and difficult multidisciplinary effort that will stretch an organizations skills and capacity for change.

Potential Benefit

EMRs enables physician /providers to track data overtime. It helps to monitor patients visits.  It helps communication and connectivity between health care providers, clinicians and patients which helped for improved healthcare quality.

It could be incorporated into the electronic health records system (EHRs) which goes beyond standard clinical data collected by one provider. EHRs provide comprehensive health information about patients from various data. ( McGonigle & Mastrian).

The healthcare technology that I believe is most promising is the HER. Despite its potential risk like security breach, None transparency in ethical consideration. There are many benefits and potential benefits. EHR  holds the health information and can be referred to at any time. This can help to trail potential diseases and health issues and device a way of preventing it as fast as possible


Technology Trend

Within my healthcare organization I have noticed that more patients have been using MyChart to view their test results, and notes from healthcare professionals. Although this allows patients easy access to their healthcare records, I have identified numerous issues with this program and identified some patient safety issues.

Challenges and Risks

Potential challenges that I have noticed with this trend is that electronic systems are not always user friendly and can prove difficult for some patients. Also, often patients or families will see the results of blood work, scans, or doctors’ notes before the nurse or doctor has been able to review them, or before the nurse has spoken with the doctor about that patients plan for the day. Issues arise when the patient or family members have low health literacy. Low health literacy can cause wrongful interpretations of risks regarding healthcare decisions and can lead to misinterpretations of healthcare situations (Hasannejadasl et. al., 2022).  I have noticed that this creates a lot more questions about things that are standard within care, such as daily labs, and these extra conversations contribute to emotional burnout. Although talking to families and answering their questions is a part of the nurses’ duties, on my unit I have personally seen how this can complicate a nurse’s day and can take away from the time that should be dedicated to the critical patient. Risks which are inherent within electronic charting systems and online viewing of health records is the possibility of hacking or leaking of private information. This possibility may cause patients to be guarded when sharing health information. (Layman, 2020). Having this technology requires hospitals to be on the lookout for data breaches and enact actions to prevent this.

Benefit and Risk

One potential benefit of systems such as the ones mentioned above, is that patients are able to see every aspect of their care through the chart and may be able to gain a greater understanding of their overall healthcare picture. Positive impacts this has includes patients feeling like their care is more self-driven, decision making feels more informed, and medical compliance and trust improved (Tapuria et. al., 2021). Risks include potential for hacking, scams, and leaking of information, as well as affecting patient care due to the overwhelming amount of information the patient and families have access to. This can cause anxiety due to the type of information deposited in the patient record (Tapuria et. al., 2021).

Trend Impacting Nursing Practice

One benefit that electronic charting has brought to healthcare systems is that there is a growing trend of charting systems which are able to interact, and healthcare professionals are able to obtain records from outside hospitals, clinic visits, and past medical history which can improve the care they receive and complete the picture. This contribution will improve patient care outcomes by decreasing the guessing that occurs when there is an unknown history and can help guide a diagnosis in less time due to more knowledge. I would like to see in the future a better integrated system which not only allows access to other systems charts but complies it together without having to access a separate database.


Nowadays, hospitals and care facilities use EHR to record patient data and follow up with progress. This EHR system allows healthcare providers to improve the care patient receives. In the study by Dykes, P C. et al., writers evaluate interventions to improve outcomes in intensive care units by engaging patient communication and technology study. It is reported that patient engagement in the ICU setting will improve by incorporating patient-centered communication. The writers hoped to reduce adverse events and improve patient and care partner satisfaction. The intervention included a 60-minute training session introducing the patient “satisactive Model,” which included training to enhance responses to needs, concerns, and expectations and interactive training on a web-based toolkit to improve communication and patient engagement. This toolkit allowed patients to access EHR data, provider care planning tools, and messaging platforms to communicate with providers and patients. (Dykes, P. C., Rozenblum, R., Dalal, A., Massaro, A., Chang, F., Clements, M., Collins, S. …Bates, D. W. (2017).

With EHR, everything ties together in one place. From intake forms to billing, these document management is combined all together in one place, in the electronic chart. The HER has branched out and has impacted all fields of health care. With the development of big data and EHR systems, our public health significantly improved and has helped to decrease health disparities. For instance, public health advocates can look up symptoms, disorders, age, gender, and race by zip code and conduct projects to help areas with high health disparity. With this idea in mind, one place to improve is to improve health evaluation to see if we are impacting our community. We need to evaluate ourselves to see if we are impacting our community. (Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018).

Benefits of EMR include accessibility and information that is organized and decision support. The potential problem with EMR has HIPPA violations. For example, you accidentally record things on the wrong patient without realizing it. Yet, the benefits of having Health information exchanges (HIE) and National health information infrastructure (NHII) outweigh the potential problems of the EMR system. Patients can receive well-rounded, connected care by exchanging health information with other providers. The treatment plan will reduce redundancies and help create a patient-specified treatment plan without delaying time. There are challenges to NHII, which include internet connectivity issues, data standards, messaging standards, and workflow requirements. Yet, with the current speed of IT development, it is hopeful that these obstacles can be managed soon. Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018).


Telehealth and electronic MAR are two examples of healthcare technology advances that I have seen in my nursing career. This electronic technology was developed so that providers could obtain information instantly, and it is only available to staff who are qualified. 2018c (HealthIT.gov). These two technologies are employed at work because our detox and mental health institution still uses paper charts. Although we have only recently adopted electronic MARs, they do capture data that we utilize to inform clinical judgments. Lack of understanding on how to use the system is one of the difficulties with the e-MAR. Although new nurses or PRN nurses who have never used the system or have not had enough training on the system may find it difficult, this is more of a medical concern than a nursing problem. Doctors who are unfamiliar with the system frequently enter incorrect orders, especially when a patient is tapering off detox medications. This is risky because medication errors can and do occur when a doctor who is unfamiliar with the system is working with a new nurse or a PRN nurse.

Data security is one advantage of the e-MAR. With the e-MAR, we can seek up a patient by name and date of birth or scan their armband. A nurse’s entry of this information triggers the patient’s e-MAR profile, where you can review prescriptions, allergies, or any other vital information that has to be confirmed. When it comes to e-MARs, there are concerns as well. For instance, data security may be a problem. Although patient data is a top focus for technology, there are still security and privacy concerns. Data security, for instance, is influenced by patient trust and the manner in which consent is gained. Patients may not be willing to provide crucial information when seeking treatment if trust is not maintained (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017 pp. 284-285).

Many people in the community are taking charge of their healthcare today, and they do so by using social media and smartphone apps (Skiba, 2017). These technological developments have the most promise for influencing nursing practice and patient outcomes. Social media and mobile apps have an impact on nursing practice because they give patients a tool for education. For instance, you may direct your patients to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as they receive education from you. Patients will be able to take control of their care because they frequently don’t have questions till afterwards. These cutting-edge technologies are excellent tools for nurses to use in their work and will have a lasting influence. As nurses, we must embrace technology and make the most of its tools since it is here to stay. Patients will be less likely to search the internet for answers to their health questions when nurses give trustworthy resources. Numerous social media platforms and mobile apps exist that may misdirect patients. It is our responsibility as nurses to be aware of the social media platforms and apps that will improve patient outcomes. Having said that, it appears that advances in technology, the influence of nursing practice, and enhancing patient outcomes are all interrelated


In practice I have seen the adoption of smart phone applications for patients to have access to their records and can communicate directly with their treatment team. The Long Beach VA in the past few years has made major strides in getting veterans receiving care at the VA connected to their application, MyHealtheVet. Near registration and business office there is someone stationed permanently to assist veterans. Some health care organizations have created committees that review and evaluate social media and mHealth apps for their patient populations (Skiba, 2017).

An issue with this technology could be electronic health record access for people that the patient may not want to have access. This is more likely due to patient not knowing how to prevent others from seeing their information rather than application issues. Another risk I can see is overuse of some patients in communicating with their treatment team which can bog the team down with providing care to patients in front of them.

One major benefit for patients is the ability to receiving necessary documents from their treatment team without requiring a formal appointment. This can save time for both the patients and their providers. Due to facial recognition technology and password saving patients could have others gain access to their records that they may not necessarily want. Another potential risk is patients being assigned educational applications. Sometimes these can take a moment to understand the importance of participating in and how to use. If data are being exchanged, our patients must comprehend what data will be collected and where, when, and with whom it will be shared (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Due to some mistrust in some populations with healthcare it is important to understand that some patients need extra time to be educated.

The most promising technology trends are those that provide easy and simple access to care and knowledge. In my personal life, by using the hospital application, we have been able to avoid visits to ERs and Urgent cares or avoided long urgent care waits when having to go for our children. This can keep patients and their families at home in comfort and prevent overcrowding waiting areas in both urgent care and ER settings. Applications and the tools  and  workflows  offered  patients  a  method  of communicating  a  primary  goal  for  receiving care,  submitting questions  regarding  the  care  plan,  and  viewing  their  medical problems and goals of care (Dykes et al., 2017). Being able to wait at home in comfort prevents the spread of bacteria and viruses to others waiting in the lobby. This was especially useful during COVID and getting tested. It made going into the Urgent Care and Hospital less daunting as we were able to check in and receive care within minutes. We prevented exposing others unnecessarily as well as prevented our own exposure unnecessarily.


Healthcare technology trends 

Information technology has taken healthcare delivery services to a higher level of development thereby making the workflow smarter and easier. There are so many healthcare technological trends in use in the healthcare delivery system. I can mention but a few, the automatic/smart IV Pump machine, portable monitor, smart bed, chair alarm, electronic health record, Patient health records, Telehealth, and apps. We use most of these trends but the one that is highly used in my organization and is commonly used in a different healthcare organization that is safe, efficient, lower cost, and better documentation with the reduction in medication error, is the electronic health record. Health IT ( 2017) electronic health record is a digital version of a traditional paper chart that is a real-time, patient-centered record that makes information available instantly and securely to authorized users. No one can use, view, or document in the EHR except authorized users. One must undergo training and orientation by the nurse informatics and be given a username and a password to use to sign in to use the EHR. EHRs is a very delicate application that contains patients’ Name, DOB, patient medical history, diagnosis, insurance, treatment plan, immunization dates, allergy, laboratory results, and other investigations. This information needs to be protected and secure according to the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA). EHRs allow access to an evidence-based tool that the providers can use to make an informed decision about patient care and also allows the automatic streamline of provider workflow

    Challenges or risks

Even though electronic health record has potential benefit, they as well as a risk because anything that has an advantage must have a disadvantage. But sometimes electronic health record design, customization, or configuration can contribute to patient harm (AMA, 2018). Some of the information stored in the EMRs can be hacked if there is no sufficient security, and if the information is not backed up might be lost. Some of the challenges according to AMA (2018). Includes 1. date of entry: impossible to enter the desired EHRs data. Sometimes the dose of medication might change and both orders will be populated in the electronic medication records. Also, when a medication is ordered as a start dose or once only and it passed 2 hours of the order, that medication can not be pulled out from the pyxis except is re-ordered. 2. Alerting, some of the alerts are incorrect. 3. system automation and default, EHRs automate or default to information that is unexpected. 4 . workflow support, if there is a mismatch between the end user’s intent and the EHRs, the workflow will not support example, the provider orders a test and the lab staff did not do it because the staff did not see it

 

    Benefits and risks associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care

The use of health information technology has improved our performances; a complete task with less mental effort promotes Patient and workplace safety and satisfaction. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (2017), Usability refers to the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with products or systems, including websites, software, devices, or applications. Usability is the satisfaction of a user with a particular product/ process in a particular environment/system. It is easy, effective, efficient, and satisfies the user.

Nurses will need to understand and initiate cost containment, resource allocation, patient advocacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure the delivery of quality patient care. Nurses as a leader and managers in the health system continuously adapt to these evolutions of changes to enhance quality care.  The major concern of the PHR is the provision of portability, privacy, and accuracy of the data populated by the provider. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, a Personal Health Record (PHR) is controlled by the individual and can be shared with others, including caregivers, family members, and providers. Is easy to use access and well secured.   The adoption of EHRs in support of the ultimate goals of improving the quality of patient care and reducing health costs

I still believe that electronic health record is the most promising for impacting healthcare technology in nursing practice. Tasks are easier done, errors are easily noted and action is taken to prevent complications and the patient collaborates with the provider toward a shared decision. EHRs allows us to collaborate on patient care with other team members, carry out diagnostic investigation on our patient discover more information on the condition that will help us to plan and execute action/ intervention using evidence-based practice for positive results/outcomes


Health information technology includes a wide range of technologies, from simple ones like keeping records to more complex ones like helping people make decisions and integrating with medical technology. Health information technology offers many ways to improve and change healthcare, such as reducing human errors, improving clinical outcomes, coordinating care, making practices more efficient, and keeping track of data over time (Alotaibi & Federico 2017). In my organization, electronic health records were the first to be used as mobile devices for nurses while administering medications. This improved quality and prevented medication errors because changes were made as they occurred compared to paper charting used in the past.

There is a lot of care coordination, especially after hospitalization upon discharge.  Sign-out or “hand-over” communication is passing information about a patient from one caregiver to another, from one team of caregivers to the next, or from caregivers to the patient and their family. This ensures that the patient gets safe and consistent care (Alotaibi & Federico 2017). An electronic health record (EHR) is like a patient’s paper chart, but it is kept on a computer. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that allow authorized users to get information quickly and safely (HealthIT.gov. 2018).) Electronic health records are shared with what was done at the hospital, what treatment was provided, and what needs to be continued or discontinued. My organization also uses the Teams app to avoid HIPPA violations and no texting information through mobile phones. Teams have been an excellent tool for internal communications, even with providers.

Technology improves patient care; the team involved with patients can access medication records, diagnoses, medications, and other treatments. Through technology, Patients and their care partners can use an online portal to look at health information, participate in the care plan, and talk to providers (Dykes et al. 2017).

In a connected care environment, more people use mobile apps and social media to participate in their health care. Since more and more people are getting involved in their healthcare, it is essential for healthcare professionals to have the knowledge and skills to evaluate digital tools and recommend the best ones (Skiba, 2017). Smartphones enabled patients to access their providers, especially during the pandemic when it was difficult to get appointments. However, the struggle remains since some patients have difficulty accessing smartphones and may be at risk of exposing their information to unwanted parties.


Healthcare Technology Trends

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are digital health records containing all the information you would find in a paper chart and much more. The majority of healthcare facilities now use EHRs. Past medical history, vital signs, progress notes, diagnoses, prescriptions, vaccine dates, allergies, test results, and imaging reports are all included in electronic health records. They may also include other pertinent data, such as data imported from personal wellness devices, demographic information, and insurance information (Practice fusion, 2021). EHR is a technological data system that is rapidly spreading throughout the healthcare industry. It is being used in hospital settings, doctor’s offices, and lab results. EHR was developed to eliminate mistakes that result from paper charting or errors due to lack of information.

Potential Challenges and Risks

Adapting to change is one of the difficulties people encounter. Resulting from the adoption of the EHR system. Most individuals find it difficult to adjust to change, especially if they are accustomed to the old methods of doing things. Patients’ and workers’ capacity to accept, adapt, and assimilate change is referred to as EHR It is therefore challenging for the majority of people to change their daily routines. When I was a CNA, I worked privately for an elderly woman who practiced medicine. Because she was used to writing on paper, she found it very challenging to adjust to the new way of entering her blood pressure and blood sugar level into her electronic system. Additionally, it has been observed that elderly nurses have a hard time adjusting to the new digital way of doing things because they are used to utilizing their paper charting method and most of them despise this new technology (Laureate Education, 2018).

Potential Benefits and Risks

The use of an EHR system has a lot of advantages. The system stores information like issue lists, prescription lists, and test results that would often be on paper in a chart. Additionally, results management in an EHR enables you to electronically get lab results, radiology reports, and even X-ray pictures while preventing test duplication. Additionally, ordering is now simple as prescription pads are no longer needed. Using safe e-prescribing technology, all of your orders and prescriptions are processed automatically (Practice Fusion, 2021). Medical staff no longer need to contact or visit a lab to obtain a result before determining what to do with a patient; instead, all they need to do is click a monitor screen to obtain all they want thanks to EHR. Additionally, patients now have access to their medical records and may see them from the convenience of their own homes.

Risks associated with EHR include the possibility of new medical errors emerging as a result of patient data exposure. EHRs offer accessibility to exposure of their medical record by allowing access to significant information in a matter of seconds. Since patient information is secure in the digital world, there are others who may hack such information for either immoral or selfish reasons. The majority of hospitals have robust protection programs in place to safeguard patient data, but these programs do not include locations where patients can access their own medical records. Intruders can readily obtain patient information if they are not in a secure or private location since patients can access it from anywhere (Raposo, 2015 ).

Employees and patients have reaped enormous benefits from HER systems. Due to how much easier it has made working with so many people, the majority of healthcare environments now use EHRs. For instance, patients now receive therapy on a timely and correct basis rather than battling informational gaps (Patel, 2019). I’ve worked in settings where clinicians weren’t given the right information on patients or when delays caused a ripple effect, which might sometimes be harmful. For instance, if a patient is scheduled for surgery but the surgeon’s office hasn’t received her preoperative test results or her physical clearance, that alone may significantly delay the patient’s care, with potentially serious repercussions. The EHR will combine all of the patient’s providers’ information into a single system, making it easier to manage patients and improving patient outcomes (Morad Abdulah & Ali Perot, 2022).


As technology continues to advance there are multiple opportunities with the use of technology (Ng & Frith, 2018).  Technology and informatics continue to revolutionize and “technology continues to push the envelope” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022, pg. 612.).

Knowledge and data are key components to possess as a nurse to guide a nurse’s decision-making process.  Technology has allowed nurses to be able to give the highest quality of care.  I know that it seems to be a repetitive topic but one of the main technological advances that I have observed in healthcare is advancing from paper charting to electronic health records otherwise known as EHR.

The electronic medical record system has improved the quality of care given and the efficiency of care given by allowing providers to see real-time patient information.  Providers are able to share information safely and quickly.  Patients are able to get care efficiently without a delay in care.

As technology evolves, there have been trends in using smartphones and wearing smartwatches.  Technology has improved smartwatches.  Smartwatches use to be only able to tell time and determine how many steps you have taken during the day.  Now smartwatches can also determine your heart rate, how many calories you have burned, your oxygen saturation, your sleep pattern, shows ECG rhythm, sends and receive messages, etc.

I have also observed Telehealth blow up in the healthcare industry.  Telehealth has become a more popular and available option to access healthcare (Wang, et al., 2018).  Telehealth became more popular with the Covid pandemic outbreak.  Many doctors’ offices were closed and not seeing patients due to the pandemic.  Many doctors in the hospitals also were not going into patients’ rooms that were infected with Covid but they needed a way to see the patient without being contaminated.

As technology has advanced there are benefits but also negatives.  One downfall of technology is the lack of knowledge and usability amongst some populations.  For instance, the older population so not find change as easy as the younger population.  Some elderly people still don’t own a cell phone or don’t know how to use applications on the phone that would give them access to their personal health information.  Another risk in technological advancement is the potential of HIPPA, personal health information to be hacked into and shared.  Healthcare facilities have had to pay a lot of money to invest in security software to protect the public from breaches.


The healthcare industry and giving the best possible treatment to patients rely heavily on the latest developments in healthcare technology. When it comes to patient care, technology is only going to become better in the years to come. Patients’ most significant potential results are increasingly dependent on integrating technology into all aspects of patient care and experience (PR Newswire, 2018). The most recent transition to electronic medical record (EMR), the introduction of a robot to deliver prescriptions for the pharmacy, and the opening of a patient access portal are examples of the healthcare technology in use at my institution. The electronic medical record (EMR) has many applications in treating patients daily, and almost everyone in the institution uses it. New graduate nurses must have a foundational knowledge of electronic medical records (EMRs) and informatics as part of their nursing competencies (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). As more technologies, such as the pharmacy robot and the patient access site, have been brought to many institutions thanks to the EMR, it has also acted as a gateway. When the nurse requests a drug from the patient’s medication record in the EMR, the pharmacy robot is activated to deliver the medication to the nurse. The robot has dramatically aided the pharmacy’s ability to supply medicines on demand. One drawback of using a pharmacy robot is that it sometimes becomes jammed, delaying the delivery of medicine to the nurse. Patient access portals are another emerging piece of healthcare technology. Patients may access their medical records and information about the doctors treating them via the site. Patients may use the site to check their prescriptions, watch films about their diseases, and get in touch with their doctors. The patient’s lack of medical knowledge might lead to inaccurate interpretations of the portal’s medical data, which is a drawback. Improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare delivery depend on cutting-edge IT developments (Fichman et al., 2011). Security in cyberspace will play an increasingly important role in healthcare delivery and the protection of individual patient data. The confidentiality of their patient’s medical records is paramount; thus, healthcare professionals must pay attention to cybersecurity measures (Kruse et al., 2016). If patients have confidence that their data is secure, they are more likely to engage in the testing of cutting-edge medical devices.


When we talk about the depths of technology, we must give the most honorable mention to the internet. In this modern day era of technology, the usage of the internet, to search for health information reflects the actions of various consumers who are progressively count on the internet for health-related information. The challenge, both healthcare professionals and consumers face, is the abundance of data on the internet and how necessary it is to be able to distinguish between accuracy and efficient to the circumstances at hand (McGonigle et al., 2022). Patients are wanting additional flexibility and convenience and “user friendly” tools, regarding their healthcare diagnoses, treatments, and medical record (Van De Putte, 2019). According to HIMSS, 79% of consumers are more prone to opt for a healthcare provider that permits them to oversee healthcare interactions online or on a mobile device (2021).

The most recent trend of technology in the healthcare sector is telehealth or telemedicine. Telehealth comprises health care services provided by means of audio and video technology. The terms telehealth and telemedicine are often used interchangeably. Telehealth is a subset of e-health and is the use of telecommunications technology in health care delivery, information, and education. Telemedicine is considered to be under the umbrella of telehealth and denotes precisely to clinical services. Telehealth and telemedicine support parallel services, including medical education, remote patient monitoring, patient consultation via videoconferencing, wireless health applications, and transmission of imagery and medical reports (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021). In addition, telehealth technologies are progressively being embraced and implemented as an efficient and cost-effective means for providing and accessing quality health care services and positive patient outcomes. Research also shows that telemedicine has the possibility to lower America’s healthcare spending by reducing difficulties like medication misuse, unwarranted emergency department visits, and persistent hospitalizations. Telehealth also provides access to tools and quality care to deliver services in rural areas or areas with provider scarcities and improve efficiency without higher net costs, while reducing patient travel and wait times, and allowing for comparable or enhanced quality of care. In addition, telehealth also increases access to care, convenience, reduced stress and increase patient approval (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021).

Challenges of telehealth and telemedicine include limitations with performing comprehensive physical examinations, possibilities for technical difficulties, security breaches, and regulatory barriers. Additionally, telehealth may negatively impact endurance of care (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021). Critics argue that online interactions are impersonal and unsafe in that the virtual providers do not have the benefit of a comprehensive history and physical examination to help with diagnosis and treatment. Moreover, telehealth also faces various legal and regulatory obstacles. These difficulties include substantial modifications in rules, regulations, and guidelines for practice. Critics say this adds to the uncertainty for providers involved in the practice of telehealth. Healthcare workers should keep risk management approaches in mind and acquaint themselves with potential telehealth legal consequences and inferences (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021).


Virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are vital in the healthcare system. Patient-focused initiatives are promising for patients to make information readily available, better decision-making that leads to positive patient outcomes. My employer, Department of Corrections, utilizes the Coris offender system that stores data about the offender, the crime, gang activity, escape information, sex offender information. For medications, we utilize the Sapphire electronic health record. Most Department of Corrections utilizes telehealth and remote patient monitoring. Telehealth is vital, because it allows all health information securely shared with clinicians and providers in real-time. Many institutions utilize the electronic health records which are a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly accessible and securely to authorized users. EHRs are vital to health IT. The advantages of technology, allows institutions to facilitate care, resources, and time management and better decision-making, that reduce costs and provide services to all individuals involved. Patient portal contains valuable information, which leads to better outcomes for patients. Technology can deliver a wide range of communication tools to minimize errors by avoiding mistakes in prescribing due to illegible or incomplete forms for dosage, routes, allergies, and interactions.

Data Risks and Challenges

Privacy and security concerns are prevalent to technology due to sensitive information being transmitted through the Internet, and personal information can be hacked (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Data can be intercepted which creates an atmosphere of uncertainty. Clinical informatics has challenges in developing muti-perspective evaluations that integrate quantitative and qualitative methods. Some facilities rely on WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication), it has restricted environments that has browser, plug-in, and network issues. The legacy devices and systems are not compatible with the new technologies. Data privacy and regulations puts a burden on data fluidity and make it more difficult to adopt new technologies that involve data. Lastly, user experience presents challenges when organizations are considering changing or upgrading new technology in the workplace. For example, if Vanderbilt University Medical Center had the overriding mechanism in place, that prevents clinicians from overriding the systems, Radonda Vaught case would have been totally different.

Promising Technology

Emerging Technology includes Robotics, artificial intelligence, smartphones. Digital technologies are enabling more people to make informed decisions about their everyday health. New technologies for example, apps, health trackers and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are making it possible for anyone to better understand their symptoms, be proactive about preventative care, and find the best self-care options. Digital health are changing lives locally and globally. There are potential benefits as well as risks in terms of data security, legislation, and patient care. Having information readily available, along with advice, medications, individuals can make informed decisions regarding their health. Smart technology impacts all individuals such as smart watches, fitness trackers, ECG monitors, blood pressure monitors, centralized communication centers, EHRs, will provide faster and more accurate data, improved access to care, better diagnostics and improved relationships with patients.


Most healthcare industries adopt new technologies that enhance their services and increase efficiency, and effective healthcare delivery, improving the quality of life for patients and enhancing healthcare access. It is becoming increasingly in demand in every sector of the economy, particularly healthcare. As technology becomes increasingly “clever,” staff will shift from direct face-to-face contact to non-face-to-face contact with remote sensors carried on the patient transmitting clinical information to a center that will act as a hub for appropriate interventions (Lewin et al., 2010Links to an external site.). In our organization, Electronic Health Records (EHR) are the current and most influential technology that the company adopted. All information from dialysis machines is captured and automatically transferred to the computer and stored in patient records during treatment. EHRs have made patients’ medical information more accessible to read and available from almost any location in the organization. Still, they have also changed the format of health records, thus changing health care.

Describe any potential challenges or risks that may be inherent in the technologies associated with these trends you described.

One challenge in electronic health records is that sharing medical information from one facility to another has become more frequent. Many medical organizations have implemented EHRs and health information exchange (HIE) networks where the privacy of patient information is at risk. The record should be securely protected, which providers, patients, and healthcare facilities demand assurance. Informed consent is needed to use, retrieve, and get access to patient data to control the dignity of the patient maintain. As the medical record has become electronic, this field has transitioned and increasingly overlapped with informatics. There are no comprehensive laws or procedures regarding patients’ access rights to EHRs. Data stewardship has emerged to balance the rights of individuals to have their personal information protected and their desire for improved health, more effective health services, and a strengthened and sustainable health system.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, which was signed into law as part of the “stimulus package,” represents the largest US initiative to date that is designed to encourage the widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs). The HITECH Act requires that providers adopt EHRs and utilize them in a “meaningful” way, which includes using certain EHR functionalities associated with error reduction and cost containment. For example, data from medical devices such as ventilators, infusion pumps, bedside, and portable monitors, and others are interfaced with EHRs through custom interface applications.

The challenges included compatibility with existing systems, functionality, data security, and cost, which they managed through careful contracting and phased implementation following an invitation process to practices. They noted that the implementation had high transactional costs comprising many hours of donated time by ‘highly skilled professionals’ some of whom were presumably nurses.

Indeed, the introduction of electronic health records and electronic health information exchange is not without its challenges, as illustrated by Goroll et al.’s (2009)Links to an external site. implementation report of the Massachusetts eHealth. The electronic health record will require all nurses to demonstrate computer literacy of varying sophistication depending upon the electronic health record functionality in the healthcare organization.


Trends in Healthcare Technology

Healthcare technology is increasingly becoming integrated within the healthcare workplace. The observed trends as far as the integration of technology in the workplace in the healthcare industry are concerned mainly revolve around ensuring proper data handling, including data sharing in real-time and accurately. Some of the leading technological inventions as regards data handling in healthcare include electronic medical records, blockchain systems, medical devices, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence (Dash et al., 2019). Analysis of the observed patterns as regards the integration of technology in healthcare shows that the future of the health industry is data-driven. Within my specific workplace, for example, one of the technological innovations that have been increasingly deployed across the board is the use of medical devices and telemedicine. Telemedicine comprises a wide range of related technologies for collecting, analyzing, and relaying data between the patient and the health facility (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). It allows patients to coordinate with healthcare service providers remotely. During the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an increased emphasis on the need to utilize telemedicine to reduce instances of actual patient visits within health facilities (Luo et al., 2021).

Potential Benefits and Risks of Healthcare Technology

The introduction of data-based technologies in healthcare has been accompanied by a wide range of related risks and challenges. One of the prevailing risks hereby is the issue of data safety. Healthcare organizations are required to operate within a well-confined and secured safety structure, which entails protecting patient health records from irregular access in a way that contravenes several data safety laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act. For healthcare organizations holding data that is sensitive, such as patient health records, processing and transmitting the same across an electronic health record or electronic medical record system, the prevailing risk of a data breach is prominent (HealthIT.gov., 2018c). Another challenge associated with the use of telemedicine within the healthcare workplace is the fact that the technology requires proper integration of digital technology among all parties involved, especially the healthcare facility and the patient (Rao-Gupta et al., 2018). Cases where patients do not have access to the necessary facilitative technologies, including internet connectivity, computers, as well as lacking the technological know-how on the use of the telehealth system, may imply a huge gap in the utilization of the technology. This challenge particularly affects patients in rural areas and areas where internet coverage is not stable (Cohen & Mello, 2018).

One of the potential benefits of adopting telehealth technology in healthcare is the fact that health facilities have an opportunity to enhance patient experience while minimizing the operational costs associated with health care service provision. In this regard, healthcare facilities that have integrated telehealth technology can provide patient follow-up in a more seamless manner without the need to have the patients visit the facility in person (Monaghesh & Hajizadeh, 2020). The only mandatory patient visit is the first visit, after which the patient can be fitted with or told how to utilize medical devices, which can capture data and relay it back to the health facility automatically. This eliminates the need for patients to make in-person visits in the health facilities. One of the key risks associated with telemedicine, as explained above, is the data safety risks, particularly in cases of serious data breaches that may occur because of illegal exposure or hacking of the system by unauthorized entities. Healthcare data breaches amount to serious legal issues, which can attract repercussions involving millions of dollars worth of compensation and fines.

Contribution to Improvements in Patient Care Outcomes

I think the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the need to adopt the telemedicine aspect of healthcare service provision and, therefore, I believe that this technology is bound to have huge positive trends in the future. Telemedicine reduces congestion within health facilities and particularly reduces the risks of patients being exposed to negative care outcomes, such as healthcare-associated infections. The observed promise or potential as far as demand and need for telemedicine is concerned will contribute to huge improvements in patient care outcomes, especially since more patients will be satisfied with the concept of receiving healthcare services from home. In terms of efficiency, the technological concept will help health facilities to become more efficient when it comes to patient care.


My hospital’s communication systems are reliable, instantaneous, and notably successful in aiding healthcare staff to provide patients with the finest quality care. At the nurses’ station alone, we monitor patients continuously via screens. From mobile devices to mobile PCs to electronic/digital signage.

My unit requires timely replies and detailed data. Nonetheless, I have occasionally noticed a breakdown in this centralized communication because of the usage of pagers, encrypted chats, voice-over, vocera, etc. These platforms allow physicians, nurses, and support staff to interact, cooperate, and share information to treat patients. It improves coordination across hospital divisions and responsibilities.

The vocera badge communication mechanism needs to be improved in all our communication systems. Vocera’s advantages mostly rely on the user’s current communication needs and goals, but the “Vocera badge” communicator is an audible system…similar to a speaker phone. This is an effective communication technique, for example, between two nurses seeking to communicate. The disadvantage becomes apparent when a medical professional aims to express a patient’s precise treatment requirements. This should not be done in “speaker phone mode” to protect patient confidentiality since it is a blatant breach of HIPPA. Frequently, HIPAA is referred to as a privacy rule. The Vocera badge makes it a lie. This breach is why Sobel (2007) advocates that HIPAA is a disclosure regulation in practice, and it has successfully weakened the moral and legal foundations of patient confidentiality. By enabling extensive sharing of patients’ medical ventures and information via systems like vocera, without audit trails for the bulk of disclosures, medical ethics and the effectiveness of medical care have been harmed. Vocera boasts an outstanding encrypted messaging/paging program and a plethora of useful functions. Still, I need headphones to protect the confidentiality of the message and assist in the closure of the communication loop.

On the other side, the fast growth of healthcare technology is driven by patients’ expectations that their healthcare experiences conform to their increasingly digital-first lifestyles. In addition, enhanced in-person medical care, remote patient monitoring, and telemedicine services are necessary.

The “Kaiser member app” is the real deal, and I’ll explain why.

Due to its HIPAA compliance, user-friendliness, and dependence on cloud-based applications, it increases efficiency in the hospital setting. All healthcare communications are condensed into a single, streamlined cloud application provided by a single worldwide network/application. Voice and audio chatting, appointment scheduling, messaging, meetings, and material exchange are all controlled by a single application, which indirectly decreases capital expenses by consolidating and optimizing network components.

Streamlining how patients and physicians can maintain continual communication may significantly enhance the quality of care and improve patient care while saving time and money with HIPAA-compliant telehealth technologies that enable virtual encounters.


In healthcare, as in all areas of life, technological advances are being made constantly. As these technological advancements are made, and our lives become more heavily intertwined with these technologies, healthcare facilities are often forced to keep up with the latest trends in order to remain competitive in the healthcare market. One of the biggest trends that I have witnessed recently at my current facility, is the integration of mobile technology.

Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, we as a society became more reliant than ever on mobile technology, and the healthcare sector was no different. Many healthcare providers began to shift toward telemedicine to accommodate “virtual patient visits”, where patients were met with on a video conferencing platform, allowing for a close facsimile of a face-to-face interaction. While this format doesn’t allow for the same level of physical assessment as an in-person visit, it negates the risk of disease transmission, while being suitable for many basic health concerns and medication management checks (Sharma et. al., 2022).  Health care technology has also strived to take a more “familiar” approach to interacting with patients. These measures include things like social media integration, utilizing a text-messaging based service during inpatient hospitalization, allowing EHRs to be imported into mobile health apps and conversely allowing health data collected by wearable devices to be shared with the healthcare facility (Skiba, 2017).

While there is no denying the degree to which we have come to rely on mobile technology in our day-to-day lives, there is still some debate as to how well it integrates into the healthcare environment. On one hand, one study showed that the implementation of web-based patient engagement technology in the ICU setting resulted in notably decreased adverse events and increased overall patient satisfaction (Dykes et. al., 2017). To the converse, there are obvious concerns about the security of protected health information, and the difficulty that comes with allowing health information to be transferred and integrated across various platforms, which may or may not have the same security protocols in place as the originating facility.

I believe that telehealth is going to play an ever-increasing role in the delivery of healthcare. As video conferencing and wearable technologies evolve and allow for the remote assessment of vital signs, ECGs, sleep data, respiratory data, and other information, practitioners will be able to assess patients from literally anywhere in the world. With a population that is constantly growing in both numbers and years of age, healthcare is on the brink of a looming crisis, where there will be a shortage of practitioners and facilities, making it difficult for patients to access health care. By increasing the scope of available telehealth practices, we may be able to help alleviate some of these access issues.


Healthcare Technology Trends

The healthcare industry will continue to experience growth in the use of technology. One trend that has grown by leaps and bounds and is expected to hold strong is the use of digital health. Digital health encompasses a range of technologies such as electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), mobile health apps, wearable devices, telehealth, telemedicine, and other platforms that allow healthcare professionals and patients quick access to data (U.S. Food & Drug Administration, n.d.). Each one of these digital options has proven beneficial in the improvement of patient care and data management. Nurses can monitor and assess patient vital signs in real time with wearable devices. Wearable and monitoring devices allow nurses to assess patient status anywhere and anytime. Telehealth and EHRs are essential digital health tools that are required to do my job. The increasing use of telehealth has allowed my organization to live up to its claim of meeting clients where they are at.

The use of telehealth has significantly increased industry-wide since the beginning of the pandemic. It allowed for continued care during the period of time when in-person doctor visits were severely restricted in order to avoid exposure to COVID-19. The increase in telehealth usage has paved the way for improvements in information exchange and expanded access and integration of technology (Bestsennyy et al., 2021). It has also ensured treatment continuity for vulnerable populations, such as those struggling with substance use disorders.

Prior to the pandemic, the use of telehealth in healthcare was restricted by federal and state laws and health plan policies. Medicaid programs placed numerous limits on when and how telehealth could be used making the option seem more of a hassle than a benefit. Certain laws, such as the federal Ryan Haight Act, made it impossible to provide specific services, such as medication-assisted treatment,  without first conducting an in-person medical evaluation. Telehealth reimbursement was also lacking and varied greatly between states.  As the industry moves forward, many are investigating the impact of temporary changes made to laws and regulations during the pandemic to determine the benefits or lack thereof,  and if the changes should be made permanent. As with anything in healthcare, these restrictions were put in place out of concern for safety, fraud, quality, and cost (Drake et al., 2020; Mark et al., 2022).

Healthcare organizations intending to incorporate telehealth as a treatment modality will need to invest in the necessary infrastructure. Not all individuals seeking substance use disorder treatment will have access to the means to participate in telehealth. With the proper infrastructure and availability of equipment, providers have the opportunity to reach a greater number of individuals in need (Drake et al., 2020).

Potential  improvements through the use of telehealth  include, but are not limited to:

  • Increased convenience for routine care through integration of e-triaging solutions
  • Improved access to behavioral health and specialty care
  • Improved care models and health outcomes for those with chronic conditions and post-acute care through integration of remote monitoring (Bestsennyy et al., 2021).

Post a description of at least one potential benefit of using big data as part of a clinical system and explain why. Then, describe at least one potential challenge or risk of using big data as part of a clinical system and explain why. Propose at least one strategy you have experienced, observed, or researched that may effectively mitigate the challenges or risks of using big data you described. Be specific and provide examples.

Big data refers to a large complex data set that yields substantially more information when analyzed as a fully integrated data set as compared to the outputs achieved with smaller sets of the same data that are not integrated (Thew, 2016).

Benefits of using big data as part of a clinical system

The potential benefits of using big data as part of a clinical system are enormous and cannot be over-emphasized. One of them is that electronic health records (EHR) documentation which includes plans of care, physiological parameters, assessments, interventions, and progress evaluations can be shared with patients (Glassman, 2017). This will allow patients to have access to their health data and participate in their care, have autonomy, and make informed decisions. EHR can help with managing population health, inform administrative processes, and provide metrics for quality improvement to mention a few.

Likewise, the benefit of using big data as part of a clinical system is its managerial benefit like improvement of organizational performance for instance the detection of medical insurance fraud which would ultimately lead to better resource management. (Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018).

Challenge of using big data as part of a clinical system

Challenges of using big data as part of a clinical system include the lack of data standardization, due to varying units of data that change from one unit to another, making it extremely difficult to comprehend and difficult for industry leaders to capitalize on the great promise of big data to revolutionize the healthcare market and difficult to determine how well or badly an organization or unit is performing. They do not call the units the same thing, name them the same thing or define them the same way,” This also makes it difficult to make well-informed decisions on what to change. Having good data is key to making effective changes. (Thew, 2016).

Also, there is the management challenge. Some healthcare workers do not the knowledge of how to manage data. This can compromise the integrity of the data and /or lead to duplication of the data.

Strategy to effectively mitigate the challenges of big data

The improvement of data integrity – Data scientists and Information Technology staff that have the required skills to run the data analysis will play a major role in mitigating the challenge of data management. (Catalyst, 2018). They should be involved in data management. This will help the nurse leaders to easily analyze, synthesize, and present the data in a clearer form for decision-making.


Benefit of Big Data

Big Data refers to a large complex data set that yields substantially more information when analyzed as a fully integrated data set. (Pastorino et al., 2019).  The potential of Big Data in healthcare relies on the ability to detect patterns and to turn high volumes of data into actionable knowledge for precision medicine and decision makers, ( 2019). The use of Big Data in healthcare helps physicians and other health providers to facilitate patients’ care and inform decision making for the executives. For example, the data retrieved from the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) provide metrics that measures past and present   patient health history, family history, lab results allergies and other useful information   that can help healthcare professionals  in decision making  for a more precise diagnosis and better organized management/treatment.( Laurette  Education,2018). It can also predict future occurrences, so that prevention can be initiated on time

Potential challenge of Big Data

Big Data may have a potential of violating principals of patient’s privacy. For example, when the patient’s health and possible behavior information, medical inventory and assets, are stored in the EHRs, the information could be accessed/visualized by other health care partners and vendors and possibly other individuals that are not supposed to get the information

Strategy to mitigate the challenge of Big Data

The strategy I will propose is for government to establish affirmative policies to secure, protect, the health data of individuals, by ensuring that the Data scientists to posses the required skills to safeguard the Data system and , Data protection committee  be appointed who would adopt  guidelines of individual personal data while processing the data.(Pastorino Et al.,).


Potential Benefits of Using Big Data as Part of a Clinical System and Why

The use of technology has become the backbone of healthcare organizations as all aspects of healthcare are delivered and accessed using technology. As a result, healthcare facilities have implemented electronic health records systems to assist with the storage and management of data (Pavithra et al.,2020). There are many examples of big data in the healthcare system, including pharmaceutical research, patient portals and medical services, medical imaging, and public records, which vary in structure and nature, leading to the development of various methods and systems for storing and analyzing data. Having all the information in big data is crucial, as it can always be referred to for further information, clarification, or confirmation if it pertains to patient information. According to Pastorino et al., (2019), one of the benefits of using big data as part of the clinical system is that EHRs, as a form of big data, have contributed significantly to the collection of patient information, enabling tests, collecting clinical data, and assisting physicians in accurately diagnosing patients. As a result, it is essential to make an accurate diagnosis so that an appropriate treatment plan can be developed for the patient, improving both the quality of care and the success of treatment. Furthermore, Pastorino et al. (2019) state that the use of big data in healthcare facilities has significantly increased operational efficiency. To analyze historical patient admission rates and staff efficiency, big data is used as an intelligence strategy.

Using predictive analytics, healthcare providers can reduce costs and provide high-quality care services, resulting in improved patient satisfaction and improved outcomes (Pavithra et al., 2020). As a result of the use of big data in healthcare facilities, medical errors are being reduced by improving financial and administrative performance, thus reducing the number of readmissions.

Potential Challenge or Risk of Using Big Data as Part of a Clinical System and Why

According to Pastorino et al., (2019), data security and privacy are two challenges or risks associated with big data in healthcare facilities. Patient information and their health history are contained within big data. Due to the highly sophisticated technologies that come with new technology, cybercrimes have increased, with more and more cases of websites and hospital systems being hacked. For patient information to be protected and kept confidential, healthcare facilities must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). A lawsuit may be brought against a person who violates HIPAA law. A further challenge for healthcare facilities is the size of big data, which makes it difficult to analyze and store such vast and extraordinary amounts of information, as described by Pastorino et al., (2019).

Strategy Experienced, Observed, or Researched that may Effectively Mitigate the

Challenges or Risks of Using Big Data Described

Acceptance and proper management are two of the most effective strategies that healthcare facilities can use to reduce the risks associated with big data (Chmaissani, 2019). In healthcare facilities, top management may require assistance understanding big data since it is assumed that this is the responsibility of the IT department. As a result, it is essential to accept that there will always be challenges associated with big data since each department can manage the data appropriately and develop different systems to store different types of data according to their structure and nature. For example, healthcare facilities should utilize predictive analytics to determine admission rates and staff effectiveness, improving patient satisfaction, and quality of care. Additionally, Siddique et al. (2018, August) advise healthcare facilities to maintain professionalism by encrypting all passwords and changing them periodically with the rule of no exchange of passion, which will enhance cyber security and reduce fraud.


Having access to an electronic medical record is still fairly new within rural communities. One of the first hospitals I had ever worked at only switched over to electronic record five years prior which would have been 2011. With having an electronic record it has allowed facilities to accumulate large amounts of data on every patient within the system. While in most cases this has been a huge benefit, especially in management of chronic illness, all that data can be very overwhelming. To those who are unfamiliar or still learning, all of the data collected can seem very overwhelming, thus not being used to its full potential to better patient care. In fact, it was shown that 42% of hospitals use analytics and data to make major decisions but only 16% of those facilities have experienced staff to use the data to support and help determine what is beneficial (Wang et al, 2018).

The biggest barrier to using “big data” is the knowledge deficits for those who have to utilize it. In my experience as a supervisor data is collected on so many aspects of a patient interaction and there is very little time to be able to sift through it. One of the biggest issues we faced in leadership was determining reasons for readmissions.  While our data collected on the patient stated discharge teaching was done using our “teachback” and “commit to sit” techniques. That our staff was following up post- discharge with follow up phone calls. We still saw a high readmission rate.  While all this data shows we are doing the interventions appropriately per our protocols the data may not always reflect the true quality of the care given. When our rates went up it was during peak pandemic when staff was stretched thin. Discharge instructions may have been more rushed and often no vistors or “second set of ears” were present during discharge to help support patients.  But being able to use the data and dig deeper are the crucial stepping stones in improving “big data” utilization.

Although there is still a deficit in education and experience in using data to intervene on the daily most providers and nurses are experts within the clinical settings.  Dr.Grant Shevhik stated how the importance of trending data can be in making adjustments in patient care. Prior to electronic records providers could only see results right in front of them and were unable to see if it was an improvement. Now with the electronic record and data we can see labs results, vitals, imaging, and other provider notes to get a better picture (Walden University, 2018).  The value of being able to trend data is so important in the care we provide. I currently work in the PACU, many of our assessments and scoring systems are based on pre-anesthesia recordings compared to post. This may only be over the course of a couple hours but being able to compare allows us to known when it is safe to transition care.

In summary, the use of “big data” is an important part of our everyday lives and the care we provide. The biggest barrier still lies on the ability to effectively interpret this data and then apply it to our care decisions, especially when going through large amounts collected over time.  Although the difficulties leadership face on data collection to improve larger interventions many bedside staff are experts at using data to their advantage. Being able to compare admission data like vitals to the current ones allow us to know if interventions are improving the patient situation or if changes need to be made.


Clinical System Big Data

My employer’s largest big data application is the electronic health record (EHR). With over 200 physicians, pathologists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants caring for patients in the metropolitan area of Washington, DC, and the Tidewater, VA region, hundreds of thousands of patient records have accumulated over the past 15 years. The collection, storage, and retrieval of massive amounts of clinical data, such as personal and family history, medications, and pathology results, coupled with demographic data, such as gender, zip code, ethnicity, and spoken language, gives clinicians access to pertinent information helpful in making clinical decisions. It also offers endless possibilities for analytics and predictions regarding disease management, anticipated health outcomes, early intervention, and best practices for preventing colon cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 52,000 people died of colon cancer in 2019 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.).

Risk of Using Big Data in a Clinical System

Conversely, housing enormous amounts of data in the EHR makes the practice vulnerable to breaches or inadvertent disclosures of protected health information, cyber-attacks, and unauthorized access. In a report submitted to Congress by the Office for Civil Rights, over 650 breaches affecting 500 or more individuals had occurred in 2020, a more than 60% increase from 2019 (2022). Unauthorized disclosures negatively impact patients’ trust and confidence in the practice. Notifying such occurrences is embarrassing for the company and the designated provider.

Proven Strategy to Mitigate Risk

For the past six years, the department leaders of Information Technology and I have participated in the company’s annual security risk analysis (SRA) with an outside vendor. This process gives insight into the effectiveness of current security measures, including technical safeguards, and assesses policies and procedures related to protecting patient information. The vendor provides a corrective action plan at the conclusion, which includes recommendations and suggestions based on the SRA findings. In a Canadian Press article, encrypting personal information, upgrading security systems, and multi-factor authentication are ways to address privacy and security risks (2022). All of these measures have benefited the company throughout its history, some of which were suggestions from the SRA.


Benefit of Big Data

Big Data refers to a large complex data set that yields substantially more information when analyzed as a fully integrated data set. (Pastorino et al., 2019).  The potential of Big Data in healthcare relies on the ability to detect patterns and to turn high volumes of data into actionable knowledge for precision medicine and decision makers, ( 2019). The use of Big Data in healthcare helps physicians and other health providers to facilitate patients’ care and inform decision making for the executives. For example, the data retrieved from the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) provide metrics that measures past and present   patient health history, family history, lab results allergies and other useful information   that can help healthcare professionals  in decision making  for a more precise diagnosis and better organized management/treatment.( Laurette  Education,2018). It can also predict future occurrences, so that prevention can be initiated on time

Potential challenge of Big Data

Big Data may have a potential of violating principals of patient’s privacy. For example, when the patient’s health and possible behavior information, medical inventory and assets, are stored in the EHRs, the information could be accessed/visualized by other health care partners and vendors and possibly other individuals that are not supposed to get the information

Strategy to mitigate the challenge of Big Data

The strategy I will propose is for government to establish affirmative policies to secure, protect, the health data of individuals, by ensuring that the Data scientists to posses the required skills to safeguard the Data system and , Data protection committee  be appointed who would adopt  guidelines of individual personal data while processing the data.(Pastorino Et al.,).


The healthcare sector has advanced significantly to get to this stage, thanks to technologies like telemedicine, medical imaging, electronic health records, robotics, and more. With the aid of technology, all of this is now achievable. One of the industrial disruptors that has transformed healthcare is big data. Big data in the healthcare sector aids in reducing medical errors, preventing mass diseases, providing preventative care, modeling the spread of diseases, detecting diseases at their earliest stages, providing more accurate treatments, real-time alerting, patient personalization, forecasting the cost of treatments, identifying and assisting high-risk patients, preventing suicide and self-harm, discovering new therapies and drugs, and avoiding unnecessary trips to the emergency room (Wang et al., 2018).

 

The global pandemic outbreak has accelerated innovation and the adoption of digital technology, massive data, and big data analytics. However, it has exposed many weaknesses of the healthcare industry. Here we outline the benefits of big data and data analytics in healthcare and give an overview of critical applications of big data in the healthcare sector.  Big data is expected to grow faster in healthcare than in other industries like manufacturing, financial services, or media. The healthcare data is projected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)

 

Potential challenges or risks using big data, according to Fillinger and others. The big data ecosystem was created to solve the problems of ingesting and storing a large amount of highly diverse data. Such a concept as a data lake provides the possibility to solve the problem of storing a variety of healthcare data like images, document files, and exports from old RDBMS systems (Fillinger et al., 2019). Due to the lack of standardization, sharing healthcare data between different organizations is one of the main pain points. Moreover, such sensitive information requires robust privacy protections. Under public health emergencies, and particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial that data is shared in a timely and accurate manner and Data standardization, Data Quality, Data mining, Data visualization, Scalability, Integrating of legacy systems with the big data ecosystem, and Lack of big data skills.

 

The essential strategy to solve the accessibility challenges in big data sharing is the implementation of consequent security evaluations and procedures. This action could be carried out by encrypting big data and ensuring that health care professionals practice professional integrity. Many health care systems should strive to have mature EMR systems to support meaningful use and honesty. Upgrading pre-existing information systems within health facilities will enhance the ability to efficiently share health information between providers and health facilities (Perlin, 2016). I believe this strategy would aid in eliminating patient privacy breaches and the risks associated with sharing big data among providers. There is an urgent need to understand the managerial, economic and strategic impact of big data analytics, enabling healthcare practitioners to fully seize the power of big data (Wang et al., 2018).


Effective Use of Big Data

While the amount of data gathered for one patient within their electronic health records (EHRs) may seem overwhelming, it is critical in making sound clinical decisions for the patient (McGonigle & Matrian, 2022). In reviewing a piece of clinical data over time, a nurse can identify a previously unknown or undetected area of risk for a patient. For instance, educating patients hospitalized for congestive heart failure on taking their daily weight and continuing to monitor those daily weights while in the hospital is effective in detecting clinical interventions that may be necessary (Jaysena et al., 2016).

One potential challenge of using big data as part of a clinical system is the need for more education for many clinicians on effectively utilizing the amount of data received in their day-to-day practice. As Thew (2016) outlines, nurses receive daily financial, clinical, directional, and operational data. The key to making the data received applicable is allowing it to be organized via the technology we use into bits of data such as reports or alerts (McGonigle & Matrian, 2022). Using these alerts, nurses can alert the interdisciplinary care team that an intervention is necessary.

In my clinical practice in long-term care, I have found that a lack of education for the staff on the effective use of the EHR dashboard and daily reports created a barrier to utilizing the data gathered on patients during their shifts. Further, this education can also assist in preventing unintended misuse of the data, such as sharing information that is not necessary for clinical practice with those who do not have a “need to know” (Agris, 2016).


In their daily operations, healthcare centers use both unstructured and structured information. Structured data is vast, freeform, and available in various formats. It also has a predetermined schema. Big Data (BD), or unstructured data, on the other hand, does not adhere to the conventional structure for data processing. Big Data is an enormous collection of information sets that traditional technologies cannot handle, store, or examine. It is still kept on file but has yet to be explored. Such data can be challenging to search for and analyze because there is no explicit schema, so it needs to be turned into value using a particular technology and process (Batko & Ślęzak, 2022). Big Data analytics are methods and devices used to examine and glean information from large amounts of data. Big Data analysis outcomes can be utilized to make future predictions. They also contribute to the development of historical patterns. When it relates to healthcare, it enables the analysis of massive datasets derived from hundreds of patients, the discovery of correlations and clusters across datasets, and the creation of prediction models through data mining techniques (Batko & Ślęzak, 2022).

The output of data processing using big data analytics is suitable for data storytelling, which may help people make decisions with less risk and more evidence. Stakeholders in the healthcare industry may gain as a result. Analytics of large datasets must bring together the populations involved in data analytics and healthcare informatics to fully utilize the reasonable massive amounts of information in healthcare. Furthermore, to make sure that the proper intervention for the correct patient is appropriately timed, personalized, and potentially helpful to all sectors of the healthcare system, such as the management, payer, and patient (Wang et al., 2018). Big Data Analytics can shed light on clinical data and help decision-makers make well-informed choices on patient diagnosis and care, illness prevention, and other issues. By exploiting the value of the data, big data analytics may also increase the effectiveness of healthcare organizations.Using personalized and accurate treatment, relying on personalized information supplied in real-time and customized to particular patients, would be made possible by adopting a big data strategy. This will make it possible to make data-driven decisions and get better-personalized projections about prognosis and treatment reactions. Understand the complex factors and interactions that affect a patient’s health and the health of the healthcare system and society, and detect safety issues with drugs and devices. It will also make it possible to compare prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and treatment options more successfully (Wang et al., 2018).

The biggest challenge with Big Data is figuring out how to manage such a large amount of data and use it to make informed decisions in various areas. Another major challenge in the area of healthcare information is adjusting ample data storage, presentation of analysis, results, and inference based on them in a healthcare setting. Placing the patient at the system’s center is one of the critical components of the shifting healthcare needs to undergo. Technology needs to be improved to accomplish these goals. As a result, adjustments need to be made at the level of technology in the administration and planning of all healthcare activities and impacting service providers’ business models. Enterprises are using big data analytics more and more frequently. However, medical businesses still need to meet the demands of patients, doctors, administrators, and the creator’s policy in terms of information (Pastorino et al., 2019).

Some strategies we can employ to mitigate the challenges include advanced analytical techniques, such as deep machine learning algorithms, enabling computers to find items of interest in large amounts of unstructured data. Moreover, inferring relationships without specific models or programming instructions is urgently needed to deal with the growing diversity and unstructured data. Therefore, we anticipate that developing practical unstructured data analysis algorithms and applications will be the focus of future scientific studies (Wang et al., 2018). We must get engaged if we want to transform the vision of healthcare data into a reality and give nurses more time to spend with their patients. To do this, currently offered training and education programs for healthcare workers should incorporate data handling concerns into the curricula to ensure the acquisition of essential skills and competencies. We should ensure that all healthcare providers participate in the decision-making process when choosing new technology, offer suggestions on how to streamline workflows with technology, and share our ideas for improving patient care with technology vendors. Nurses are at the mercy of what engineers deem best without your input (Pastorino et al., 2019).


Introduction

In the 21st century, technology is unavoidably present around us in everything from waking up in the morning (alarm on the phone) to freshly brewed coffee to perfectly toasted deliciousness. For nurses, we are conducting an informatics model process when we perform simple things like measuring blood pressure for your patient. Clinicians gather raw data like blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, and heart rate from a patient and form information and knowledge that leads to forming wisdom. (Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018).

Big Data

Informatic technology is very effective in managing numbers. (Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2018). For instance, when a nurse charts vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, respiration rate), the system generates to alert clinicians to know if specific numbers are below or above average, and we use the numbers to make a judgment. Advancement in informatics has allowed clinicians to respond quickly to medical problems and prevent further damage. For example, in the case of sepsis, clinical symptoms like decreased blood pressure, increased heart rate and increased temperature allow providers to order specific lab tests such as pH in our blood and lactate level and treat the patient.

Nursing informatics help with the organization and application of data. Clinicians use these data and facts daily to make decisions for our patients. When collecting data, forming knowledge based on the data happens concordantly, leading to wisdom formation and compassionate care for our patients. (Walden University, LLC. (Executive Producer). (2012).

Conclusion

Big data provide enormous pools of information and create an efficient lifestyle for all of us. For example, we now have wearable technologies that monitor when we exercise, sleep and eat. In such a way, big data create personal health records and provides an opportunity for easier access to remote consultations between a patient and a provider. With more accessibility to providers, chronic and preventable diseases are managed better. Big data is also implemented in our homes with smart homes and social networks. With the beauty of efficiency that comes with big data, challenges and problems arise. Data security, data ownership between the source and the collector, and data storage remain problems. (Vinay Shanthagiri. (2014). Our goal as patient advocates should be to find a big data system that works for our healthcare system without damaging the core of it all that gave rise to big data, humans.


Big Data Risks and Rewards

The amount of data that is collected daily is extraordinary via the use of phones, social media, and through the internet.  The phrase big data is a buzzword to enforce large amount of information obtain from variety of complex areas and stored and managed (Hardy, 2018).  Big Data in healthcare can influence and predict patients results (Gleason & Dennison Himmelfarb, 2017).  Nurses are the front line, direct patient care the best recourse to obtain the data and to influence patients care (Glassman, 2017).

The benefits of using big data can have enormous benefits to transform patients lives if used correctly.  The greatest benefit is using the data to improve patient’s outcome.  Type 1 diabetic patients have the support to monitor their blood sugar every 5 minutes without having to collect blood from their finger, through a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system.  The same data can be uploaded to their clinician to have complete access 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  This data can improve their health and help manage their care (Miller, 2020).

There is a potential for risk concerns with big data such as security issues, ethical issues and misuse of personal information.  It is important for nurses to help manage the use of this big data and it also has a significant amount of burden placed on nurses.  The amount of data that is collected from a CGM can add additional clinical time increasing the nurse’s workload (Miller, 2020).  We are in a very challenging time in healthcare and adding additional task leads to higher burnout rate.  It is important for nursing leadership to recognize that increase workload leads to burn out and to staff appropriately.

I am a single mom and my youngest child at the age of 6 was diagnosed with type one diabetes.  I had a CGM placed on him before we left the hospital.  Data/technology was the reason I was able to continue working to support my family.


The Benefit of Big data as Part of Clinical System

Big data has many benefits in the health care system, especially in nursing. One example in the hospital system where I work as a bedside nurse is the electronic medical records (EMR) that transfer patient information across the data system from each clinic and hospital within the specific hospital system. I can also access the patient’s medication prescriptions, and refills from most local pharmacies included in the hospital system. I don’t have to make an extra call to a pharmacy if I have questions regarding if a patient has been prescribed a specific dose of a prescribed opioid. Nurses can also access vaccination information for each patient within the EMR in just seconds. Big data is an extensive collection of data that expands over time, generating millions of data points daily. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The benefits of big data are convenience and time efficiency for nurses during a workday. Many bits of a patient’s information can be accessed in one area of the EMR or just a “click” away to search other information.

One challenge with big data is handling a substantial amount of information that must be stored and filed to a format that is easily accessible and readable, and high-end computer tools may be required in a clinical setting for proper functioning (Dash et al., 2019). This can be challenging because many healthcare facilities do not have sufficient funding to supply to more efficient and sophisticated big data projects, which is an expensive consequence. High volumes of digital information at high velocities in healthcare is complex and can increase medical costs for both facility and the patient involved (Wang et al., 2018-a). One way the hospital I work at has mitigated the challenges of big data and the financial expenses included was the choice of a system for documentation. The system currently in use is the same Meditech company but just upgraded from the older version that was being used, and can keep up with the data infrastructure of the facility. This system is of higher quality and efficient enough for patient care documentation. The hospital does not have the most sophisticated upgrades, such as Epic. However, Meditech offers the best reliability and affordability needed. Another way to mitigate costs to the facility with big data can include predictive analytics. Predictive analytics allows healthcare facilities to assess their current service situations to help them separate the intricate structure of clinical cost and recognize best clinical practices (Wang et al., 2018-b). Predictive analytics can make data collection and cost more productive for nurses, patients, and facilities.


There are many benefits with the use of big data. Big data “typically refers to a large complex data set that yields substantially more information when analyzed as a fully integrated data set as compared to the outputs achieved with smaller sets of the same data that are not integrated,” (Thew, 2016). One of these benefits is the ability for patients to directly interact with their provider via secured messaging. Many hospitals and health systems with mature EHRs have portals for patients to access and record their own health data (Glassman, 2017). This allows patients to remain active in their care, make their needs known and separates necessary visits from visits that can wait until a patients next visit. Additionally, this can prevent patients from making unnecessary visits to emergency rooms which tend to have long wait times and be over-crowded.

The lack of data standardization can also make it challenging for a CNE to assess how the organization or a particular unit is performing and to make well-informed decisions about what to change (Thew, 2016). This can lead to ineffective communication and even harmful miscommunication. Eliminating duplication of effort will go a long way to simplifying and streamlining nursing workflow within EHRs (Glassman, 2017). This can create a more effective workforce, but first there needs to be standards of work and lines of communication to ease these efforts. Standard flow of patient charts is also needed. Although some charting systems create a lot of flexibility for charting needs, this also creates issues in being able to quickly find the information for providers in urgent care and emergency room settings.

Creating standard flowing charting for providers, nurses and practitioners in all areas may assist in provider faster, better and more efficient care for patients. At my place of work, we use CPRS which is within the Veterans Affairs hospital system. This was one of the first EHRs created. It has a lot of flexibility but little standardization to make finding specific types of information fast and easy. This process may help to discover or uncover previously unidentified relationships among the data in a database with a focus on applications (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Identifying these weak points can assist in providing good care to patients.


The Benefits of Using Big Data 

Data in healthcare organizations is a key factor in developing outcomes through the cycle of data collection, analysis, and interpretation to assess actual status, risks, and future projects to invest efforts. Advances in technology make data available faster and at a higher volume, referred to as big data (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Healthcare innovations use this big data for treatment guidelines, optimization of patient care through survey data analysis, pharmaceutical drug research, etc. Big data has become a key factor in improving patient outcomes through electronic health records (Glassman, 2017). Electronic health records have been implemented in most healthcare organizations to improve the quality and safety of care, impacting cost and access. Big data in electronic health records can improve communication within the interdisciplinary team caring for a patient. Electronic health records have become an important tool for documenting and progress patient goals in the care plan (Caliebe, Leverkus, Antes, & Krawczak, 2019).

Potential Challenges for Using Using Big Data and the Interventions Thereof

The potential challenge that electronic health records encounter when providers need to communicate with other healthcare organizations is the lack of interface among different clinical systems (Farrahi et al., 2019). Nowadays, the nursing home where I work has issues getting the discharge summaries when working with facilities that use EPIC, such as an emergency room hospital within our community. Thew (2016) notes that big data challenges reside in the interactions throughout different systems (Thew, 2016). Our healthcare organization has submitted a request for our fax number to be added to an automatic table that Emergency Departments will have access to. Our nursing home will need to remind the emergency team front desk to fax the discharge summary to our office after the patient is discharged. This will be a workaround to interface with the system. The other option is to request temporary user access as a visitor, but the request is not automatic (Visconti, & Morea, 2019).

Another potential challenge for big data is security breaches (Wang et al., 2018). Big data contains confidential information. Nowadays, several business agreements are held with third-party representatives to interface data, mainly for insurance and billing purposes. Hacking and data phishing are common ways to obtain information given to other companies (Banerjee, Hemphill, & Longstreet, 2018). Healthcare organizations use SharePoint and iCloud technologies for data storage with several security layers protected by an information technology department.


I am one of those who truly thinks that “syncing data” is a big task, almost intimidating! In this modern day of technology, combined with data knowledge, digital revolution of analytics of the healthcare industry has become very complex, but beneficial. “Big data in healthcare” denotes plentiful health data accrued from many sources including electronic health records (EHRs), medical imagery, genomic sequencing, payor records, pharmaceutical research, wearables, and medical devices, just to name a few (Catalyst, 2018). Shifting to (EHRs), interoperability programs, and progressively more advanced technology means, has led to the production of huge quantities of healthcare data. Analyzing critical data has its’ challenges, however, carefully managing this data can lead to opportunities to disseminate information geared towards knew knowledge for positive healthcare outcomes and results (McGonigle et al., 2022). Just to add, I believe analyzing critical data will never reach its full potential!

There are a number of beneficial gains from embracing Big Data, including the focus of moving to a value based care model, instead of the pay for service model. In comparison, the latter mentioned involves financially rewarding caregivers based on patient health populations, while the pay for service model rewards caregivers for performing procedures. Another benefit of embracing Big Data, allows the dissemination of evidence based information that will gradually increase healthcare efficacy. In addition, patients can now access their own health records and can actively participate in their own interventions and treatment (Thew, 2016). One challenge of Big Data management is the lack of data standardization. This particular element of Big Data insufficiency limits the accessibility of specific organizational performance, which also decreases chances of making educated and well informed decisions on what adjustments need to be made to produce better healthcare outcomes. When professionals fail to identify how data interacts throughout systems, this limits the types of data analytic creation (Thew, 2016). In order to mitigate challenges of embracing Big Data,  good, efficient, and reliable data has to be produced. This will allow the healthcare industry to move forward in many healthcare aspects. Data management is critical. This helps nurse leaders, analysts, and other professionals effectively synch multiple sources of information to create positive healthcare outcomes. (Catalyst, 2018).


WHAT IS BIG DATA

According to the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, big data “usually refers to a vast, complicated data collection that gives much more information when evaluated as a fully integrated data set as opposed to the outputs produced with smaller sets of the same data not combined.

Big data analytics has been called for due to the necessity of efficiently integrating an organization’s IT assets to provide a superior patient experience, boost operational efficiency, and even create novel data-driven business models. (Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018)

Big data analytics, generated from business intelligence and decision support systems, enables healthcare companies to examine large volumes, types, and velocities of data across several healthcare networks to support evidence-based decision-making and action.

 

ONE POTENTIAL BENEFIT OF USING BIG DATA AS PART OF A CLINICAL SYSTEM AND WHY

Big data enhances the quality and accuracy of clinical choices by processing many health records in a matter of seconds. Still, the absence of data standards makes it difficult.

An executive may need help to evaluate the performance of the company or a specific unit and to make well-informed judgments about what to do. Having accurate information is essential for creating successful adjustments. (n.d.)

 

A STRATEGY RESEARCHED THAT EFFECTIVELY MITIGATES THE CHALLENGES OF RISK OF USING BIG DATA

Teaching key personnel about big data analytics:

Managers and employees need critical thinking and interpretation skills to use significant data analytics results effectively. Because incorrectly reading reports may lead to substantial errors and questionable conclusions. Consequently, healthcare organizations must educate their employees in core statistics, data mining, and business intelligence to support the increasingly information-rich work environment. According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association in 2013, mentoring, cross-functional team-based training, and self-study help employees develop their practical data analysis skills. Additionally, healthcare organizations may recruit people with analytical skills. (Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018) This is precisely what my organization did, and there was a vast improvement in my unit.


Big data refers to vast amounts of information that, when properly analyzed, can do great things. For the past two decades, due to its enormous untapped potential, it has been a subject that has generated much attention as a matter of particular interest. Big data is being developed, stored, and analyzed across various businesses in the public and private sectors to improve the services offered (Dash et al. 2019). In this case, I will discuss how big data relates to health care.

Benefits of using big data as part of a clinical system

Big data can come from a variety of sources in the healthcare business. Some sources include hospital records, patients’ medical records, the results of medical examinations, medical records of patients, the results of medical tests, and devices connected to the internet of things (Dash et al. 2019). This has helped patients’ outcomes and safe practices where doctors can share information due to access to the internet. For patients taking medications requiring therapeutic blood levels, prescribers can access lab results, and patients can receive the correct dosages of medicines promptly. An example is for patients that are on clozapine, they get blood work completed, and pharmacists may have a standing order depending on the outcome of blood work. Patients on coumadin require INR results and other medications and treatments that need care coordination and information to be shared promptly. Care coordination and patient safety rely heavily on the nurses who write most electronic health records (EHR). This documentation includes care plans, physiological parameters, assessments, interventions, and progress evaluations. Patients can access and record their health data through portals offered by many hospitals and health systems that have developed EHRs. The meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) is supported by sharing this data within the confines of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (Glassman, 2017).

 

Challenge of using big data in health care

Regarding the communications, processing, and storage of data in cyber-physical systems, cybersecurity, and data privacy are among the most critical factors. (Javid, 2020). These days, mobile phones, sensors, patients, hospitals, researchers, providers, and organizations are all contributing to the production of massive amounts of data about healthcare. The real challenge facing healthcare systems is figuring out how to locate, collect, analyze, and manage information to make people’s lives easier and healthier. This information contributes to understanding new diseases and treatments, predicting earlier stages’ outcomes, and making real-time decisions (Asri et al. 2015). When discussing the use of big data in healthcare, there is always the possibility that confidential information could be made public. Because of this, everyone involved should consider the risk-benefit ratio seriously to preserve the confidentiality of patients.

Potential challenges and risk

I work in a home care setting, and we use electronic health records to administer medications. This company does not use epics like most hospitals in the area and doctors’ offices. Therefore, when medication changes are made and information is given to the patients, most of the time, changes are not made in a timely manager due to a lack of connected EHR data technology that shares information. The challenges and risks are especially when the patient is taking high-risk medications like insulin, dosage changes could be made during an MD visit, and the nurse administering that medication in the community does not receive information timely. I would advocate for a data system with shared information to avoid medication errors.


Knowledge and data are very important to have as a nurse in order to help us make on-the-spot life make or break decisions.  Some of this data could and has literally saved lives.  Thousand of evidenced practice research and randomized trials have been completed and continue to be done in order to give professionals more knowledge and provide safer practice.  But how much is too much?!  Are we drowning in data?  Does it even make sense anymore?  Data is knowledge and knowledge is a success but there needs to be a standardized way to analyze data so it is understandable to everyone (Thew, 2016).

One downfall in the data that is collected is that we cannot account for all possible variables.  For instance, I just did some research about the benefits of using informatics and technology to remind people of adhering to their prescribed medication regimen.  Although the technology sounds amazing and evolved greatly over the years, the data was unable to account for the number of people that will acknowledge their medication reminders but still do not take their medications.

The benefits of big data are that large volumes of research and data from across the population and healthcare networks are able to be analyzed and broken down into practical and beneficial information to help healthcare professionals to do better at providing safe, quality care.  One example that I can think of is the EMR electronic medical record system that all nurses in the 21st century are familiar with.  Once upon a time, nurses did all paper charting.  Everything was written by hand.  There were lots of check marks made in little, tiny boxes.  Now, we use computer software, information technology, and big data to store all the patient information that we collect.  This electronic medical record system allows providers to see real-time patient information and has improved the efficiency and quality of care that we are able to provide.  As technology evolves, we have seen more people wearing smartwatches that can store their personal information in an application regarding their health, sleep patterns, activity levels, heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, etc.  Telehealth is also becoming a more popular and available option to access healthcare (Wang, et al., 2018).

People need to not be so scared of the changes that we face in technology and the direction healthcare is headed.  Education and training are imperative for healthcare staff to be more efficient and provide safer care.  I believe that healthcare professionals need to not only continue education on healthcare but there also needs to be in-services, seminars, and free classes for healthcare professionals to stay up to date on all the different information technologies that are available and continuously evolving.


Benefits of Big Data

Big data is essentially the collection of data that is collected from all different places and can be gathered into sets and analyzed to identify patterns and draw conclusions (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022, p. 478). Big data can be useful in general as it is a way to identify problems which may not be easily seen. In healthcare specifically, this can be a way to identify places where errors occur, where medications are not scanned and why, which processes are cumbersome and take more time etc. One potential benefit of using big data within a clinical system is to be able to track a multitude of different items at once. This could include how many patients come into a certain clinic, how many return, what they come in for, and the number of times they get referred to the ED all gathered from information which is readily available. Big data also allows the electronic healthcare record to be organized and easily accessible (Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018).

Challenges of Big Data

One potential challenge to big data due to the vast amount of data which can be collected. A problem presents when one cannot sift through all of the data that is collected to make meaningful analyses (Threw, 2016). With the use of technology there is also the possibility that the information could be hacked, and in healthcare this presents a privacy problem. (Househ et. al., 2017).

Strategy to Mitigate Challenges or Risks of Big Data

            One strategy to mitigate the leak of information is to educate staff on proper technological habits and safety regarding patient information. By teaching staff which information is protected and how to protect it, the possibility of information leaking decreases. One way my institution does this is by requiring yearly training and refresher courses on phishing, malware, ransomware, and how to report any suspicious activity. This is reinforced by sending fake ransomware and phishing emails which have links to click that say its harmful and what should have given it away, or the recipient gets a congratulations for reporting it to spam. I believe that this is a simple way to reinforce the teachings without overwhelming the staff.


Many different applications of big data are now in use in healthcare systems. Big data is being utilized and documented in various healthcare-related contexts, from electronic health records to prescription administration and monitoring systems. Incorporating big data into a mental health healthcare system may open up new avenues for experimentation, which is a positive outcome. For instance, the gold standard of randomized controlled trials can only be undertaken adequately in some cases and circumstances owing to insufficient sample numbers or durations of follow-up. Data collected from an entire population may be used for extensive data analysis, allowing for closer scrutiny of aspects like these. Using this case in particular, researchers in Denmark were able to collect data on the prevalence of suicide and the impact of psychosocial intervention on suicide prevention (Schofield & Das-Munshi, 2018).

Problems arise when big data is used in healthcare IT systems. There needs to be more oversight over the data collection process is one area where the use of big data for mental health might be problematic. Developments in the fields of mental health and ethnic studies are two good examples of this. In some instances, ethnicity was not recorded in EHRs. The availability of these statistics has allowed researchers to look for links between psychosis and the African American population. The issue’s root is the need for further classifications and potential threats. The research does not contain or keep tabs on demographic information such as the participant’s sexual orientation, socioeconomic position, marital status, etc. (Schofield, 2018).

As an illustrative case, this highlights a possible difficulty in implementing big data in a healthcare setting (Thew, 2016). This ensures that everyone involved in the research is on the same page and is cognizant of the possibility that other variables may have contributed to the findings, despite the study’s decision to isolate the effects of the one being studied. Combining extensive data analysis with other research is another approach that may assist in reducing dangers or difficulties. When used to supplement other research, big data may assist in compensating for their shortcomings (Schofield & Das-Munshi, 2018).


The benefit of using big data as part of a clinical system

With the rising adoption of digitalized records and physician notes in healthcare, analytics for generated Big Data is very important. Big Data is of enormous value to organizations and data mining researchers because better results are obtained from a more significant volume of data. According to J.Gantz, “Big Data technologies describe a new generation of technologies and architectures, designed to economically extract value from massive volumes of a wide variety of data, by enabling high-velocity capture, discovery, and analysis. (Reinsel – Gantz, 2011). Big data generally captures what is easy to entangle, data that are openly expressed like swiped, scanned, sensed, people’s actions and behavior which it takes at face value. For example, Electronic healthcare records (EHRs), which use big data analyticsLinks to an external site. for major evaluations of diseases and performance of epidemiological analyses, can be regarded as a breakthrough in medical information management (Hännikäinen, 2017Links to an external site.Perera et al., 2016Links to an external site.). Where we can ensure that a complete health record is available to an authorized healthcare provider at the point of care when needed. This record may contain information from various providers, such as family physicians, specialists, social workers, pharmacists, radiologists, dieticians, physiotherapists, and nurses.

While big data offers many opportunities, it poses several challenges for human geography. One challenge of using big data is cost-effectively leveraging the evolving technology and communications infrastructure. The time and cost of application of big medical data are regarded as the significant causes of failure in establishing a big data warehouse in the healthcare industry (Chute et al., 2013Links to an external site.Jee & Kim, 2013bLinks to an external site.Jonathon Northover, 2014Links to an external site.Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2014Links to an external site.Shapiro, Mostashari, Hripcsak, Soulakis, & Kuperman, 2011Links to an external site.Wills, 2014Links to an external site.). IT systems that support nursing practice are revolutionizing the way in which nursing care is structured, operationalized, implemented, and assessed (Dreyfus, 2001). Big Data stored in databases grow massively and becomes difficult to capture, form, store, manage, share, analyze and visualize via specific database software tools.

The competency of medical employees is also believed to be the key factor in successfully implementing medical big data systems. Some scholars state that resistance from adopters or users is an essential source of innovation failure (Sheth & Ram, 1987Links to an external site.). Also needed are managers and analysts with excellent insight into how big data can be applied. Companies must accelerate employment programs while making significant investments in the education and training of key personnel. 


Big data has altered how people lead and use data in many fields, particularly in healthcare. The good news is that we can transform the healthcare sector with big data. One type of method for assessing all types of data gathered from various sources is healthcare data management. It enables the healthcare sector to treat patients with greater accuracy and care. Similar to how variety, brevity, honesty, merit, exactness, justice, and illustration are of more concern in medical applications, big data is an impending manifestation in its body of legislation and assumption. (Belle et al., 2015).

Benefits of Using Big Data

Utilizing big data as a technology and collecting data to enhance the healthcare system have several advantages. An illustration is in the area of making wise decisions. Big data provides decision-makers with crucial analytical insight into the operation and interaction of many healthcare components. Searching through massive amounts of data may be boring and uninteresting for clinical practitioners like nurses. Big data analytics, however, provides a platform for a thorough evaluation of correlations and therefore enhances the outputs of analytical processes (Sielemann et al., 2020). It is also significant and given the sheer amount of data produced by each individual subject, it is implausible that a human subject could effectively execute data analysis jobs at the same level as big data analytics. Big data provides healthcare with a chance to enhance outcomes by utilizing data that might otherwise be insignificant.

Challenge of Using Big Data

One of the primary issues with employing big data analytics is incompatibility. Lack of a single language, or distinct terminologies, causes compatibility problems amongst EHRs, claim. Human subjects may be able to identify synonyms and similarities based on prior knowledge and expectations, whereas computer algorithms need exact phrasing or the recognition of synonyms to classify data into the same categories. Data transport is also impacted by compatibility problems in addition to terminology. Different codes might make it more difficult to share data, which is essential for big data analytics. For example, PDF and JPEG file formats are incompatible with Microsoft Word documents (the.doc and.docx formats). Despite being able to read the text in both formats, people could find it difficult to switch between them. These problems make large data analytics more difficult, which limits the full breadth of data analytics across many platforms (Macieira et al., 2017).

Strategies for alleviating the Challenge of Big Data.

The standardized language was suggested as the optimal solution to challenging diversity concerns in an effort to increase the usability of big data and increase the sample size for big data analytics (Macieira et al., 2017). Given that nursing is the largest field in terms of personnel in healthcare, standardizing nursing language would considerably enhance the uniformity of information storage (Thorstad & Wolff, 2018). The problems with incompatibility between software and hardware would also be adequately resolved by standardized programming. Standardization would establish a foundation for uniform learning during training and practice. Nursing would also benefit more from it in other words, with standardized terminology and computer programming, many nurses would be adequately prepared to practice in any context (Thorstad & Wolff, 2018).


Benefits of Using Big Data

               The term “big data” was used for the first time in 1997 by Michael Cox and David Ellsworth. The benefits of using big data in your organization cuts your costs in operation, increase efficiency in the workplace, offers fraud protection, increased productivity, patient satisfaction, and better decision making. Big data has four components such as volume which refers to how much data is actually collected, veracity refers to how reliable data is, velocity refers to how fast data can be generated, gathered, and analyzed, and variety. Big data is high volume, velocity, and variety that requires new technology and techniques to capture and store that is used to enhance decision making. In our workplace, utilizing the EHR, we as clinicians can share information across different health systems for example, the patient portal has the current information regarding medical history, diagnosis, medications, treatment plans, immunizations, allergies, and laboratory results readily available which allows providers to make decisions about the patient’s care. The EHR can be created and managed by authorized providers in a digital format that is capable of being shared. Big data strengthen patient relationships and create personalized engagements that drive health outcomes. Big data reduce costs by having electronic records, tracking data to improve the healthcare system, and shortening the time a patient spends in the hospital. Big data can have a positive impact on medical and healthcare functions.

Challenges of Using Big Data

             The lack of data standardization can make it difficult to assess how the organization or unit is performing. Information Technology presents challenges such as inadequate integration of healthcare systems and poor healthcare information management. The systems can be hacked when transmitting sensitive information to a third-party, halting the system which refers to poor internet connection, limited connectivity, especially rural areas, the towers need to be upgraded. The high volume of information that is generated at higher velocities and varieties in healthcare add challenges to the healthcare system. By having these challenges such as increase in medical costs, and time for patients and healthcare providers. The lack of appropriate infrastructure for data storage are critical that might endanger a big data healthcare. The government that uses “Big Data” in the health sector needs to establish affirmative policies to protect the health data of individuals.

Strategies to Effectively Mitigate the Challenges of Big Data

Organizations are implementing efficient technology systems to provide comprehensive and quality training data, developing quality tools while protecting patient privacy, ensuring providers trust and support analytical tools. Big Data have demonstrated in enhancing multiple areas of care, from medical imaging and chronic disease management to population health and medicine. By utilizing an automated system, the healthcare organization can gather more data from images used to train machine models, and synthesizing a massive dataset of distinct training examples. To remove bias from big data, developers can work with providers to understand what clinical measures are important.


Data, information, and knowledge work hand in hand. Data is a collection of information that helps us to identify a particular problem and find a solution. Information has a huge impact on problem-solving. Without information, problems cannot be solved, and a piece of information is knowledge.  all data are important to healthcare. In our day-to-day activities, we continue to gather a piece of vital information that either impact our lives or the life of our patient. In our workplace, we collect both subjective and objective data that when analyzed, will be used to plan for safety and quality care for our patients.  To make informed practice decisions, nurses need access to aggregate data about their patients and the impact of their care, and they need to know how to interpret that data (Glassman, 2017).

 

                                      One potential benefit of using big data as part of a clinical system

One of the potential benefits of using big data can be seen in the use of electronic health records in caring for our patients. Nurses, who do most of the EHR documentation (including plans of care, physiological parameters, assessments, interventions, and progress evaluations) in hospitals, are critical to care integration and patient safety (Glassman, 2017). Electronic health records are user-friendly and have a portal that allows patients access to and adds their health data. It helps us to eliminate duplication and medication errors. s. Patient care devices (such as cardiac monitors, vital sign monitors, and I.V. infusion pumps) can be linked with the electronic health record. According to Thaw (2016), the utilization of electronic health records has helped them to create alerts t avoid medication errors, and vaccine administration errors, a culture of reporting that not only covers lapses in care and errors but also promotes reporting of near misses.

 

  Challenge of using big data as part of a clinical system    

Some of the challenges of using big data as a part of a clinical system are the system upgrade that appears from time-to-time delaying activities in the system, Downtown, when the IT or system management is doing some maintenance, and work within the system, the worker has to wait for some time. According to Thaw, (2016) dealing with big data can understandably be challenging for the chief nurse executives

Strategy to effectively mitigate the challenges of big data

While the constantly growing body of academic research on big data analytics is mostly technology oriented, a better understanding of the strategic implication of big data is urgently needed (wang, Kung, & Byrd,2018). Be part of the selection process for new technology, provide feedback about

technology support to improve workflows, and communicate with technology companies about what will improve patient care. (Thaw,2016).


A considerable benefit of big data in the clinical system is how transferable the information is to patients and other healthcare-related companies necessary for patient care. Patient’s have the ability to access their test results, medications, and upcoming appointments through their healthcare systems’ patient portals once uploaded in the electronic health record (EHR). This allows them to keep up to date on their health status, communicate with their provider, and receive reminders about preventative care. This same documentation in the EHR informs insurance companies, such as Medicare, about specific publicly measured data (Glassman, 2017). Capturing big data allows for more research to be performed in order to better aid specific patient populations.

A potential challenge of using big data as part of a clinical system is the high influx of information and how to organize it all. This coincides with sifting through and picking the most relevant data. Key characteristics of pertinent data should be that it is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (Shilo, Rossman, & Regal, 2020). A lack of standardization of data organization can slow down the information review process. The consequences of this are increased costs in healthcare services and the time of both patients and providers.

One strategy to effectively mitigate the challenge of information overload is to incorporate the use of machine learning algorithms. Machine learning is a program that learns to make a decision or perform a task automatically from a collection of data (Beam & Kohane, 2018). The advantages of machine learning include the assimilation and evaluation of large amounts of healthcare data. The ability to analyze diverse data types such as demographic information, imaging, laboratory results, and free-text notes can be incorporated into predictions for diagnosis, disease risk, appropriate treatments, and prognosis (Ngiam & Khor, 2019). The elimination of this big data analysis allows healthcare providers more time with their patients and acts as a resource for better clinical decision making.


The overall healthcare system gains a lot from the usage of big data in healthcare settings. One advantage is that it makes it easier to give patients individualized care. A steady stream of data is produced by sensors that monitor and record various healthcare processes. This data can help healthcare workers provide individualized treatment to address the specific needs of patients, management, and other relevant stakeholders. Technology-enabled medical equipment provides information that can be used to create treatment programs that are incredibly effective. Data consistency aids in the early detection of complex medical diseases, making it easier to alter therapies when conditions change (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). The timely flow of data that may be established with patient-specific thresholds to alert healthcare providers of changes can be beneficial for both outpatient and inpatient situations, allowing them to serve more patients while also providing more effective and high-quality healthcare for everyone.

The fact that big data improves efficiency in the clinical system is another advantage. Big data offers healthcare personnel the chance to improve operational efficiency, which will improve patient care (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Big data enables healthcare organizations to comprehend how staff, equipment, and patient data are used together, enabling the identification of opportunities to improve operations through better resource utilization, automation, and ways to take advantage of new capabilities like connected healthcare systems.

Despite the benefits noted, there are significant disadvantages to using big data in clinical systems, including concerns about data security because patient information is kept in data centers with variable levels of security. Patients’ data may be extremely vulnerable to a variety of technical measures used by healthcare institutions to protect patient data in their systems in the face of growing dangers to stored data posed by high-profile breaches, hacking, and ransomware incidents. Due to the development of technology and the preference of most organizations for convenience over time-consuming software updates, this includes the use of highly effective anti-virus software, the installation of firewalls, the encryption of sensitive data, and the use of multi-factor authentication.


Nurses are in an optimal position to identify opportunities for data use to improve health care outcomes, decrease costs, and increase patient satisfaction. There is an overwhelming amount of data available to nurses. Extraction of meaningful data is paramount to gaining new insights that impact healthcare decisions and practice improvements (Gibson et al., 2022).

Auditing of nursing documentation is a quality improvement measure that helps ensure consistent quality care. Clinical audits of big data will provide perspective on the interactions between nurses and patients and assist in identifying practice gaps (Ramukumba & El Amouri, 2019).

A potential challenge of using big data as part of a clinical system is the amount of data available. Not all data is created equal. Nurses are often inundated with loads of data and must spend vast amounts of time determining which data is of value. It’s important for nurses to determine how to best use the data received to create value (Mylod & Lee, 2022). Data is initially unstructured and requires organization to improve its functionality and usability. To manage, analyze, and learn from big data in healthcare, we must have a way to systematically organize the enormous amount of data in a meaningful way (Dash et al., 2019).

The goal is to provide nurses with the right data at the right time to convert information into action. They need benchmarking data to visualize their progress in performance and achievement of goals. Dashboards provide systematic extraction of data that allows for analytical review and conversion to actionable knowledge (Mylod & Lee, 2022).


As both healthcare and technology as a whole continue evolve, the two become increasingly intertwined with each other. While health records used to be maintained in stacks of notes and forms, data is now being stored, analyzed and retrieved electronically. The Online Journal of Nursing Informatics defines big data as “a large complex data set that yields substantially more information when analyzed as a fully integrated data set as compared to the outputs achieved with smaller sets of the same data that are not integrated” (Thew, 2016).

 

With the relatively new ability to amass large amounts of patient data, from across thousands of cases, through the use of electronic health records (EHRs) healthcare facilities now have the ability to compare outcomes, treatment efficacy, patient safety data, demographics, market trends, and countless other parameters (Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018). These allow for not only more accurate record keeping, but the ability to modify the way in which are is delivered, to anticipate which interventions are going to lead to the best outcome for the patient. Applying simple statistics can take this vast sea of data and yield an incredible amount of useful information. The more technology advances, the more integrated everything becomes. New technologies are allowing patient care devices, location tracking devices, communication devices, and countless other devices to all work together within the same informational framework (Glassman, 2017).

 

This is not to say that utilizing big data in healthcare has been without its hurdles. The early stages of transitioning from paper records to EHRs and computerization were described by many as being nothing short of disastrous. Financial services would utilize one software system, while inpatient services would utilize another, and laboratory services would utilize another, and surgery would utilize another, and plant operations would utilize another, and on and on, to the point where there were numerous systems being used, but none of them had the ability to “talk to” one another. Now that EHRs are no longer in their infancy, there is a big push for data standardization and compatibility, because when data is not usable across the continuum of care, it is far less useful than it would be in a standardized form (Thew, 2016). At my own facility, I have seen a massive effort put in to integrating as many areas of the hospital on to the same software system as possible. Billing, radiology, laboratory services, physician records, and nurse location tracking are just a few areas which have been pulled on to the same software system. This standardization has recently spread not only within the facility itself, but also to the freestanding emergency departments that are operated under the same company designation as our hospital. Having quick access to these records has shown to significantly increase the ease with which information is communicated between departments and facilities and has greatly improved patient safety and continuity of care.


It is readily recognized that nurses are the most populous of healthcare professions; therefore, they have increased access to inputting and retrieving information in electronic health systems, which end up influencing decision-making in healthcare organizations (Glassman, 2017: McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). A major advantage of big data is that it facilitates safety by allowing healthcare professionals to track medication side effects and adverse reactions. An example is the brand name Vioxx, which was marketed as having lesser incidences of gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB); however, the manufacturers did not include an increased risk of cardiovascular events (CVE) (Parkinson et al., 2011). Through multiple smaller health organizations reporting CVE and the continued risk of GIB, regulatory boards such as the Food and Drug Administration were able to find sufficient data to halt the sale of Vioxx.

Data storage using computers comes with a unique set of challenges, such as data breaches and computer hacking. It is reported that the incidences of data breaches are rising, and so is the cost of ameliorating these breaches (Fleury-Charles et al., 2022). Employees of an organization can unintentionally cause a breach of protected health information by sending or faxing to the wrong recipient email or fax, but more commonly, data breaches result from third parties phishing or using technology attacks such as cyber-attack or social engineering attacks (Fleury-Charles et al., 2022).   During the pandemic, Fresenius Health was hit by ransomware, with the attackers requesting cryptocurrency for negotiation (Zmudzinski, n.d.).

Data protection requires a concerted effort by all employees of an organization and particularly end users of computers. Machine learning facilitates the recognition of patterns and is therefore applicable in biometrics, such as fingerprints or iris patterns, to secure data access (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Additionally, semi-annual refresher courses on the type of attacks and how to safeguard data should be implemented as part of learning modules. The Information Technology (IT) Department should also create and periodically send phishing-like emails to employees to keep them alert and encourage reporting of concerns. Lastly, healthcare organizations should invest in modern antivirus software, spyware, and firewall systems.


 

Project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency.

To Prepare:

  • Review the concepts of technology application as presented in the Resources.
  • Reflect on how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence may help fortify nursing informatics as a specialty by leading to increased impact on patient outcomes or patient care efficiencies.

The Assignment: (4-5 pages not including the title and reference page)

In a 4- to 5-page project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency. Your project proposal should include the following:

  • Describe the project you propose.
  • Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project.
  • Explain the patient outcome(s) or patient-care efficiencies this project is aimed at improving and explain how this improvement would occur. Be specific and provide examples.
  • Identify the technologies required to implement this project and explain why.
  • Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the nurse informaticist in the project team.
  • Use APA format and include a title page and reference page.
  • Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.