Nursing informatics is a subfield of nursing science that identifies, describes, manages, and transfers data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice by combining nursing science with various data and analytical sciences. Specialists in nursing informatics are unique, hybrid healthcare heroes. Patients are kept secure and at the forefront thanks to their work as transformative innovation champions. Due to their input and leadership, workflows for healthcare professionals are enhanced, and best practices for efficiently managing information structures, processes, and technology are followed (HIMSS, 2021). Nurse informatics uses data and technology to assess patient care activities, programs and systems regularly. They use data analysis to identify what works and does not work to guide programs, make changes, and improve.
Nurse informatics is critical in the development and upkeep of technological solutions on which nurses rely to provide the best possible patient care. To provide safe patient care, nurses must have consistent and quick access to information such as lab results, medication lists, past medical history, doctor notes, and more. A nursing informatics expert uses data analytics to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of an organization’s nursing operations and use the information to improve patient outcomes. The data systems that store this information are overseen by a nursing informatics expert (Ng et al., 2018).
Having worked in the health care system for several years, I have come to appreciate and appreciate the importance of Nurse Informatics in various departments. The information they provide is critical for management as they plan, organize, control, and coordinate all activities in the healthcare system. The information provided by nurse informatics is also valuable for administration, nurses, and doctors as they treat, diagnose, and treat patients. In order to make important decisions about patient care as well as operational and financial choices, healthcare institutions use data. The field of nursing informatics ensures that this critical data is collected, organized, assessed, and used in the best way possible. As an outcome, it can improve many nursing practices inside a hospital.
Nurse informatics can communicate with clinical and IT staff more effectively. To develop strategies for the purchase, execution, maintenance, and optimization of health IT, they work collaboratively with the other clinical and operational leaders. They speak both technological and medical terminology with ease. They support the analysis of patient data and aid in identifying trends and correlations that support the clinical judgment. Nurse informatics, who also seek to enhance care and support clinical nurses, focus highly on patient safety. They are committed problem-solvers who want to ensure that medical professionals are aware of the resources that are accessible (ONS Voice, 2021).
The relationship between nurse informatics and other specialists within the healthcare organization can be significantly improved with the assistance of leadership within the healthcare facility. Managers and leaders are in a prime position to influence the various procedures used in a healthcare business due to their expert experience and understanding of and control over the industry (Mosier et al., 2019). For example, leaders can develop rules, regulations, and policies that promote interactions between various healthcare departments and informatics. Short informatics courses can be implemented, and members can be trained to help build strong relationships and assist all healthcare providers in using the data or information provided to them to improve patient care.
Digital technologies are impacting global relationships between healthcare professionals more and more due to the ongoing growth of nursing informatics and the simple introduction of new technologies. The use of mobile devices, the internet, and social media in society is growing, as is the popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic technology. Telehealth and other virtual forms of care are also becoming more popular (Booth et al., 2021). Digital technologies should be carefully controlled to stay consistent with the therapeutic relationships and hands-on caregiving that nurses and other healthcare providers have with patients and their families. This goes against traditional nursing principles, such as compassionate care.
With the continued evolution of nursing informatics, nurses should also be equipped with the required knowledge and expertise. We must immediately establish educational opportunities in informatics, implementation science, digital health, data science, and co-design at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These opportunities include collaborating with and learning from colleagues in computing, engineering, and other interdisciplinary fields. For instance, the nursing field will require a critical mass of professionals knowledgeable about using data science to guide the development of healthcare information to assist practice. These professionals will also require cunning and bravery to guide the creation of innovative patient care models made possible by digital technologies (Ng et al., 2018).
The organization I work for has a designated Computer Applications Management Systems (CAMS) team. This team’s primary responsibility is to manage the company’s electronic health record (EHR). With many roles requiring access to and use of the EHR to perform their job duties, the CAMS team is integral to the day-to-day operations. When the EHR is inoperable, it directly impacts the patient’s ability to communicate with their provider, the scheduling staff’s ability to make or change appointments, the provider’s ability to care for patients, and the billing staff’s ability to process claims for payment. Nearly every aspect of the business relies on the functionality of the EHR.
The CAMS team is the liaison between the company and the EHR vendor, frequently communicating changes, needs, challenges, fixes, and updates. When EHR changes or updates need to be communicated, the CAMS team creates learning tools in Microsoft Word with illustrated instructions and distributes them via email. Also, as new providers join the organization, a member of the CAMS team conducts one-on-one training to ensure a proper understanding of its use. Lastly, there is an EHR Committee with physicians, practice administrators, and CAMS team members. This Committee collaborates on issues and challenges with the system and formulates ideas for improvement to share with the vendor.
An improvement area for communication between CAMS and the organization is the need for more diverse representation at the Committee level. With over 300 employees, there is a significant gap in representation among support staff such as front office, medical assistants, and nurses, which make up a majority. Frequently decisions are made without the input of these team members, even though their workflow is most often directly affected. Mosier et al. (2019) remarked that appropriate team members provide critical input in project management. The absence of these team members may negatively affect the company’s ability to progress in technology advancements. Another improvement would be changing how new features, changes, or enhancements are communicated. There is a lot of effort put into creating illustrated instructions. However, after distributing the information via email, the CAMS team often received numerous requests for help because no one bothered to read the document.
Thanks to COVID-19, healthcare providers rushed to find ways to continually provide access to safe, quality care through telemedicine (McGonigle et al., 2022). In the same manner, COVID-19 significantly shifted many of our organizations’ processes and approaches to healthcare delivery. Many patients were seen via telehealth, and for a gastroenterology practice where most patients are over 50 years old, and the median physician age is 55, this new concept came with a huge learning curve. Even for the few patients who came into the office, all registration steps were completed online, so there would be no exchange of paperwork, credit cards, or pens. Although it is now safer to see patients in person, we have continued using some technological conveniences. COVID-19 forced businesses to incorporate technology solutions quickly, and they will likely avoid reverting to previous ways of doing business or delivering healthcare (Clipper, 2020). Without these technologies in place to register and care for patients, or bill for services, it is not likely our company would have survived COVID-19.
Nursing informatics is the specialty that integrates nursing science with multiple information and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage, and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). This supports nurses, consumers, patients, the interprofessional healthcare team, and all other stakeholders in their decision-making in all roles and settings to achieve desired outcomes.
Nurses are considered data gatherers by nature; they collect and record objective data daily. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). For nurses to offer the best possible patient care, technology solutions must be developed and maintained. Nurse informatics is essential to this process. To deliver safe patient care, nurses need constant access to data such as laboratory results, medication lists, previous medical histories, doctor notes, and more. Data analytics are used by nursing informatics specialists to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of nursing operations within an organization and to use the data to enhance patient outcomes. (Ng et al., 2018).
In the organization where I work, the Biomedical Informatics Center works to leverage biomedical information, including electronic health records (EHR), social media, and omics data, to predict and improve patient outcomes by developing and using cutting-edge computational techniques to predict and improve patient outcomes. Nurses and all other healthcare providers rely on this technology for communication with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes. Examples of data technology used in the organization where I work include the use of individual biometrics to gain access to the building, accessing medical devices like infusion pumps and monitors, and Bar-code identification for medication administration.
Strategy to improve interactions
Since the objectives of informatics are to improve healthcare and patient outcomes, to exchange information between service providers, and, particularly, to facilitate access to health information, the concept of health literacy is not comprehensively integrated into education, healthcare, politics, and research. (Haupeltshofer, Egerer & Seeling, 2020). To improve interactions between healthcare providers, health literacy through the inclusion of various healthcare members in informatics and education is needed. Nursing informatics education must also be improved among nurses through short programs to support knowledge and practice. Education programs that meet the needs of nurses to develop these skills, as well as empower them to enhance their practices must be established. (Sipes, 2016).
The lack of ability of older adults in the healthcare profession to use technology among those who have access to ICTs and new media in healthcare is a challenge and hence the need for education. Consequently, the e-integration of this marginal group is necessary for better handling of technology and easier access to health-relevant information and delivery.
Impact of the continued evolution of nursing informatics on professional interactions.
With the fact that computers have revolutionized the way individuals access information and educational and social networking processes, (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022), the continued evolution of nursing informatics will impact professional interactions through methods of communication, written and verbal which develops team dynamics among professionals. There will also be advanced practice through technology.
For this discussion prompt, I first thought of my experiences as a school nurse- in which nurses utilized a charting system initially developed for teachers. Although the nursing and healthcare portions of the software had been developed years prior, we continually worked with the district’s information technology (IT) department to further develop it.
In our district, no staff was designated as a liaison between nursing staff and IT. Therefore, we all received basic training in data mining and how to compile statistics for our building administration each semester. Throughout the year, any small issues or requests were communicated individually, and larger issues were discussed in nursing meetings before being presented to IT by our lead nurse. Most communication between nurses occurred by email and was sometimes supplemented by live documents that could be edited by all nurses. Occasionally, software edits and additions had to be approved by an administrative team member of the school district. The large gap between professional expertise could be difficult to navigate. In these situations, we relied on our lead nurse to act as our liaison and facilitate knowledge transfer (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). She often opted to meet in person with the administration, accompanied by any supporting documentation our team created. Although there was no distinct protocol or practice to support knowledge transfer between nursing and education professionals, the collaboration of interdisciplinary teams was not a new concept for this sector.
We continually wished that our lead nurse could work solely as a nurse manager, but she shared the same workload as the other district nurses due to budget constraints. If this were not the case, designating one nurse to serve in an executive role would be much more supportive of nursing informatics solutions for the district (Mosier et al., 2019). Several nurses struggled with the tasks of effectively data mining and attempting to resolve program issues independently. If the lead nurse had a more distinct role, this would allow them to seek more in-depth software training to support the nursing department more effectively and improve interprofessional collaboration efforts.
The continued emergence of new technologies will have innumerable impacts on professional interactions. Now more than ever, nurses and other healthcare providers can access patient data quickly and accurately. Risling (2017) discusses wearable technology’s utilization to expand inpatient and remote monitoring by allowing access to live patient data. This real-time data access will enable nurses and other healthcare providers to work together more efficiently and effectively, specifically by shorting the time between data acquisition and the application of appropriate interventions.
Interaction between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists
Nursing informatics plays an essential role in the healthcare system, despite operating behind the scenes most of the time. In Collaboration with the clinical and operational leaders, nursing informaticists develop health information technology (IT) procurement, implementation, maintenance, and optimization strategies (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). The role of nursing informaticists is to analyze patient data and identify trends and correlations that will enable clinical healthcare providers to make informed decisions based on that information. I observed that nursing informaticists interact with other professionals by tracking incident reports (Nagle et al., 2017). Nursing informaticists ensure patient safety, optimize care, and assist clinical nurses. They are problem solvers dedicated to ensuring that nursing teams are trained on the resources available to them.
Among other things, tracking involves keeping track of the number of falls, incidents of violence against patients, and infections. The reduction in medical errors is another observation. By enhancing the efficiency of medical administration systems at our hospital, informaticists can provide procedures required for the purpose, reducing the possibility of medical errors. By using nursing informatics, nursing informaticists ensure that nursing workloads are reduced while maintaining patient care and satisfaction. Although some strategies might be employed to improve interactions between nursing informaticists and other specialists, the most effective strategy is the ability to voice the concerns of healthcare professionals regarding errors in electronic health records (EHRs) (Naidu & Alicia, 2019). We utilize ‘point-click care’ for the EHR in our organization. Even though the program functions smoothly, it contains many errors and bugs, although most are easily fixed. We often encounter frustrating moments, and if we can access the responsible team, we can share our observations and collaborate to improve the experience.
The development of new technologies and approaches to clinical is constantly evolving, and a nursing informatics perspective is vital to the success of expanding telehealth and other technological capabilities. In light of the emerging healthcare technologies and the evolution of nursing informatics, the interface between nursing informaticists and other specialties will continue to grow. By combining remote monitoring technologies such as those for hypertension and falls with artificial intelligence, professional interactions will be easier since communication will be more effective.
Improving Interaction between the Nurse Informaticist and Interdisciplinary Team
Most healthcare settings utilize electronic health records (EHR) as a tool to integrate data gathered by members of the interdisciplinary team (IDT) (Byard & Currie, 2018) and then utilize that data to inform decision-making (McGonigle & Matrian, 2022). In my experience, the efficacy of the collaboration is only as good as the data sharing the EHR enables, along with the competency those utilizing the EHR possess (experiences or observations about how nurse informaticists and data or technology specialists interact with other professionals within your healthcare organization (Sipes, 2018).
By taking a few simple steps, interactions between the nurse informaticist at our site and the rest of the interdisciplinary team can be improved. First, not all tasks addressed within our EHR are assigned to one member of the IDT. For example, the intake of nutritional supplements can be entered by the patient care technician, the nurse, or the dietary staff. As Mosier et al. (2019) outline, clearly defined roles and responsibilities are the basis of efficiency, mainly when dealing with informatics. Next, the informaticist sends a lengthy technical summary of the updates whenever updates occur in our system. These documents range from 15-20 pages, and the data shared is very technical. Few members of the IDT read these bulletins as, quite frankly, they need help understanding what the publication contains. Instead, the informaticist could summarize the basics of the updates and how they may impact functionality. Finally, it would be beneficial for the informaticist to collaborate more with the team. Teams work together more efficiently whenever they share goals and can communicate that shared vision. By aligning goals between departments, the collaboration between teams will inherently improve.
As our technology expands and improves, additional education needs to be provided to all interdisciplinary team members to make the most of the available informatics systems to promote collaboration and, in turn, excellent patient care. Training is often passed from a department team member to a department team member during the orientation process. This informal education only sometimes meets a newer nurse’s or inexperienced tech’s needs. A more structured, thorough orientation to the intricacies of such programming can improve the output capacity of such systems (Mosier 2019).
About a couple of months ago, when I first began working at the psych clinic, paper or sticky notes were our primary communication method with patients. My company just converted to these mobile phones called I-Mobile. In preparation for the launch day, emails were sent to all employees who would need to be trained on the new gadget. Nurse informatics met with other staff members throughout this training to show them how to use the latest equipment and explain its features. Despite being primarily unseen, the work of nursing informatics profoundly affects almost every aspect of our professional lives. As part of their job, nursing informatics (NIs) gather and analyze healthcare data and information to monitor the effects of various treatments (Murphy, 2010). All of the attendees at the training event were given a new gadget, and our instructors, who were nurse informatics, also received their own. Our nurse informatics held these sessions at various times and locations across the hospitals and offices. The new gadget allows nurses to record incidents, admit and release patients, connect with physicians and pharmacies, notify all staff members, allocate patients to staff members, and see patient test results.
However, there will always be obstacles to overcome in any transformation. Some workers refused to adapt to the new ways of doing things or understand the new technology being introduced. The opposition may be avoided by developing a helpful information culture and a user-friendly infrastructure (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Since charting takes up a significant portion of a nurse’s workday, the system must be as efficient as possible to boost efficiency, patient safety, and morale. A 2016 survey shows doctors spend 49% of their time on administrative duties, including using the HER for charting and paperwork (Sinsky et al., 2016). Our nurse leaders and IT team have had your back through it all. The new I Mobile gadget simplified communication across different fields of expertise. Medical professionals, such as nurses or staff, might reach out to other members of the office’s healthcare team, Although there were times when communication could have been more fruitful. A team member may be reached instantly as long as they have access to their device and are online. That makes it only possible to contact them immediately if they are online. Because of how hectic it may be right at the beginning of a shift, it is easy to forget to log in and seem offline, even when you are ready to work. Since the staff room is often the first stop for employees upon arriving at the office, I propose posting notification reminders there to prompt employees to sign into their devices as soon as they arrive. As the nursing profession and its associated technologies develop further, I fear certain obstacles to patient care may emerge. If more has to be entered into technology during already lengthy documentation periods, less time may be spent caring for patients. The ability of touch to heal is something I have complete faith in.
In my workplace, nurse informaticists do the rounds of quality assurance, advising the nurses on how to enhance their documentation. They occasionally bring up things that the nurses might have overlooked when gathering patient data. On occasion, the inpatient behavioral health unit collaborates with the emergency room. Faster delivery of healthcare services results in better patient care when patient information data is shared. According to the study, leveraging data to help ER staff members rapidly locate patients’ prescribed medication so they may be reordered while they are there would enhance patient outcomes. The nurse informaticist uses technology and information data to treat patients quickly while assisting clinicians in leveraging the healthcare systems (Schoenbaum & Seckman, 2019).
One way to make improvements is for the nurse informaticist to create program studies to teach nurses the value of utilizing technology to increase patient care safety. Nurses at all levels from entry-level to nursing leaders, nurse informaticists, and technology developers have enhanced nursing informatics and technologies by lowering mistakes and enhancing patient outcomes and safety. Through the involvement of nurses at various levels, the nursing informatics specialties do research to address technological flaws (Borcyki et al., 2017). Nurse informaticists would assist nurses in identifying data gaps that needed to be filled in order to enhance patient care and safety. Nurses could decrease patient harm with the use of nursing informatics and technology.
Nursing informatics and technology would direct nurses to minimize patient damage by pointing out technological flaws or missing data that would be crucial to treating the patient. For instance, a patient could be admitted to the medical unit if an emergency room nurse forgets to note the patient’s allergies. The patient on the medical unit says he is allergic to one of the medications the nurse is going to deliver to the patient. In this case, nurse informatics will teach the nurses in the emergency room and medical units the value of documenting the patient’s allergies to minimize medication errors (Borcyki et al., 2017).
Information scientists manage effective, intricate systems that transport information in a safe, fast, and reliable manner. The implementation of new software for nurse documentation and data gathering involves nurse informatics in a significant way. I came in contact with a nurse informatics specialist while a new Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system called EPIC interface was being implemented. A key component of new technologies for nursing documentation and data collecting is the nurse informaticist. The nurse informaticist began by interviewing the nurses on the unit, reviewing the existing charting system, and seeking suggestions on how to reduce repeated charting and facilitate the switch from the old system to EPIC. The staff received instructions from the nurse informaticist and the software representative on how to see electronic orders and documents more clearly and connect with other departments using one system.
Nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, and other staff members were instructed on the use of the program by informaticists. The nurse informaticist provided training on the program and system navigation to nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, and other staff members. Technical problems with the EPIC EMR system, including as slow access times, lagging material, and the unavoidable pauses brought on by failure, are frequently the root of ongoing problems. Therefore, boosting functionality requires work. Integrated practice registries, care management software integration, whole-person-oriented care plans, and longitudinal tracking of individual patients are some areas where nurses should be prepared to speak up for reform (Risling, 2017). Additionally, clinically trained nurse informaticists should be encouraged to think about the function of electronic medical records. Electronic Medical Records (EMR), wearable technology, big data, and increasing patient interaction as important areas for curricular development. As newer technology and new applications are developed, nursing informatics as a specialty will continue to advance. This would result in more data being gathered, which can then be shared with the public and organizations for things like reimbursement and comparing the caliber of care offered by various institutions (Nagle et al., 2017).
Reflect on the evolution of nursing informatics from science to a nursing specialty:
When I became a nurse 18 years ago, we used paper documentation mostly. The report, nurses’ notes, and doctors’ orders were mainly communicated in writing; medications were administered as written on medication folders where orders were written. Due to nursing informatics, technology has improved communication and quick responses to patient care. Nursing is a demanding profession that, depending on the setting in which it is practiced, can be exhausting for both the body and the mind. Nurses are experts at multitasking because they do several different healthcare functions simultaneously while interacting with a patient. The definition of nursing provided by the American Nurses Association serves as the basis for our concept of nursing science. Nursing science is the ethical application of knowledge gained through education, research, and practice to the provision of services and interventions to patients to preserve, enhance, or restore their health, as well as to the development, processing, generation, and dissemination of nursing knowledge to advance the nursing profession. The new technology introduced into our practice environment, such as smart pumps, bar codes, drug administration systems, electronic health records, wearables, and cell phones, are intended to boost efficiency, promote safety, and streamline nursing work (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).
As a home care nurse, I can use nursing technology while seeing patients in the community, administering medications electronically, and ensuring that patients take the correct medications as prescribed. Nursing leadership works closely with the IT department to ensure timely documentation, assist nursing using their mobile devices while performing visits, and know when a nurse is at a particular patient’s house. At the same time, we have a committee looking at best practices when reporting an NHNF (Not home, not found). This was developed after home care nurses found patients who fell at times in the bathroom and had no one to call for help, at times for over two days without assistance. They can track if a patient was not seen in 24 hours, and a wellness check is activated; by doing this, we have avoided many adverse outcomes. Mosier et al. (2019) noted that using nursing care data in the decision-making process for operational and patient care matters have become increasingly important. When these data are collected and utilized appropriately, they can alter the productivity, efficiency, performance, effectiveness, cost, and value of nursing care.
In today’s high-tech world, the healthcare industry expects nurses to have informatics competencies, including project management skills, which are critical for improved quality outcomes and patient safety (Sipes, C. (2016). As colleagues in this course, I believe that in the end, we will have a different approach to informatics as we apply what we have learned at work.
Nurse Informatics and Other Specialist
Knowledge and data are key components to possess as a nurse to guide a nurse’s decision-making process and be able to give the highest quality of care. Nursing informatics has proven throughout the evolving years that nursing informatics affects the outcomes of patients. One of the main evolutionary changes that have taken place is graduating from paper charting to electronic health records otherwise known as HER.
One observation that I have noticed in the facilities that I have worked in is the advancement of technology in interpreters. The United States is a melting pot of cultures and languages. I remember when we would have to call a number and ask for a translator for that specific language. Sometimes, they would be able to transfer me to one that was on duty, and other times we would have to wait until they could locate the right translator. Some facilities had translators come bedside that day or the next day. This would obviously cause a delay in care and frustration for both parties, the patient, and the nurse/provider. Currently, we have an electronic translator that is in the form of an IPAD on wheels. We turn it on and press a few buttons when prompted and the correct translator appears on the screen. This has definitely improved patient care and the ability to communicate with the patient better and more efficiently.
One way this could be improved is possibly having a streaming application available on all the televisions in the patient’s room that has the same service. You would just turn the channel and the interpreter is on the television talking to everyone in the room. Although the IPAD interpreter is great, there are very few available in the facility. So, if the IPAD is not on your unit at that time, you still have to wait until one can be located and in the meantime, there is a breakdown of communication between the patient and provider/nurse/tech.
Another form of technology that would be helpful is having a webcam available in the room allowing family/emergency contact/MPOA to connect with the patient like Facetime at any time. This would improve the patient outcome by having staff be more accountable and attentive to the patient knowing that the family can check in at any time and improve the patient outcome by always having a support system available for the patient and for the provider to relay plans of care to all involved. There are multiple opportunities with the use of technology being the way of the world today (Ng & Frith, 2018). As technology and informatics continue to revolutionize and “technology continues to push the envelope” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022, pg. 612.), the sky will be the limit. You think of it, and it can happen. There will be no reason that the quality of care is not at its very highest.
Nursing is a profession that can be very demanding physically and mentally (McGonigle et al., 2022). Nurses have the ability not only to be able to use a EMR but be able to successfully analysis and implement change to help better patients’ healthcare outcome. As defined by the American Nursing Association, nursing informatics is a specialty that combines technology and patient care. Nurses continue to expand their focus not only on direct patient care but to combine patient care through technology such as patient portals, direct messaging and nursing reporting (Staggers, 2002).
I currently work as a nurse navigator in a busy gynecological oncology clinic with four gyn/oncologist that provide surgeries and ongoing cancer treatment for approximately 225 patients in a week. The role of the nurse navigator is to identify and remove barriers that will affect the patients care. As a nurse navigator I communicate with the multidisciplinary team to help facilitate timely care and to provide clinical guidelines to the patient during their cancer journey (https://www.ons.orgLinks to an external site.).
I was asked by the head of our department to call all same day post-op patients. The goal was to help coordinate their care and make sure they did not have any post-op questions or concerns. The barrier for me was that I did not have access to only my surgeon’s schedule. The surgery schedule provides you with all surgeries for the day throughout the entire organization, not only would I have to decipher the gyn/oncology patients I would need to eliminate what patients were admitted overnight. I met with the informatics nurse to discuss a way for me to only see my surgeons’ patients that have a same day discharge. The informatics nurse designed a report that I can run daily, weekly or whatever date parameters that I desired. The report is now implemented into a efficient workflow. I can also delegate this task to another qualified clinician. I was able to collaborate with the informatics nurse to ensure our patients are provided with quality care (McGonigle et al., 2022).
The advancement of nursing informatics have allowed for more assessments to be created with specific guidelines so that appropriate assessments can be conducted. Depending on the assessment tool you are utilizing it asks certain questions specific to a person’s illness, mental health status, or injury. Project management is one of the most important things that is needed since it impacts all areas of nursing informatics skills and provides an organizing framework for processes and projects including skills such as design, planning, implementation, follow-up and evaluation (Sipes, 2016). Collecting and inserting data into technology is a major way nurses can interact with other professionals in today’s society. Data involving nursing care have become a critical component of operational and patient care decisions. These data can affect the productivity, efficiency, performance, effectiveness, cost, and value of nursing care when properly collected and used (Mosier, 2019).” Professionals can refer to patients notes whether its therapy, nursing, or doctors notes to get an idea of the patients condition and help them determine the next steps to take within the patients care plan. Inserting data into technology can also allow professionals to look up labs that are specific to patients illness and updated testings that have been done, so professionals wont repeat the same labs or tests. Continued evolution of nursing informatics have an impact on the way professionals interact because it allows for faster communication to be conducted without professionals having to step into the office. It allows for faster care to be delivered by allowing specialist the opportunity to navigate through the patients chart and write orders as necessary. It also allows for professionals to be aware of urgent needs giving them time to act on it within an appropriate time frame. If certain patients do not have the availability or means to come inside the office other services can be provided through technology such as telemedicine. Many view telemedicine as the path forwards and it represents a paradigm shift in how care will be delivered beyond the pandemic (McGonigle, 2022).
Interactions Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists
I have experienced stressful situations during the workday while trying to implement patient care interventions with new technology and systems. One instance of distress has been with the upgrade of the hospital’s IV medication pumps utilized in patient care. Like many new systems created for nursing, there had been issues with the initial use of the pumps. Many of the computers were not compatible with uploading the information from the barcodes of the IV medication bag when scanned. Then I could not enter the information into the computer manually at times, because something was faulty with that. It would take more than a few minutes to upload after scanning the bar codes on the IV bag and pump. Even if I could get the information uploaded, something else would go wrong. These are minutes in my busy day that I cannot spare for faulty equipment. I called the technology specialist many times to come into the rooms to help me. They were kind and helpful; however, I require more time with technical assistance to comprehend what it is I need to do to work through the issues. At times, I felt like the tech. specialists were not really listening to my needs by working through the issue and communicating with me like I was comprehending the information. The communication was too rapid for me to understand at times. Reflective Practice is a means of observing one’s work from a different perspective which may provide insight into how processes could be modified to respond to patients’ needs (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The Technology specialists (also nurses) could improve on communication with the bedside nursing staff through Reflective Practice. Since they have not been in my position through the Covid-19 pandemic, they could try to reflect and understand the complications of time management with patient care and that there is a lack of time for technical problems. This could create more efficient communication for nurses and technology specialists who must work together to manage a safe and efficient care environment.
The evolution of nursing informatics (NI) and new technologies will continue to have an impact on professional interactions in many ways. One way (NI) is creating professional interactions is through Nursing Data Portals (NDP). NDP is the NI solution for Evidence-Based Clinical Documentation (EBCD) which creates more useful records that guide and informs the delivery of effective and time-saving care by the healthcare team and provides standardization to contribute to healthcare learning (Mosier et al., 2019). This is an example of functional communication with the interprofessional team while implementing new technology, which may be a reality for other healthcare providers in the future. The rise of telemedicine is proving to be apparent currently and in the future of healthcare practice. Nagle et al. (2017) noted that “nurses that are providing telehealth home care services are not necessarily informatics specialists, but design and management of the monitoring tools, infrastructure, and support services may be provided by them in the future” (p. 215). Emerging technology creates a variety of means of interactions within interprofessional healthcare that will enhance and improve communication now and in the future through the digital age.
It is clear that technology and informatics have impacted our day-to-day lives. Technology and informatics are deeply embedded in our daily lives, and it’s hard to imagine our lives without them. Evidence states that about 42% of adults 65 or older own smartphones, and it is clear that smartphones have increased in the aging population. Healthcare facilities use short message systems to alert patients of their upcoming appointments. Public health alerts often send messages to the general population via a messaging system. We saw from our experience with the recent COVID pandemic that messaging systems are also used as disease surveillance initiatives. Smartphones have become part of our days. Technology like smartphones can offer access to high-quality health information when used in moderation. (Ng, Y. C., Alexander, S., & Frith, K. H. (2018).
The hospital I work at uses a device called vocera. You can think of this device as a phone. You attach it to your uniform, and it will talk to you when your patient calls you for help, or someone is trying to reach you. The downside is it never shuts up. This device has been incorporated into our nursing practice to increase efficiency and promote patient safety. However, to a certain extent, this little device disrupts a nurse from performing nurse-to-patient caring encounters by causing a barrier between each patient interaction. I once had a patient ask me to turn this device off while I was in his room because he felt I wasn’t paying attention to him.
Technologies have been developed to promote efficiency and safe patient care, but in moderation, it has worked against nurse-to-patient encounters. Instead of greeting patients with a smile and acknowledging the surroundings, nurses are most of the time busy trying to log in to the computer, document, or answer vocera calls instead of making direct eye contact with our patients. (McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Therefore, when developing/implementing a system, nurse informatics and/or data or technology specialists should interact with other professionals within a healthcare organization. It is essential to consider and actively listen to the other side of the story to implement a system that ultimately works for our patients. Nurse informatics and bedside nurses can work together by setting three guiding principles: clear lines of responsibility and authority, respect for each type of expertise necessary to the project, and a clear commitment to the project’s aims. (1) Working with these clear-cut guidelines will allow a better organization and set up processes to develop nursing informatics solutions. It is also vital to educate our nursing students early and prepare for what is expected of them by addressing the gaps in education to meet the workforce’s needs before they enter the market. (Sipes, C. (2016).
Within my healthcare organization nurse informaticists are identified as individuals who “possess skills in analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of information systems that support a full range of clinical and patient care functions” (The University of Kansas Medical Center, 2022). I believe nurse informaticists work in conjunction with the research teams to design studies to carry out within the organization, as well as helping with collecting the data and making it available for everyone to see. They also work on identifying issues within the hospital and improving technology as they are able. One role nurse informaticists have is initiating “implementation and integration of new technologies” and explaining why things are changing (Menkiena, 2021). I believe this involves writing grants at times. Another aspect that nurse informaticists have been very involved in is updating our charting systems to ‘within defined limits’ charting to lessen the burden of charting on the nurses. This includes allowing us to copy an assessment, as long as it was our own and done within 24 hours, and make changes as needed instead of taking the time to click through an entire assessment every 4 hours.
From my observations nurse informaticists do a lot of the behind the scenes work within the healthcare system and I would like to see more information about their role being public versus just something one notices if they are looking for it. I believe these interactions could be improved in small ways such as including any announcements involving them in the daily announcements the hospital already sends out, as well as being present within the hospital and having conversations with the nurses.
I believe that continued emergence of nursing informatics will continue to streamline healthcare as it has already been shown to do. Nursing informatics has been shown to improve results for patients, efficiency, coordinated care, and the ability and access of telehealth (Adelphi University, 2020). The work done by informaticists within my health system not only focuses on improving patient outcomes but removing cumbersome tasks as able for the nurses as well.
The definition of Nurse Informaticists (NI) has been expanded by the American Nurses Association to include it as a “specialty that integrates nursing science with information and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage, and communicate data, information knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice (Sipes, 2016)”. Nurse informaticists by nature interact with specialists in various areas. One area that I have seen nurse informaticists interact with multiple specialties simultaneously is in the development of the Behavioral Emergency Response Team (BERT) at my hospital. In development of the BERT team the nurse informaticist would need to work with and gather data from the security force/police, nurses responding, providers that respond, social work services, nurses from the home units being responded to, nurse managers, education department and pharmacy services.
To continue building the program and promoting continually improving communication and interprofessional communications regular committee meetings need to be help with a standing agenda and updates from each specialty. This should occur regularly. Initially on a weekly basis, then to every other week, and eventually monthly. This includes data from debriefing forms, police call logs, updated pharmacy procedures and availability of needed supplies and forms on the inpatient areas. Microsoft Teams is an amazing tool for collaboration and assists with keeping initiatives, committees, and data all in one place.
The centerpiece of informatics is the manipulation of data, information, and knowledge, especially related to decision making in any aspect of nursing or in any setting (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). As more technology becomes available and more information can be collected and shared efficiently it is the nurse informaticists role to synthesize that information with knowledge and wisdom into action to promote the wellbeing of both the patients and the staff. Safe handling of patients during a behavioral crisis is important to the psychological and physical wellbeing of not just the staff but also the patients. The introduction of Microsoft teams has had a major impact on organizing committees and keeping relevant documents available to actively be open and edited by multiple personnel simultaneously. “In the United States, cellular phone devices are ubiquitous. According to a 2018 survey, 95% of adults in the United States own a cell phone, and 77% of these devices are smartphones” (Ng, Alexander & Frith, 2018). The ready availability of smartphones to assist in providing care even while traveling helps lead to advancing policies, protocols, and initiatives within facilities with leadership being able to participate easily.
In the healthcare organization where I work, Cerner Electronic Health Records System is used. Nursing Informaticists develop Computerized order entry which improves workflow. Storing the information electronically make the information more easily available to the view of all healthcare providers within the organization and beyond. (Mosier & Englebright, 2019).Nurse informaticists help to, facilitate communication between clinicians and Information Technology staff. (Journal of Nursing Informatics).They focus specifically on developing strategies for heath Information (IT) procurement, implementation, maintenance, and optimization in collaboration with clinical and operational leaders. This enhances care healthcare delivery and good patient outcome in my healthcare facility.
Data informaticists generated analysis that help healthcare providers even in other departments figure out faster, the best practices for dealing with individual patient. For example, they designed the automated alert that minimizes the chances for medical errors.by warning providers about potential dangers such as allergies. The Nursing Informatics makes easier for the healthcare clinicians to access their patients’ health history, medications, laboratory results, allergies. It also allows clinicians to add input in their patient EHRs.
According to (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022), Nurses are Data gatherers, they collect and record objective data about patients daily. They are like backbone of in the healthcare system linking all the different departments of the health system together, for the best patient outcome. The design of the Nurse Informaticists makes communication faster and easier for the day- to- day patient care delivery within the various departments of my healthcare facility and beyond
This strategies that this interactions can be improved are : Firstly Facility should encourage and sponsor nurses that have interest on expanding their knowledge about specializing on Nursing/healthcare informatics and management. Secondly, facility should provide extra time for continuing education program for all nurse to attend from time to time to update and upgrade their computer skill.
The Impact the continued evolution of nursing informatics will have on professional interaction has advantage and disadvantage. Advantage is that health care delivery will be faster, less costly with good patient outcome. Patients get real involved in their care plan and care, especially with Telemedicine. The disadvantage is that, as (O’ Keefe, 2009), fears, that the technology use should not replace the person- to- person interaction that is essential in any nurse-patient encounter (O’ Keefe-McCarthy, 2009, p, 792).
Based on the Evidence-based Clinical Documentation Project Team model proposed by Mosier & Englebright (2019), the way nurse informaticists interact with other healthcare professionals is multifaceted. Similar to my own experience, the healthcare organization’s chief nursing executive would onboard a team of technology specialists to develop a solution to a more effective workflow. While the technical team works behind the scenes to improve upon a product or policy, subject matter experts are in charge of project productivity and disseminating the new information to the clinical team. Clinical leaders take initiative to learn the new product or policy, act as a mentor to the remaining staff in their department, and provide feedback on efficacy. Forms of information exchange could be in-person or virtual meetings, communication software such as email, hospital intranet databases, in-services, continuing education modules, phone calls, and texting.
As a tactile learner, acquiring knowledge through hands-on techniques, I prefer an on-site resource to reinforce new information as the shift progresses and in-services (Columbia State Community College, 2022). Augmented reality (AR) is a virtually simulated interactive experience within a real world environment that provides instantaneous access to healthcare information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Orientation to new information provided by nurse informaticists could have a longer lasting impression on healthcare workers if it were provided in an interactive and engaging way of AR. AR provides a shared view of learned information, allowing healthcare professionals the opportunity to ask nurse informaticists questions in real time during proposed scenarios.
The emergence of new technologies in communication among healthcare professionals has improved patient outcomes. Advancements I have experienced in my fourteen year career include bed assisted turns for bedridden patients, wearable technology for communication like Vocera’s, smart pumps, and Telehealth. Up-and-coming technology is making its way mainstream. The Xenex LightStrike Robot uses UV disinfection to clean patients’ rooms in just ten minutes (The Medical Futurist, 2021). The Veebot will use infrared light and ultrasound to find a vein with sufficient blood flow for the first robot phlebotomist. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology called Sepsis Watch monitors at risk patients and automatically alerts the hospital’s rapid response team in the event of sepsis. Nursing informatics will continue to pave the way for incorporating new technologies into the healthcare field.
Before the development of computers or electronic health records, data entry and retrieval was carried out manually using paper and a pen. Following the development of computers and improvements in technical breakthroughs to promote safety and efficiency in providing care to our clients, a method that was effective years ago now appears obsolete. Although it offered customers the necessary access to treatment, the paper and pen era of data entry and records management had many drawbacks (Evans, 2016). Some of the disadvantages of manual data entry include the inability to access multiple providers throughout the network, the need to review information on a patient’s chart in person because the chart cannot leave the hospital or the nursing station, and the impossibility of medical collaboration due to the slow or nonexistent dissemination of information.
In this new era of computers and technological developments in health care informatics, access to health care records, data, imaging, and all other related patient information is easily accessible by the click of a computer mouse or by the straightforward operation of scanning and faxing needed medical information across multiple disciplines which are directly involved with the client’s care. An illustration would be a laboratory entering lab results that different support teams currently caring for a particular patient might access. All groups having legal access to the patient’s medical record can easily access the data once it has been entered. Project management is one of these competencies that are most crucially highlighted since it impacts all nurse informatics skills and offers an organizing framework for processes and projects, including abilities like design, planning, implementation, follow-up, and assessment. Management, administration, leadership, faculty, and graduate-level master’s and doctoral practicum courses are a few jobs that demand project management abilities as a crucial component of nurse informatics tasks (Sipes, 2016).
Given the functionality of electronic health records and the ease at which information is disseminated seamlessly across multiple disciplines and databases, due to technological advancement in informatics and the need to incorporate more efficient cutting-edge technology, some of the strategies that can be implemented to serve our patient population better is the implementation of a backup system that operates seamlessly in the event of a computer down time or when the maintenance team is doing certain upgrades, they should be some allowance to the operability of the system instead of resorting to the old-fashioned way of managing operations using the pen and paper format (McGonigle, 2017, p539). A perfect example is an experience I had on the unit recent, where the informatics team set out to do an update but then the downtime and shut down of the computer systems where they did not communicate to staff nurses on the night shift, so mid-change, we were surprised when our systems powered down. We scrambled to look for answers, only to know the informatics team was doing updates. We still have medications to give and orders to access alongside other disciplines with numerous other tasks to perform. The only resolve was to go back to the paper and pen era, which most of us were unfamiliar with, jeopardizing the efficiency and safety of patient care for upgrading systems. “Knowledge expressed in words, numbers, or other symbols is referred to as explicit knowledge. It can be traded or communicated through information such as data, instructions, product specifications, rules, and theories. Nurses can disseminate and share this knowledge publicly, scientifically, or methodically.”
The continuous development of the computer era in the delivery of medical aid and interventions, following technical developments in the health care and informatics sectors, will only improve over time. We now enjoy the simplicity and effectiveness that came with the development of electronic health records. The ease with which information may be effortlessly exchanged across disciplines to advance patient care and its time-saving and safety mechanisms across the board are additional benefits. Technological advancement will make for even safer and more efficient health care delivery in a timely fashion since innovations in the computer and informatics era present much hope given the level and the rate at which informatics and the health care system have merged inseparably. Established the principles of EBCD design to ensure that the final product enhanced and supported the process of patient care documentation, such as strict adherence to the style guide for consistency and alignment with the previously defined ideal workflows (Mosier et al., 2019).
We have created a systems-level approach that enables the executive leadership of the nursing profession to plan, establish, and control activities connected to creating nursing informatics solutions. Our company has employed this framework on many projects with successful outcomes. Nursing leadership can direct and impact future solutions by utilizing and adapting the techniques of this approach.
The role of nurse informatics is still relatively new within the area I reside as it is very rural. When I think of nursing informatics, I think of the few individuals I worked with that help us with our charting systems. However, the definition per the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) describes it as the science and practice that integrates nursing, information, and knowledge with communication technology to promote health of people, families, and communities worldwide(Alliance for Nursing Informatics, n.d.). As stated, my interactions with informatics nursing were most prevalent during my time in leadership, specifically during the pandemic. During the pandemic our hospitals were flooded with additional patients and the use of hallway beds became a sad reality within the emergency room and inpatient settings. This created a lot of difficulty especially in the ER to safely label and “assign” a patient a designated space. There were drops in communication and even though staff placed notes on the tracking board like “patient by bathroom, recliner” it was not clear. Thankfully our informatics nurse came down and worked beside us to figure out how to create “beds” within our charting system so we could safely assign the patients to those rooms to limit confusion. Another time during the pandemic was when we switched to disaster charting, the informatics nurse worked with us again to build a program that met our needs while providing safe care. Aside from these interactions my exposure to our informatics nurse was very limited, usually over the phone and typically took awhile to get answers. As healthcare continues to evolve and technology continues to become a crucial part of how we provide care, the informatics nurse role will continue to grow. When we were able to work alongside out informatics nurse, I felt we were able to achieve so much more on our needs to make our work flow better. With every specialty and hospital, I think a informatics nurse should be part of the leadership team. They can work along side other leaders to develop projects, collect data, and better adjust systems. Aside from just that I see a big push with telemedicine which will allow more rural areas to receive specialty consults without sending the patient away. In fact, at one of the rural hospitals I worked at a lot of our consults were done through telemedicine.
How nurse informaticists and/or data or technology specialists interact with other professionals
Nursing is one of the active professions where the collaborative approach and interaction with other professionals and specialists are crucial to the success of the entire industry. Nurses, therefore, need to collaborate actively with other specialists, including nurse informaticists and technology experts, to deliver the expected level of quality service (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The precise level of interaction between nurses and other professionals is dependent on several factors, including the active role that informatics nurses and technology experts play towards the success of the nursing profession in an individual health care facility. For example, nurses actively utilizing healthcare informatics tools and accessories, such as electronic medical records and patient health records, interact with other technology experts by way of consulting for their services for purposes of streamlining process output and providing the technical support needed to keep the healthcare informatics technology tools running as expected.
From personal and professional experience as a psychiatric nurse, these interactions operate from a mutual and professional respect level, where each profession recognizes the important role that they play towards the success of healthcare in general. The professional interactions are defined by the objective of ensuring that every healthcare facility provides the necessary tools and roles that are necessary to provide competent health service functions as expected and within the anticipated limits of accuracy and dependency (Verma & Gupta, 2019). For example, if a psychiatric nurse is operating an electronic medical record system, which does not function as expected and constantly hangs or loses patient data, then the most immediate action or intervention would be engaging members of the technical team to perform a diagnosis of the problem.
Strategy on how these interactions might be improved
As far as the different strategies for helping improve the professional interactions between nursing informaticists, technology specialists, and other professionals are concerned, one of the strategic initiatives that can be put in place includes measures and mechanisms to ensure that the interactions are facilitated speedily. In this regard, creating an appropriate technological platform for nurses to channel communication to nursing informaticists and technology specialists ensures that their services can be obtained at a moment’s notice (Farokhzadian et al., 2020). In most cases, both professions operate from different offices altogether, thereby posing a huge challenge when it comes to establishing opportunities for professional collaboration. From a technical perspective, for example, nurses operating within the intensive care unit section of the hospital facility may not find the time and convenience to leave the patients to make a service request from the IT team. In this regard, creating platforms for virtual collaboration ensures that both parties of the professional divide can operate more seamlessly (Ng et al., 2018).
Evolution of nursing informatics as a specialty
The continuing evolution of the role of nursing informaticists in the entire profession will strategically put more emphasis on ensuring strategic collaboration between nursing informaticists and other healthcare professionals, such as nurses. In this regard, the role of the nurse informaticist is expected to increasingly expand from serving the supportive role to undertaking problem-solving initiatives in healthcare. For example, as technology evolves, there is a need to come up with new nursing informatics systems that can address existing challenges in the healthcare profession (Mosier et al., 2019). This puts nursing informaticists and other technology specialists on the frontline as far as health service delivery and problem-solving are concerned.
In this modern day of healthcare, not only should we make efforts to “become better,” as individuals, however as passionate nursing professionals, we should collectively band together to improve healthcare, as well as clinical outcomes. Healthcare information technology is characterized as the use of information managing, including both computer hardware and software, that handles storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of healthcare information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision-making (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). Analyzing critical and complex data can bring about difficulties & challenges. However, as healthcare professionals, we should have enough knowledge and skills to create strategies & solutions to combat & even prevent healthcare issues. Patient safety is a subset of healthcare and is defined as the avoidance, prevention, and amelioration of adverse outcomes or injuries stemming from the processes of healthcare. Nurses are known as information accumulators. We are collectively and persistently gathering and documenting patient information. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). In order to deliver excellent patient care and service, nursing informatics is critical. Nursing informatics is defined as an area of expertise that combines nursing science with numerous information and analytical sciences to detect, distinguish, oversee and convey data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practiceLinks to an external site.. As technology relentlessly evolves, new healthcare advances and solutions must do the same. Combining nursing science, computer science, and information science call for high-level nursing documentation, which brings about evidence-based decision-making as well as quality outcomes. Nursing informatics specialists rely on data analytics to strengthen the efficiency and productivity of nursing processes. Nursing informatics specialists are unique protagonists of healthcare. They are “activists” for positive innovation, and their efforts keep patients safe and at the center. Their roles and management open gateways for workflow developments for healthcare staff. The best practices are followed in efficient management of information structures, methods, and technology (2022).
At one of the hospitals where I work, we use Cerner as our Electric Medical Record (EMR) system. Two Nursing Informaticists work in conjunction with the IT department. Our nursing informaticists deal more with clinical aspects, such as patient documentation, medication reports, and updating the system, as well as keeping staff aware of changes. One of the most critical tasks of the Nurse Informaticist is tracking medication reports. These specific reports trace whether or not the patient’s armband was scanned before medication administration and if each medication was scanned. Taking these important steps helps to decrease and eradicate the chances of medication errors, such as giving the wrong prescription to the wrong patient or even the wrong dosage. The Nurse Informaticist runs a report quarterly to identify nurses with a low medication scanning rate. The required rate is at least 98% and above. If you’re identified below 98%, you receive counseling and additional training. If you’re persistently below, then you are monitored more frequently. There are some problems that arise at times, such as barcodes being damaged or simply won’t scan. The nurse is to notify management promptly of any scanning issues to prevent med errors. Sometimes the Informaticist has to meet with the pharmacy as well if the barcodes are not working properly because the pharmacy places those barcodes on all meds. To improve healthcare outcomes, I feel this report could be done more frequently. Medication errors are familiar problems that have immense afflictions on healthcare systems. Creating strategies to evaluate the efficacy of reporting systems should measure and determine how successfully the attained information is implemented to enhance patient safety (Mutair et al., 2021). In addition, I think measuring the effectiveness of communication between nursing informaticists and IT should be measured.
At the facility I currently work, there is a three-tiered platform for interacting with the nurse informaticist (NI) or information technology specialist (IT). The tiers are classified as physicians, immediate needs by other clinical users, and all other inquiries. These are built in into the electronic health record (EHR) system, that is also accessible through a secured mobile platform, whereby the company has provided smart phones for all employees, but the phones cannot work out of the building. To reach NI or IT, you search for them on contacts by simply typing IT, and then select from a library of common inquiries such as reset my password or my scanner is not working, to which you receive built in responses based on the most encountered inquiries (Alexander, Ng & Frith, 2018). During a recent encounter, a nurse manager was trying to retrieve, organize data, and create a presentation for a performance improvement project. Since this was not an option, she had to type it in the dialogue. A few minutes later, her inbox had the data she was attempting to retrieve and organized in more than one form.
While NI provided the information from the database, facilitated decision making to achieve a desired outcome, it failed in meeting one of its ever-expanding roles: teaching (Sippes, 2016). Moreover, by the NI choosing to use email, it replaced person-to-person interaction, and failed to evaluate the specific huddle that the nurse leader might have had in using the EHR (McGonigle &Mastrian, 2022). As a solution, I would suggest that the NI call the nurse leader and offer to walk him/her step by step on how to access the data. Additionally, video conferencing and application of technology such as share screen to guide the nurse leader through his/ her huddle. One of the biggest challenges for NI is artificial intelligence (AI), as we build data based on problems and solutions, AI will have the ability to elucidate a problem accurately, and provide a desirable solution (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).
Information system /technology has done a lot in this era of nursing practice and data collection has made a significant difference in the healthcare setting. Information technology has improved healthcare by using so many applications to collect data, and store and retrieve the data when needed. These data can potentially affect the productivity, efficiency, performance, effectiveness, cost, and value of nursing care when properly collected and used Mosier, Roberts & Englebright (2019). Obama’s administration brought the use of Electronic Health Records into effect after he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment act into law and developed meaningful users. Nursing informatics is a specialty area in nursing that deals with transforming data into knowledge and uses technology to improve the quality of care, safety, and patient satisfaction. The combination of clinical insight and technical skills possessed by nurse informaticists enables this highly trained group to make significant contributions to the design and delivery of mHealth applications (Ng, Alexander & Firth, 2018).
Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists /technology with other professional
Within my healthcare organization, Nurse informaticists work hand in hand with other professionals by using evidence-based practice to promote safety, and improve the quality of care and patient satisfaction. We use Cerner software with so many applications that are user-friendly and consistent and are necessary for the collection of data that will enhance decision-making. Nurse informaticists are the ones that orientated the new employee to get them familiar with the system. Before now, we use a pager system to communicate with other professionals but currently, we use a smartphone with Tiger connect application that every employee uses to communicate with one another in decision-making to improve patient care and well-being. The nurse informaticist uses this media to communicate any critical condition of patients like critical lab condition/ abnormal lab and heart reading, sepsis alert to the appropriate person who will take action to solve the problem and improve patient care. Also through the electronic health record, the nurse informatics communicate vital information that will help to improve patient care and promote safety. The use of the iPad for interpretation in different languages to be able to communicate with the patient in their own mother language make them feel involved and participate decision making concerning their plan of care.
one strategy that will help improve the interaction making sure that nurses have the knowledge and are experts in information technology so that they can make proper use of the equipment.
Despite the staggering degree to which technology has become integrated into the American health care system in recent years, there are still some areas of disconnect between the ‘healthcare’ side of things and the ‘informatics and technology’ side of things. An informatics specialist is someone who takes healthcare knowledge and applies it through the use of technological information systems (Walden University, 2018). With the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), the adoption of new and evolving technologies, the interdepartmental integration of information systems, data collection regarding best practices, and quality improvement initiatives, informatics will only continue to play a more prevalent role in the healthcare realm.
To give some background regarding my current work environment, I am currently working as a day-shift staff nurse on a medical-surgical oncology unit. The most common interaction that comes to mind regarding our facility informaticists, comes in the form of quality improvement data collection. Documentation of SCD application, chlorhexidine baths in patients with central lines, assessment of foley catheter necessity, and pain reassessment are just a few of the areas which are closely monitored for accurate data collection. These interactions often come in the form of sporadic phone calls throughout the day that essentially state “Hi! This is xxxx from quality. I noticed that you haven’t documented xxxxxxxx on the patient xxxxxxx. Please make sure you document that according to our facility protocol.” These calls often come in the middle of delivering patient care, and long before any opportunity has arisen to document the events that occurred during the day.
I think one of the biggest frustrations when integrating informatics and healthcare practice, is that they seem to occur independently of each other. Physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff are on the floor, with the patients, physically delivering care, while informaticists are in an office, probably in a different building, trying to make it all make sense on a computer screen. In order to process the “big data” analyses that are being used to create these quality improvement initiatives, informaticist rely heavily on floor staff to collect accurate and timely data, which is then prepared, modeled, and analyzed to determine where changes can/should take place (Otokiti, 2019). My suggestion would be that perhaps these informaticists maintain more of a presence on the units themselves. By interacting personally with the staff that is collecting their data, they should be able to find easier methods of documenting/recording the outcomes necessary to their studies.
Within my current organization, information technology is managed by Client Server Technology (CST), a contracted group of IT specialists. The contracted IT specialists are available to resolve issues related to systems support. Main tasks of IT support are to ensure staff are able to access client data, ensure network security, investigate security incidents, and ensure employee workstations are equipped with the physical safeguards to meet HIPAA compliance. Throughout the process of planning, designing, and implementing new informatics projects, project managers and systems specialists are responsible for determining employee workflows and initiating change management, oftentimes with little to no input from the nursing professionals. Despite this, there is an abundance of research delineating the critical nature of Interdepartmental collaboration toward the success of information technology. McGonigle and Mastrian (2022) note that the sharing of data and information in both synchronous and asynchronous formats is critical to achieve best patient outcomes.
Collaboration between nurse informaticists and other professionals can be improved by regular communication to ensure original messages and subsequent feedback are fully understood by all those involved. Nurse informaticists must be sensitive to differences in levels of understanding in regards to technology (e.g. use of jargon). Combining the nurse informaticists knowledge of technology and the nursing professional’s knowledge of patient workflow, health information can be retrieved and manipulated in a secured and collaborative environment (Ang, 2019).
The evolution of informatics and the emergence of new technologies will expand the efficaciousness of not only nursing as a profession but also information technology. Ongoing efforts to improve the interoperability of patient data will assist current and future healthcare professionals in providing the best quality of care.
“Nursing informatics is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice. Nursing informatics facilitates the integration of data, information, and knowledge to support patients, nurses, and other providers in their decision-making in all roles and settings. This support is accomplished through the use of information structures, information processes, and information technology” (Gaudet, 2021). Recently, my hospital has started upgrading from our current EHR to Epic (which we are all very excited about). This upgrade has taken the skill and collaboration of many different people, including those at our hospital involved in informatics. I haven’t had much personal interaction with the informatics RNs yet, but that is only because we haven’t started our specific Epic training that we will all need. I do know that this EHR upgrade has taken a couple of years and has been set up in phases to ensure that everything is being done properly and that our informatics team has enough time to learn the system and transfer information over. The informatics RNs have been responsible for the integration of our new EHR and will be responsible for the training of all staff hospital-wide and within the clinics. They must know the basic features of the EHR that everyone will need to know, as well as the different specialized functions depending on one’s role. The one issue that I have seen in relation to our EHR, and the informatics team, is when nursing staff want to add something specific to our EHR that we would utilize frequently. For example, on my floor (labor and delivery), we have wanted to add certain tools, such as a hemorrhage screening, to document for each of our patients. The idea behind what we want that tool to look like is communicated as clearly as possible, but it seems like they are never exactly what we envision. I think the best way to overcome this issue is to have the floor nurses and informatics nurses sit down together and build that template together and work off each other’s ideas so that the new tool or template is user-friendly and what was envisioned in order to be successful.
The University of New England discusses ways in which informatics has helped evolve healthcare, including computerized provider order entry, electronic medical records, patient portals, healthcare workflow management, and machine learning (Gaudet, 2021). I think that as technology continues to evolve, so will the informatics specialty. The evolution of machine learning alone has changed so much in recent years. The machine learning is a way that data is analyzed after being collected using specific programs and accuracy is improved over time (Gaudet, 2021). Collecting data in such a way is imperative to improving patient outcomes and improving overall healthcare. It’s important that we have the ability to do this, and even more important that we have the specialists that are able to analyze these programs, applications, and data.