Nursing informatics involves the use of nursing technology to analyze data so as to improve patient care. Nursing informatics involves tracking of patient results, evaluating data trends, and analysis of workload and interventions. Nursing informatics plays an important role in improving patient outcomes. Liyanage et al., (2015) observe that nursing informatics ensures that primary care would deliver a coordinated, patient-centered, and quality care. This is usually achieved through the use of computerized medical record systems. Lavin et al., (2015) also observe that innovation as a result of an increase in the use of electronic measures and big data should impact patient safety and care quality.
One of the ways that the nursing informaticists will improve patient outcomes is through reducing medical errors and the associated costs. This is achieved through the analysis of medical errors and identification various ways to reduce the errors. The data that is made available by nursing informaticists can also be used to measure the success of various processes, procedures, and protocols that are used in the healthcare organization. One of the roles of the nurse informaticist is to measure and analyze the performance of parts of the organization by focusing on the resultant patient outcomes. Various options are usually considered with the use of objective facts and analysis so as to determine the action that results in the most patient-centered and value-based care.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Patient Outcomes Topic
The topic that was selected in the Hamric et al. (2013) was that of patient outcomes through the use of nursing information. Hamric et al. (2013) specifically observed a case scenario where patients reported improved health status, patient satisfaction, and service utilization when patient received more data and information about their health. The analysis shows the role that nurse informaticists can result in several positive outcomes such as patient satisfaction.
Laws to Regulate Health Information
There have been several laws that have been passed in order to regulate health information. One of the common laws is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 that was enacted in order to formulate and regulate the federal guidelines and standards that involve electronic healthcare. Another law that was established was the Privacy Act of 1074 that regulates the information that the federal government and its agencies collects.
Current Policy Status and Required Change
There are several federal and state regulations that can be applied in the health informatics field. Most of the measures and regulations were developed at different times in isolation. There can be instances where health information legislation conflict such as in the collection and maintenance of patient records. The improvement that should be made on these laws should thus focus on ensuring that there is coherence among the different laws. The process to realize the change should be undertaken by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which is involved with the protection of individual healthcare information. Edemekong and Haydel (2019) observe that one of the goal of HIPAA is to limit the use of protected health information. The organization should focus on facilitating an improvement of privacy when dealing with health information.
AP Roles to Influence Change
Advanced Practicing (AP) nurse informaticists can play a big role in the facilitation of privacy. Bell (2018) observes that nurses should understand and utilize health information so as to advocate for change. The use should focus on optimizing its practices such as privacy and the result would be a safe campaign for an effective and efficient health information. By advocating for privacy, trust will be developed with patients and this will result in better communication.
References
Edemekong, P. F., & Haydel, M. J. (2019). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In StatPearls . StatPearls Publishing.
Bell, K. (2018, May). Public Policy and Health Informatics. In Seminars in oncology nursing (Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 184-187). WB Sallunders.
Hamric, A. B., Hanson, C. M., Tracy, M. F., & O'Grady, E. T. (2013). Advanced Practice Nursing-E-Book: An Integrative Approach. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Lavin, M. A., Harper, E., & Barr, N. (2015). Health information technology, patient safety, and professional nursing care documentation in acute care settings. Online J Issues Nurs, 20 (6).
Liyanage, H., Correa, S. T., Kuziemsky, C., Terry, A. L., & de Lusignan, S. (2015). Does informatics enable or inhibit the delivery of patient-centred, coordinated, and quality-assured care: a delphi study. Yearbook of medical informatics, 24 (01), 22-29.
