I am a registered nurse working in the psych and substance unit for eight months. I have used EPIC medicine technology at work for five years, where I electronically kept medical records as a mental health counselor. The subject is very familiar to me. I initially worked as a medical record supervisor and assisted my regional hospital move from paper medical records to digitalized electronic medical records, making the hospital the first one to go viral. I work as a registered nurse in an inpatient setup dealing with adolescents as a lead clinical nurse where we have electronically documented all our work. Health information technology is a specialty integrating nursing science with multiple information and analytical sciences to define, identify, manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice (Devin et al., 2016). HIT is significant to every clinician in providing quality patient care and restoring hope to the sick. HIT improves the outcome of patient and help in exchanging information in healthcare between many professionals working in healthcare.
To effectively implement health information technology, it is crucial to ensure that the attitude of nurses remains optimistic and receptive. Nurses ought to be discerning and skilled computer technology users in integrating principles of nursing informatics to enable them to practice in improving patient care, thereby leading to the profession’s ever-growing body of knowledge (Christopoulou et al., 2018). It is through technology that patient information is accessed quickly, securely, and promptly. This, in turn, has reduced the cost incurred in healthcare hence improving patient outcomes. It also enhances the way multidisciplinary team members interact with each other and also their patients. HIT will provide more hours that nurses spend at their patients’ bedside by giving them care, assessment, education, and emotional support.
References
Devin, J., Cleary, B. J., & Cullinan, S. (2020). The impact of health information technology on prescribing errors in hospitals: a systematic review and behavior change technique analysis. Systematic reviews, 9(1), 1-17.
Christopoulou, S. C., Kotsilieris, T., & Anagnostopoulos, I. (2018, September). Assessment of health information technology interventions in evidence-based medicine: a systematic review adopting a methodological evaluation framework. In Healthcare (Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 109). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.