Nursing Informatics in Healthcare

Nursing Informatics in Healthcare

Introduction

In healthcare, nursing informatics is a field that is rapidly advancing, given the fact that healthcare organizations in the contemporary world depend on medical data systems (Rauv, 2017). As a nurse Informaticists, one is required to work in tandem with fellow nurses and information technology experts. Despite the role of each inter-disciplinary team member being different, every member involved in informatics has a common goal of facilitating patient safety, performance reviews, and the general standards of care in a healthcare organization. This paper shall define and analyze nursing informatics and the role of the nurse Informaticists.

Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informatics

In the healthcare industry, nursing informatics refers to a field in nursing that generally combines nursing, information science, and computers in a bid to develop and maintain medical information and related systems (Rauv, 2017). Most importantly, nursing informatics seeks to improve the quality of patient care outcomes. Nurse informaticists work in close corporation with other inter-disciplinary teams in the healthcare system to make better the quality of patient care outcomes. As a nurse Informaticists, one plays a very significant role not only in the development of various healthcare technologies but also in educating members of staff and evaluating the outcomes of implementation. Aside from their usual nursing roles, nurse Informaticists are required to participate in the designing of technology systems, testing the designed technology systems and performing assessments and analyzing the health care technology requirements. In collaborating with other interdisciplinary teams in the healthcare organization, nurse Informaticists aids in the transition from one technological systems to the other and, most importantly, functioning as an educator to new nurses and other members of staff.

Nurse Informaticists and other Health Care Organizations

When it comes to improving the quality of patient care outcomes, nurse informaticists cannot function alone entirely; they require working with other interdisciplinary teams within healthcare organizations. Health care organizations that have made use of the services of Nurse Informaticists have experienced a considerable increase in the overall quality of healthcare and patient care outcomes (Heath, 2018). Nurse informaticists have to work alongside other professionals such as IT experts, project managers, and physicians such as medical surgeons. In a bid to ensure that all systems are running smoothly, nurse informaticists have to liaise with information technology experts who test for the development of new software and systems as well as repairing such. Nurse informaticists consult with physicians such as medical-surgeon nurses in areas as setting up different patient monitoring apparatus in lowering incidents of falls in healthcare facilities. By effectively interacting with the rest of inter-disciplinary teams and nursing staff, nurse informaticists ensure that technology in a healthcare facility and patient care is running efficiently.

Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology

Engaging nurses in health care technology affect various aspects of healthcare, amongst them patient care. It is no doubt that in healthcare, nurses require information for them to be able to ensure the patient’s safety effectively. Engaging nurses in healthcare technology impacts patient care positively, given that nurses can access patient’s medical lists, medical histories, and other vital pieces of information such as imaging results conveniently and effectively (Neumeier, 2016). Having to trust every other nurse with crucial protected health information such as information that is considered confidential and private might present a certain degree of security concern to the given health institution. As such, entrusting such information to only specified nursing informatics is advantageous given that it reduces risk on various protected health information. Nurse informaticists in any healthcare setting ensure efficient workflow.

Errors in the flow of work amongst nurses and other clinicians might exist in the case that electronic medical records and other patient’s data are not well organized and stored. Nurse informaticists exist in a healthcare institution to solve this problem, therefore, ensuring a constant flow of work. The need for nurse informaticists and their role in lowering costs and ensuring a return on investment cannot be emphasized enough. By helping a health organization in meeting different federal health care requirements with the example of HIPPA and functioning as a resource to staff members, nurse informaticists assist in cutting down on costs and ensure a health organization makes a return on its investments.

Opportunities and Challenges

With the addition of a nurse informaticists’ role in healthcare, there is an array of opportunities for both nurses and inter-disciplinary teams. One of these advantages is advancement and career growth for both parties. Nurses have the opportunity of making use of their skills to better patient care outcomes, albeit from a technological perspective (Grandia, 2017). Interdisciplinary teams in the medical sector have the opportunity of utilizing their expertise in improving data management and the overall patient care outcomes. Despite the possibilities, there also exist several challenges that both nurses and inter-disciplinary teams stand to face with the introduction of the nurse informaticists’ role. Such challenges include problems in communication amongst different levels of staff members and interdisciplinary teams, increase in roles and responsibilities that such team members undertake, and ultimately a personal conflict that exists amongst team members, and that might threaten to decrease morale amongst staff members. Interdisciplinary teams can collaborate to improve quality of care outcomes by ensuring that different technologies in the healthcare organization and other needs are well maintained, and the necessary developments are pursued to provide service delivery and improved quality care outcomes.

Summary of Recommendations

It is no doubt that with the advancement in health information technology, the role of nurse informaticists becomes essential. A nurse informaticist is vital in a healthcare organization as they assist hugely in the development of health care technology and educating fellow nurses and other staff members on how information systems in healthcare functions. Without these nurse informaticists in a healthcare organization, evaluating the individual results of implementation would prove to be challenging. To ensure efficiency in a health organization, a hospital requires individuals that would serve as liaisons between members of staff and different information technology experts; this is the role that nurse informatics occupy. As such, it is significant for any healthcare organization to consider the roles that nurse informaticists play in improving the quality of patient care outcomes. Improved patient care outcomes are what determines whether or not a given health facility shall be able to make a return on its investments. Embracing the services of nurse informatics and other interdisciplinary teams is crucial in ensuring a return on investment.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving medical fraternity, information science and computer-based programs are redefining the medical landscape. With these changes comes the need for qualified professionals that can incorporate all the different systems to improve the general patient care outcomes. Such professionals are the current day nursing informaticists. These professionals play a significant role in healthcare when information management and patient care technology are concerned. In the contemporary world, if any hospital is to realize a return on investment and ensure that the general quality of patient care outcomes is increased, then they would need to embrace and make use of the nurse informatics professionals.

References

Rauv, S. (2017, June 14). The impact of technology in healthcare [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.elcomcms.com/resources/blog/the-impact-of-technology-in-healthcare-trends-benefits-examples

Neumeier, M. (2016). Can nursing informatics improve person-centered care? Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 11(4).

Grandia, L. (2017). Healthcare information systems: A look at the past, present, and future [PDF]. Available from http://www.healthcatalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/A-Look-at-the-Past-Present-and-FutureHealthcare-Information-Systems.pdf

Heath, S. (2018). Patient health data access top-of-mind in ONC draft framework. Retrieved from https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-health-data-access-top-of-mind-in-onc-draft-framework