Nursing Informatics and the Culture of Safety

Most of the interaction between patients and clinicians in hospitals is done by nurses who form a vital entity in patient care delivery. They are the clinicians who not only support physicians but also execute essential care procedures and ensure the safety of patients. However, in a typical hospital setting, the ratio of nurses per patient is significantly low. It is impossible for a nurse to remember the records of each patient and the timings for food and medicine delivery to the patients. With this, it is important for them to have a well-designed Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that functions to alert them to perform their functions. EHRs allow for real-time communication between nurses and doctors, provide a decision support system, help to monitor the condition of patients, and assist with calculations (Hydari, Telang, & Marella, 2015) . This ensures that all patients are monitored and their safety guaranteed at all times.

Nursing informatics professionals are individuals with prolific skillsets in not only clinical care but also have a background education in the nursing field. They fully understand what is required of a nurse in a hospital setting and the type of data that needs to be analyzed to present reliable information to the nurses. This wide set of skills allows them to come up with an IT infrastructure that enhances the culture of safety in meaningful ways. Chances of medication errors are highly minimized by HER systems. Barcode-assisted medication administration (BCMA) systems have increasingly become popular and have helped to minimize errors associated with medication by 40%. Nursing informatics, therefore, has played a significant role in ensuring safe and timely medication administration, easy access to patients’ record, and issuing important alerts to nurses. Without a doubt, nursing informatics has improved the culture of safety in hospitals

Reference

Hydari, M. Z., Telang, R., & Marella, W. M. (2015). Electronic health records and patient safety.  Commun. ACM ,  58 (11), 30-32.