Several nursing elements contribute towards the successful role of a nurse in patient care. One of these elements is nursing informatics. The purpose of nursing informatics in health care cannot be underestimated, especially in the current modernized world. There is a need for all health care organization to adopt the aspect of nursing informatics. Through this proposal paper, I will highlight key information about nursing informatics and why it would benefit our organization if it was implemented. The paper will also encompass recommendation on implementing the nursing role.
Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
Nursing informatics is basically an integration of nursing science with information management and analytical sciences. The purpose of nursing informatics is to define, identify, communicate, and manage data, knowledge, wisdom, and information with regards to all nursing practice. Nursing informatics supports not only nurses but also the patients, interpersonal health care team, the consumers and any other stakeholders in making key decisions based on their roles with the aim of achieving the desired outcome (Grobe, 2012). In order to accomplish this role, information processes, information structures, and information technology are employed.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A nurse informaticist has several roles to play when it comes to nursing informatics. A nurse informaticist is responsible for all the patient data and the computer system. This role requires a nurse to act as a point of communication between the IT staff and the clinical nurses. Some of the daily roles of a nurse informaticist will include writing down policies, assist in project management, tracking the success of quality initiatives, and analyzing clinical statistics. Through the nurse informaticists, a health care organization improves patient care using data. Other minor roles of a nurse informaticist include training of clinical staff, system development, and quality control, among others.
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organization
Nurse informaticists exist in several health care organizations. One of the health care organization known for good health informatics is the John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, USA. The hospital is considered one of the best health care organization in the USA. One of the reasons for the organization’s success in patients care is effective nursing informatics. In a 2017 survey, the organization cited the key contribution of the nurse informaticists to the management of patient data and information in a bid to improve patients care (Bakken et al. 2014). The organization is optimistic about the role of nurse informaticists in helping the organization achieve its mission and vision. The University of Missouri Health Care organization is another organization that heavily relies on nurse informaticists. Even after the transformation of the organization into a world-class technologically developed health care organization, the institution still hired more nurse informaticists because they believe in the power of using data and information to improve patient care (McCormick & Saba, 2015).
The nurse informaticists in these organizations have a good relationship with other nursing staff and the interdisciplinary team. They train some of the staff on everything to do with the computer system and provide the interdisciplinary team with information or data that are useful in executing their mandate.
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
The full engagement of nurses in health care technology ensures the nurses employs the best of their experience and skills to ensure that the desired organization outcome is achieved. The full engagement in health care has an impact on several elements of a health care organization. Among these elements is patient care. Nurses engaged in technology are able to improve patient. Several aspects of technology, such as effective record keeping, and use technology in care, improve patient care. Engagement of nurses in technology also impacts the protection of health information, privacy, and confidentiality. The expertise of nurses in cyber security and computers systems makes it difficult to access key information about patients or organization hence ensuring privacy and confidentiality (Curran, 2013). It also ensures the continuity of workflow in an organization. Technology helps nurses to be more productive. As compared to traditional methods of running an organization such as the paper system, engaging nurses in health care technology reduces the operation cost of patient care. At the same time, it improves productivity hence an increase in return on investment.
Opportunities and Challenges
The addition of informaticist in the organization will be faced with a lot of challenges. Both the nurses and the interdisciplinary team will experience several challenges during the implementation of this role. There will probably be a mismatch of the skills acquired by the nurses and interdisciplinary team to use new data approach. Copying up with the new changes for both nurses and interdisciplinary team will not be easy. Nursing informatics requires a certain level of skills in order to be conversant with the system. It may also cost the interdisciplinary team challenges on making decisions relying on the data information from the nurses.
Informaticists role in the organization will also come handy with several opportunities. The nurses will have the opportunity to delve deeper into other kinds of nursing informatics and focus on one. The interdisciplinary team on the hand can use the role to improve on the role of technology in providing care. The interdisciplinary can collaborate to improve on the quality of care outcome through technology by creating a central control system that binds all the teams involved through technology. The central control unit is technologically developed and easily accessible by the interdisciplinary teams thus are able to share information, data, and ideas in a bid to use technology to improve on patient care.
Summary of Recommendations
The proposal to incorporate nurse informaticists into the organization is one that the organization should consider because of the benefits the project will come along with. There are, however, several things that HR and CNO, you should be keen on when considering to implement or focus on when implementing the project.
The first recommendation would be to work with nurses that are already affiliated with the organization. While the organization will likely benefit from a low cost of implementing the project if it decides to hire already trained nurses, it will be more beneficial to consider nurses who are already working in the organization and train them based on achieving the desired outcome in a better way.
The role of a first-hand benchmarking would also give more accurate data on nurse informaticists. There are several health care organizations that already have a role in their organization. Collecting information by top officials of the hospital will be key in not only decision making but also the loopholes that may exist during implementation.
If the organization decides to implement this proposal, then it would be important to implement the project using project phases. An evaluation of the project based on risk and return on investment should be done before embarking on sources of funding in order to ensure that the project is implemented smoothly. A team skilled project managers in the specific field will also be important for the implantation process.
Conclusion
The nurse informaticists role will be a milestone in improving the responsibilities of nurses in terms of patient care. As shown by an existing health organization with the role, it is a role that is deemed to be effective to the health organization, especially in the current world that is marred by technological advancement. The decision to implement this role will be a major stepping stone towards an effective health care organization committed to positive health care outcomes.
References
Bakken, S., Cook, S. S., Curtis, L., Desjardins, K., Hyun, S., Jenkins, M., ... & Soupios, M. (2014). Promoting patient safety through informatics-based nursing education. International Journal of Medical Informatics , 73 (7-8), 581-589.
Curran, C. R. (2013). Informatics competencies for nurse practitioners. AACN Advanced Critical Care , 14 (3), 320-330.
Grobe, S. J. (2012). Nursing informatics competencies. Methods of information in medicine , 28 (04), 267-269.
McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics . McGraw-Hill Education.
