The healthcare industry is experiencing significant transformations, and advanced practice nurses must rethink their roles and approaches in leadership, practice, and education. In order to improve healthcare outcomes, nursing programs must emphasize the use of information and communication technologies to prepare the nursing workforce (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017) . The future of healthcare lies in information and communication technology and the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness it can provide. Many healthcare institutions experience challenges when implementing and incorporating technological innovations into existing processes (Strudwick et al., 2019) . The systems development lifecycle (SDL) can be used to address such difficulties by providing a series of steps that can be sued by advanced practice nurses for integrating new technological products to support current practices.
Planning, System Analysis and Requirements Definition
Planning is the first step in the development of health information systems. As a nurse leader, this phase will be used to determine whether they need to implement a new document management system exists or not (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017) . The nurse leader conducts a feasibility study of the already existing system and current processes in order to identify gaps or inefficiencies in the current system (Strudwick et al., 2019) . The information gathered by the nurse leader will be used to improve or modify a service that will help meet the expectations of patients, other nurses, and stakeholders (Qin et al., 2017) . During the system analysis and requirements definition, the nurse leader analyzes the functional requirements of the systems if they can meet the strategic objectives of the organizations, the people responsible for the individual pieces of the project, expected timelines, and associated costs.
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Analysis
In the analysis stage, the role of the nurse leader is to analyze the current business needs and establish whether the functional requirements of the system fulfill these needs (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017) . This can be achieved by conducting interviews with nurses and the users of the system as well as combusting with the IT department and other stakeholders (Qin et al., 2017) . This will help determine the components of the document management system that need to be deprecated and those that need to be improved or added.
Systems Design
During the systems design phase, the nurse leader works together with all stakeholders and users of the system in ensuring that the features, specifications, and operations will satisfy the functional requirements of the proposed system (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017) . The nurse leader also ensures that the proposed system will meet the specific organizational information needs. The nurse holds comprehensive discussions with stakeholders on user stories, mockups, the usability of the system, security of the system, hardware requirements, and communication (Strudwick et al., 2019) . The nurse leader ensures that the proposed system meets the functional requirements, performance metrics, and displays the expected output (Qin et al., 2017) . The nurse leader also ensures that the proposed system meets the strategic business objectives of the healthcare facility.
System Implementation
The implementation phase involves the installation of the proposed system and the upgrading of the existing system within the organization. The nurse leader plays an integral role in system implementation and ensures its success (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017) . To overcome resistance and establish a smooth integration, the nurse leader should recommend a phased approach. The nurse works with the project developers and the project management team to ensure that all workflows have been met, and all the interfaces in the system provide the correct output (Qin et al., 2017) . The nurse leader calls for meetings with other fellow nurses and other stakeholders to obtain feedback and evaluate processes that will be used in enhancing the functionality of the system. The nurse leader also uses their role in identifying possible facilitators and barriers to the implementation of the system to ensure that the deployment is a success (Strudwick et al., 2019) . The nurse leader also tracks and monitors how the new system meets the objective of the organization and measure outcomes as well as promoting awareness and ensure that staff complies with the new system (Qin et al., 2017) . The nurse leader plays a vital role in ensuring the successful implementation of the new system and provides the appropriate training to other nurses.
Post-Implementation Support
The post-implementation phase concludes all information technology projects. This phase ensures that there exists a smooth and effective transition from development (Qin et al., 2017) . The nurse leader plays an integral role in ensuring there are adequate resources with the appropriate skills to ensure support of the proposed document management system in the production environment (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017) . The nurse leader appoints nurses, staff, and other stakeholders with workflow skills as well as technical abilities pertaining to the new system. The appointees are used as "champions" in specific areas of the system, such as generating generation reports or working with permissions on document shares and then organizing knowledge transfer sessions to staff with little or no information on how the new system works (Strudwick et al., 2019) . During post-implementation support, the nurse leader ensures that the project development team has issued the organization with comprehensive system documentation on the roles of the system, such as capturing and storing information as well as basic troubleshooting techniques if the system fails (Qin et al., 2017) . The nurse leader is also responsible for overseeing the successful integration of the document management system into the organization and educating his/her colleagues on the advantages and usage of the system (Strudwick et al., 2019) . The nurse leader also acts as the point of contact between the organization and the developers in the case of support or if there are any required changes to fulfill the objectives of the organization.
Conclusion
Advanced practice nurses are well-qualified and equipped to assume information and communication technology roles in their current practice as they are aware of the shortcomings of paper records and the time involved in clinical documentation, which could be used in providing care to patients. The nurse leader is better placed to monitor, elicit, and convey information on the implications of health IT to support patient-centered care and facilitate processes.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Qin, Y., Zhou, R., Wu, Q., Huang, X., Chen, X., & Wang, W. et al. (2017). The effect of nursing participation in the design of a critical care information system: a case study in a Chinese hospital. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making , 17 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-017-0569-3
Strudwick, G., Booth, R., Bjarnadottir, R., Rossetti, S., Friesen, M., & Sequeira, L. et al. (2019). The Role of Nurse Managers in the Adoption of Health Information Technology. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration , 49 (11), 549-555. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000810
