I am a registered nurse, and my line of duty is the emergency room. I have an untold passion for technology, especially the technology related to the medical field. I recently interviewed a nurse manager to identify new technology implemented in the setting for the past 3-5 years. We discussed various technologies with the nurse manager, but the technology that stood out was the application of health informatics in clinical practice. According to her, the new technology integration in the setting was critical to both patients and nurses.
Some of the purposes served by the technology according to her include furthering education through resources such as Nursing Reference Center™ Plus. This resource enables nurses to access trusted education tools as well as evidence-based information easily and quickly. The technology is vital in enhancing communication by simplifying communication in the form of instant messages, email, and texts. This has been important as the nurses do not have to call or page. Because of the clear communication, the time that could have been spent calling or paging is spent with the patients. The technology is also vital in saving patients’ lives because of the automated blood pressure cuffs and telemetry provided by the technology. Another essential purpose the nurse manager told me was that the technology helps nurses protect themselves in case patient care activities are questioned later.
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Even though the technology plays essential roles in the setting, the specific reason the organization was hoping to accomplish with the technology implementation was to increase efficiency. The nurse manager told me that they yearned for technology would have a well-designed electronic health record system that would enable nurses in the organization to search patient information effortlessly, chart comprehensively, and answer questions quickly. Increased efficiency would save time that would, in turn, be used on patients, thus better health care. The nurse manager told me that the technology provides different forms of data such as information on staffing choices, purchasing decisions, scheduled protocols, and clinical procedures. This, therefore, means that there is plenty of variables to be considered for this data. When large amounts of data are analyzed, there is a high potential of improving the effectiveness of any process ranging from post-op care to medication recommendations (“Health informatics and patient outcomes,” 2019). I learned that the data from the technology could be utilized to compare practices and crunch numbers with just a button click.
The nurse manager informed me that she uses data analytics to inform care by facilitating communication and treating patients. According to (“How is Informatics Used in Healthcare?”, 2019) one of the critical roles of data analytics is in healthcare is finding a way for provider’s offices, clinics, hospitals as well as other facilities to deliver enhanced care to patients.
According to the nurse manager, the technology has been vital in improving the quality of healthcare provided as well the safety of the patients. She demonstrated to me how the technology ensured that lab results reach their destination sooner. The timely delivery of lab results guaranteed more timely as well as better care by reducing errors and malpractice claims. The nurse manager also told me that the technology has improved knowledge sharing in the organization. By enabling easy sharing of knowledge on medicines, therapies, and diseases, the technology has been critical in improving the practice of medicine. The technology allows patients to actively participate in their healthcare as they can easily access their health history as well as recommendations. Because of this knowledge, the patents in the organization can easily interact with healthcare providers, and this enhances better outcomes and improved healthcare generally.
I had an extensive interview with the nurse manager, and I was able to appreciate that the technology had served the purpose it was initially planned for. The specific reason the organization designed for the technology was to enhance efficiency. The organization yearned for a technology with a well-designed electronic health record system that would enable nurses in the organization to search patient information effortlessly, chart comprehensively, and answer questions quickly. With increased efficiency, the organization would save time that would, in turn, be used on patients’ care, thus better health care. Other than the intended purpose, the technology has supported nurses to further their education through resources such as Nursing Reference Center™ Plus; enhance communication by simplifying communication in the form of instant messages, email, and texts; Saving patients’ lives because of the automated blood pressure cuffs and telemetry provided by the technology and; protecting nurses in case patient care activities are questioned later.
Although the nurse manager did not focus so much on the challenges of the new technology integration, I was able to glean some information relating to some of the challenges. I realized that the technology had caused care to become less personal because instead of a healthcare professional knowing a patient in real space as well as time to offer the best care, the job of “knowing” is placed on algorithms and data. After asking the nurse manager about applicable legislation relating to the technology integration, she told me that the application of health informatics in the organization for clinical practice had to be in line with the HITECH Act. The organization was also aligning the technology with the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, the Affordable Care Act, as well as the Accountability Act.
According to Islam, Hutchinson & Bucknall (2018), there are different ways in which nursing manager’s access as well as utilize IR data. These ways are dependent on whether nursing manager’s aim at generating SIRs with aggregated data on multiple incidents or investigate an individual. Sociotechnical frameworks, as well as models, have been used to understand some of the data or report used by nurse managers to inform care and decision making. My interview with the nursing manager made me realize that there existed organization-level as well as individual-level barriers in the organization. These barriers hindered nursing manager’s optimal decision-making and also affected system utilization. The barriers resulted from factors such as system access and usability; system training received feedback as well as data accuracy. The nursing manager told me that she applied data as well as the report from the ERM system to assess ward performance and come up with decisions regarding the corresponding changes to practice. Her utilization of the system was influenced by different factors such as lack of organizational feedback, workarounds, lack of formal user training, and inaccurate data that impacted information quality.
References
Health informatics and patient outcomes. (2019). Retrieved from https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/the-power-of-health-informatics-in-improving- patient-outcomes/
How is Informatics Used in Healthcare?. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.topmastersinhealthcare.com/faq/informatics-used-healthcare/
Islam, T., Hutchinson, A., & Bucknall, T. (2018). Nurse manager risk information management for decision-making: A qualitative analysis. Collegian , 25 (4), 401-407. doi: 10.1016/j.colegn.2017.10.009
