Continued advancement and new challenges in the healthcare sector have brought about a rapid nursing profession change. In most cases, nurses are direct caregivers in any health care setting. This is an indication that these professionals immediately felt any changes occurring within the sector. Within the health care sector, three major challenges are affecting the field: a shortage of nurses and doctors, the prevalence of chronic illness, and the aging population. However, despite the diversity of these problems, data is the key solution to their mitigation.
Nursing informatics is thus bringing about a change in the current face of healthcare. Through increased technological advancement, healthcare professionals can now gather, analyze, and leverage data efficiently and effectively. In turn, this plays a vital role in a more improved health care delivery, team management, and resource utilization. Gone are the days when nurses depended on paper-based communications that were marred by increased errors. The handwritten notes were the number one cause of medication errors. Currently, health care facilities across the world have now adopted the use of electronic health record states that have more up-to-date information related to patients (( Kloss et al., 2018) .
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Currently, 16 nursing informatics standards play a vital role in evaluating nursing practice goals and outcomes (McCormick, 2015). The nursing informatics standards have played a vital role in providing communication and coordination at healthcare facilities. New communication channels include emails and instant messaging, and this gives the nurses ample time with the patients instead of tracking each other down. In addition, nursing informatics standards are also used in education areas, research, and administration.
However, information regulation is a vital undertaking in the medical field. Currently, there are various federal and state regulations aimed at governing the use of patient medical records. Laws that allow the privacy of information in health care allow for efficient communication between healthcare providers and patients. This brings about enhanced autonomy and prevents any form of discrimination, embarrassments, and economic harm, thus improving the quality of care. Laws such as HIPAA Privacy Rule ensure that PHI is protected and also provides patients with a right to access their information when they need it. Information regulation also ensures health care is confidential. Confidentiality and privacy are vital in health care as they lead to the development of an open and trustful relationship between healthcare providers and patients, crucial for quality care ( Kloss et al., 2018) . The delivery of quality health care depends on the relationship between a physician and patient and the latter's ability to disclose information. Therefore, without any information, regulations such as HIPAA, privacy, and confidentiality is not observed hence poor health outcomes ( Kloss et al., 2018).
In most cases, older adults have been known to vary in terms of the progression of chronic illnesses and functional decline. In most cases, healthcare providers state that the prediction and minimization of such losses are vital to older adults' wellbeing. There is a need for a holistic approach in determining this population (Demiris et al., 2013). The use of informatics is one strategy clinicians can use in the assessment of health and wellness. Through technological advancement, clinicians can now gather and store the increasing amounts of data on this population, which facilitates decision-making. Nursing informatics can play a significant role in geriatric and gerontology care (Demiris et al., 2013). The informatics tools can be integrated within a residential or community facility as the older adult generations are willing to embrace these new technologies and standards. In addition, clinicians who take care of this population will thus have an easier time, more enhanced decision-making abilities and reduced costs through early identification and trends and pattern that is managed can reduce poor health outcomes.
References
Demiris, G., Thompson, H.J., Reeder, B., Wilamowska, K., & Zaslavsky, O. (2013). Using informatics to capture older adults’ wellness. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 82 (11), e232-e241.
Kloss, L. L., Brodnik, M. S., & Rinehart-Thompson, L. A. (2018). Access and disclosure of personal health information: A challenging privacy landscape in 2016-2018. Yearbook of medical informatics , 27 (1), 60.
McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics . McGraw-Hill Education.
