Introduction
Nursing informatics in health care offers healthcare facilities and nurses practices and up-to-date information to improve satisfaction and patient safety. Improved satisfaction and patient safety also enhance healthcare staff’s self-esteem. Nursing informatics, patient care technology, and electronic health information are all examples of evidence-based research. This paper aims to discuss and evaluate an evidence-based proposal supporting the importance of nurse informaticists to be future to the human resources and chief nursing officer management of healthcare facilities. This paper will also discuss how a nurse informaticist works with an interdisciplinary team to attain better patient care quality.
Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
According to research from McGonigle and Mastrian (2021), nursing informatics involves the mix of computer, information, cognitive, and nursing science. It also enhances healthcare data and manages wisdom, knowledge, and information to improve the nursing profession and patient care (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). The number one goal of a nurse is to provide high-quality and safe patient care. However, we as nurses must employ efficient, innovative, and secure healthcare technology to accomplish this. On the other hand, a nurse informaticist works for a healthcare organization and is responsible for researching and implementing the most acceptable possible electronic healthcare system (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). Not all healthcare facilities benefit from the same electronic patient care system. Therefore, it is up to the nurse informaticist to determine which method will best help the staff perform high-quality patient care while promoting safety. Nurse informaticists also support and teach nursing staff on how to use the system that has been established.
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
Nurse informaticists work in a variety of settings, including hospitals, home care, and long-term care. Having a nurse informaticist on staff, based on my previous expertise, was quite beneficial. It was simple to clinically relate and ask questions to the client because someone on the team had prior nursing expertise and was educated about the charting system. If the computer was having problems, the IT department could help, but the nurse informaticist was the go-to person for queries about the charting program used for patient assessments. The nurse informaticist acts as a link between IT and nursing staff and between patients and nursing staff. According to Mcrbride and Tietze (2018), an interdisciplinary team would not be complete without a nurse informaticist. In all roles and contexts, these advanced-level nurses support the interprofessional healthcare team, stakeholders, patients, healthcare consumers, and other colleagues in their decision-making to achieve desired outcomes (McBride & Tietze, 2018). Nurse informaticists have expertise and comprehension of nursing and knowledge of the responsibilities of IT members in healthcare.
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
Nurses who are fully engaged in healthcare technology get favorable outcomes and numerous benefits. Portable monitors, wearable health monitoring devices, electronic charting, electronic medical records, and automated IV pumps are a few examples of healthcare technology. All of the items in this list help to improve patient care. Nurses may now record patient assessments efficiently and quickly, which can then be accessed by other healthcare professionals for collaborative treatment. Technology can help nurses enhance customer engagement and happiness by automating less or more regular value-adding aspects of the patient experience (Elrick, 2017). Using automated IV pump technology can also improve patient care by reducing the possibility of incorrect human and dose estimations errors. These are a few instances of how technology can help doctors provide better care to their patients. Nurses are also taught about confidentiality, security, and privacy when taught how to use healthcare technology. As nurses, we are required by law not to reveal protected health information without following HIPPA regulations and the patient’s agreement.
Nurses who employ technology can also improve the efficiency of their operations. A well-designed electronic health and system record can assist nurses in promptly answering inquiries, charting thoroughly, and looking up patient information. All of this frees up time for busy clinicians to spend with their patients (Elrick, 2017). Finally, like with any technology adoption in any business, non-healthcare or healthcare, it is critical to determine the return and costs on investment in these systems. Nurses who employ healthcare technology can save expenses while also improving patient safety.
Opportunities and Challenges
Safe care and high-quality employee and patient engagement, satisfaction, creativity, and organizational efficiency benefit from a cooperative, interprofessional team. Staff retention and satisfaction are greater in healthcare businesses where employees participate in a collaborative quality-and-safety culture (Morley & Coshell, 2017). There are numerous advantages of using an interdisciplinary approach to enhancing patient care. Adding a nurse informaticist to an interdisciplinary team, however, might be challenging. Healthcare companies employ nurse informaticists to conduct research, implement, and educate technology initiatives that improve safety, simplicity, patient care, and workflow efficiency of use for all healthcare team members (Elrick, 2017). Providing clinical staff with training is one of the most effective strategies for a nurse informaticist to improve patient outcomes. Nursing informaticists can assist in developing specialized educational programs to address specific gaps between provider and ability expectations (Morley & Coshell, 2017). The proposed introduction of new technology brings with it its own set of obstacles. Some employees may resist new technology and systems, while others may disagree with the programs chosen and want to stick with what they know.
The advantage of new hiring and technology is that a nurse informaticist might be offered to the staff to boost the likelihood of buy-in. All healthcare specialties, including CNAs, nurses, and physicians, use electronic charting and health records applications. The adoption of electronic charting and EHRs enhances patient care by facilitating effective communication among specialties. If issues regarding a patient arise, all associates can electronically access patient health information and documents, allowing for real-time discussion. It also guarantees that all healthcare team members are on the same page, lowering the chance of patient medical and injury errors.
Conclusion
The duties and positions of individuals of the healthcare community vary as the industry evolves. IT departments used to be the go-to place for queries about technology systems in healthcare companies and the deployment of technological systems. Adding a nurse informaticist to the IT department helps the IT department technically and engages the healthcare staff clinically. Nurse informaticists understand what applications are easy to use, what works best for hospitals and home health or long-term care, and how to support the healthcare staff. This is because they have worked in the nursing industry. A nurse informaticist improves patient satisfaction and care by increasing communication among disciplines through the use of EHR systems. Through nurse informaticists, organizations can improve their protocols, policies, procedures, and processes by increasing staff members’ workflow efficiency and data research. Informaticists can examine how a company cooperates and communicates when it comes to patient data. Individual cases can be audited, recommended, and deficiencies identification made to prevent future errors.
References
Elrick, L. (2017). Technology in nursing: How electronics are changing the Field. Rasmussen University. Web.
McBride, S., & Tietze, M. (2018). Health information technology and implications for patient safety. In Nursing informatics for the advanced practice nurse: Patient safety, quality, outcomes, and Interprofessionalism (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in Health Care. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 48(2), 207-216. Web.