Introduction
The paper at hand is going to analyze a relevant Health IT topic in order to make it clear how the issue under discussion will affect nursing practice. The given introduction of the study is meant to provide a brief overview of the parts of the paper. The first part is the Rationale for Topic Selection. It is necessary to explain to the reader why the topic was chosen among all the other pressing problems on the week’s agenda.
The second part is the Impact on Nursing Practice. It is to provide convincing arguments to support both positive and negative possible consequences of the topic. The section will also include an explanation of the role of informatics skills and knowledge in developing the assignment. Finally, the conclusion will outline the key points of the paper and provide recommendations for the future.
The rationale for Topic Selection
The topic selected for the investigation is Clinical-Driven Innovation on the Rise. The significance of the topic is explained primarily by the fact that modern hospitals are looking for health care professionals to provide the most effective innovative solutions to design care. Even minor innovations are welcome since all of them can lead to considerable improvement in care delivery, patient safety, and team collaboration.
As far as the last aspect is concerned, the interdisciplinary approach is also gaining popularity. Thus, the topic is much more profound than it may seem to be from the first sight. It concerns not only the importance of innovation in health care practice but also the choice of the care delivery model as it provides evidence in favor of one of them. Thus, it is crucial to investigate deeper into the issue in order to find out what advantages rate this model higher than all others.
Although the idea that all health professionals should be able to establish effective communication in order to create an interdisciplinary competence and achieve the highest quality of care is not new, it is still unclear for many representatives of medical professions how their expertise and knowledge can facilitate the practice of other members of the staff. It is now one of the most pressing problems for many hospitals, hindering innovation: Most of the time, physicians, nurses, and UAPs perceive themselves as independent care providers and the only real decision-makers.
As a result of this, hierarchical relations are established that exclude all substantial discussions and give no opportunity for the inferior to propose innovative solutions to the superior. They are simply never listened to (Cherry & Jacob, 2016).
The author of the article devoted to the topic states that innovation communities are being organized in modern hospitals to engage all clinicians in the process of new program development (Kuhrt, 2017). Thus, another reason to select the topic is that it is not unknown how such communities will be organized and what steps they are going to implement in order to avoid fragmentation of treatment. Finally, it is essential to identify the most suitable way to perform the transition from the classical hierarchical system to an innovative one that would allow avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings and foster respect, support, and cooperation.
Impact on Nursing Practice
As has already been mentioned, the topic is going to impact not only nurses but all health care professionals since all of them will be encouraged to participate in collaborative innovation programs. This will produce the following positive effects on clinical practice (Cherry & Jacob, 2016):
- First and foremost, if an interdisciplinary approach to innovation gains popularity and spreads across health care units, it will inevitably transform the role of the leader. He/she will no longer exercise control over the staff but provide direction, support, and guidance instead. The concept of leadership will change dramatically, which will ensure a higher level of trust and motivation.
- A team culture will be fostered both at the action and planning stage. The staff will be guaranteed that all opinions and suggestions concerning innovation make a difference and are worth voicing as they can bring about drastic changes for the better.
- Another advantage of developing the described approach is that it will make it possible to build reliable infrastructure to improve interactions between care professionals since every team member should have all the necessary tools to be able to communicate with other members of the staff without any barriers or hindrances.
- The new model of innovation development will facilitate the exchange of patient data as each member of the team will document all outcomes of his/her interaction with the patient. This information will be easily accessible via electronic bases.
- When the hospital personnel is genuinely involved in the development and execution of innovative design projects, they begin to acquire new professional knowledge and skills, which are beneficial for their future careers. Furthermore, they become more self-confident due to the increased competence in related health care spheres.
Yet, despite evident benefits from the issue, it is also necessary to take into consideration possible drawbacks (Lancaster, Kolakowsky‐Hayner, Kovacich, & Greer‐Williams, 2015):
- One of the major cons is that interdisciplinary innovation imposes strict time constraints upon the participants. The problem is that team members must not only cope with their own tasks but also devote a considerable amount of time to the work done by their colleagues as all new ideas and methods need to be discussed and approved. Therefore, everyone has more duties than before.
- Another con is that differences in participants’ backgrounds are inevitable and may create tension or even lead to conflicts. They have different education, level of career, working schedule, working duties, and understanding of innovation. It will be hard to smooth all these differences.
- It is a common delusion that an interdisciplinary model of care delivery and innovation development brings individual roles and autonomy to a minimum. As a result, staff members start to relegate their tasks to others since many of them believe interconnection and interdependence free them from their duties.
- Finally, since the new approach is gaining momentum, hospitals are likely to accelerate the process of implementation by neglecting the necessity of due training and preparation. Thus, they will simply be unable to successfully translate the model into practice.
In order to provide a convincing explanation of the pros and cons of the topic, it was necessary to use informatics skills and knowledge to make arguments evidence-based. Although it is generally believed that informatics is mostly necessary for clinical settings to collect and manage patient data, work with databases, and assimilate technology into daily practice, it is wrong to diminish its role in nursing research.
In order to find all the supporting information that I needed to analyze the topic, I had to apply my knowledge of how nursing websites and scientific databases are organized. After considering how my investigation should be performed, I applied my practical computer skills to look for peer-reviewed articles that would provide necessary evidence. It was challenging since the topic is quite recent and there is not much information available. Thus, I had to resort to different search strategies combining my informatics and research skills.
Conclusion
It is crucial to provide a deeper insight into the selected topic since modern health care institutions need innovative solutions to design care improve its quality. The problem is that the current state of things does not allow professionals to answer all patients’ needs. The suggested interdisciplinary approach to innovation allows not only bringing care delivery to a new level but also reinforcing team collaboration and exchange of professional competences between members of hospital staff.
The major advantages that hospitals are going to obtain using the new model of innovation include the enhanced role of the leader, fostered team culture, reliable infrastructure, facilitated data exchange, and new career opportunities. However, there are also drawbacks, among which there are time constraints, differences in backgrounds, relegation of duties, and absence of training.
In order to avoid negative consequences that may result from these disadvantages, the following steps can be recommended:
- to develop time management strategies for the staff to implement;
- to organize regular team meetings to enable exchange of knowledge and skills;
- to encourage autonomy and personal responsibility even when team work is privileged;
- to provide educational and training opportunities for the staff;
- to avoid forcing the new approach upon clinicians until every member of the team is ready for innovation.
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Kuhrt, M. (2017). Clinician-driven innovation on the rise. Fierce HealthIT. Web.
Lancaster, G., Kolakowsky‐Hayner, S., Kovacich, J., & Greer‐Williams, N. (2015). Interdisciplinary communication and collaboration among physicians, nurses, and unlicensed assistive personnel. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(3), 275-284.