Nurses have significant roles to ensure the quality of healthcare delivery. However, as the years go by , the technology keeps on evolving; nurses' tasks have to change in a way that their skills and knowledge have to adapt to the developing new systems that can improve healthcare delivery much further. N urse informaticists' ability becomes more useful, especially when it comes to systems development up until its implementation because this development affects every day works of nurses. A nurse informaticist should always be on the frontline during the various stages of the implementation of the documentation of the new nursing system with the nursing leader oversight who helps in the project coordination. One term that generally applies in this process is the Systems Development Life Cycle or SDLC, a standard approach utilized during the health information technology implementation.
Planning and Requirements Definition
In this first stage of SDLC, different factors must be considered, from which nurse leaders should also have their involvement. These include defining the problems and scope, the examination of potential alternatives, identifying the most feasible options, developing a project schedule, adapting resources that essential for the project, and the actual launching of the project. According to Rehani (2019), a nurse i nformaticist graduate has significant roles during this stage, which include working with the interdisciplinary team to come up with shared deliverables and to determine the requirements of the project. Thus, nurses should also participate in the project's feasibility testing process.
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Analysis Stage
Nurse informaticists must be part of the system development stage because they have a full understanding when it comes to clinical flow, the process of providing patient care (Verma & Gupta, 2017). In the analysis phase, it is essential to prioritize the project's requirements. It is also necessary for nurses to develop and assess the possible solutions in case an issue occurs, as well as to review the current organizational policies to make better recommendations. Specific roles of nurses i nformaticist during this phase involve working with interdisciplinary teams to create a list of priority requirements and to develop possible alternatives. Nurses should also develop a recommendation to address potential future problems.
Design of the New System
N urses' participation in the interdisciplinary development of a new system also involves the development of systems design. It is where the health information technology implementation operational and architectural design becomes essential. It consists of the development of new processes, data retrieval strategy, required hardware and software, the user interface, and the archiving of data. Specifically, the roles of nurses in this stage are more focused on specific members of the team, such as the vendors, IT Department, and the informaticists. Therefore, nurses need to understand the system's primary purpose and how they will interact with this new system.
Implementation Phase
The implementation phase is also considered a crucial aspect of the SDLC process, where the nursing leader approves of all the project recommendations and facilitate the team to achieve the desired outcomes . Nurses must provide feedback for proper evaluation of the system after testing. According to McLean, Frisch, and Roudsari (2019), a nurse leader should take an active role in the development of a new healthcare information system, especially during the implementation stage. Specifically, nurse informaticists ' tasks involve working with the interdisciplinary team to test and evaluate the system's performance and to provide necessary feedback to redesign the system if needed. Nurse Informaticist must also provide essential training to other healthcare staff to help increase everyone's technical knowledge regarding the new system. Though challenges during implementation may occur when the nurse leader does not maintain open communication. By this, the teams' input may not be utilized to the fullest, making the system problematic open to medical errors.
Post-Implementation Support
In this final stage, nurses must be aware that the new system requires maintenance and support, which usually occur after the initial implementation, which requires nursing leader reinforcement . Nurse informaticists ' roles during this stage include the continuous provision of training and support to increase the acceptance of the new system across the organization. Also, the informaticists, alongside the nursing leadership, should continuously work with the interdisciplinary team and provide constant feedback based on their evaluation. In that way, the team can develop a new approach if improvements are needed and likewise adhere to the changes as part of their routine .
References
McLean, A., Frisch, N., & Roudsari, A. (2019). Nursing's Voice in Healthcare IT Acquisition Decisions. Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics , 14 (4). Retrieved from http://cjni.net/journal/?p=4248
Rehani, N. (2019). Using SDLC Methodology to Implement HIT. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7fbd/35017b7085209694cd56373e8eab62b84b2a.pdf?
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Verma, M. P., & Gupta, S. (2017). Software Development for Nursing: Role of Nursing Informatics. International Journal of Nursing Education and Research , 5 (2), 203. doi:10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00044.8
