Summary
Nursing informatics is the profession and science of using nursing knowledge, information, and communication technology to improve the health of communities, individuals, and families around the world. Within the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI), the nursing informatics community provides numerous opportunities for networking, conference presentations, leadership, recognition, and certification as a nurse informatician. Joining nursing informatics groups and AMI connects the interdisciplinary with more than 400 other professionals in that field. In addition, nursing informatics use technology and data on a daily basis to monitor programs, systems, and patient care initiatives. Nurse informaticists also analyze data to determine what is functioning and what is not functioning in an organization. They use their discovery to propose lead projects and improvements and execute health care change.
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
In recent years, informatics in nursing has become one of the speedily-growing fields in healthcare. In general, all informatics specialists are desired because they enhance efficiencies, provide prompt and accurate data, and cut expenses in health institutions (Kim, 2020). It is therefore not surprising that informatics in nursing is one of the highest-paying nursing specialties in the United States. This profession helps in bridging the gap between information and clinical technologies in healthcare settings. Bridging facilitates health care, enhances overall patient care, and improves the lives of all community members by cutting healthcare costs (Galatzan & Carrington, 2021). In addition, health companies rely on the latest technology, such as data-driven apps and systems, to help develop workflow efficiencies in nursing informatics.
Moreover, healthcare organizations also evaluate data on a regular basis and incorporate the results back into the workflow, allowing employees to manage their resources and teams better. Overall, nurse informaticists train clinical workers and educate the nursing team on how to use new technologies when new processes and systems emerge. As specialists in the access and application of data, these experts collaborate with other nurses regularly to make decisions and take action for patients’ overall well-being. They also provide nurses with simple access to reliable, evidence-based information resources since they are more educated than other nurses (Galatzan & Carrington, 2021). Furthermore, electronic platforms such as social media offer nurses access to a wealth of information and allow them to collaborate with other healthcare providers in the healthcare system.
Impact of Full Nurse Commitment on Health Care Technology
While some nurses oppose new technology, suggesting it removes personal interaction away from the bedside, research shows that 82 percent of nurses believe it has a beneficial impact on patient care, as an advantage to these optimistic nurses, newly available tools in systems of healthcare aid in adding time back into their day. With the increase in nurse burnout in the United States, technology has helped nurses by saving them from leaving their practice setting.
Nursing technology has also improved accessibility, particularly for health records, thanks to electronic health records (EHRs). In these electronic health records, a patient’s medical history is digitized, and providers, progress notes, medications, difficulties, and lab results are all part of the package (Galatzan & Carrington, 2021). EHRs also improve patient care by ensuring that medical records are clear and correct, as well as allowing patients, healthcare providers, and doctors to access organizational data.
The health insurance accountability and portability act have a safety requirement that demands particular procedures to protect a patient’s health information via technology. This security rule ensures the integrity, confidentiality, and security of all health information (Bail et al., 2020). Access control and encrypting are two features included in the electronic health record systems that help maintain medical records. PINs and passwords are used in access control to limit access to patient information to just those who are allowed; nurses or doctors who work with the patient are examples. When data is encrypted, it can only be decoded and read by someone with access to a unique key that is only available to authorized individuals.
The workflow of nurses is also made easy by the presence of technology in healthcare. An example is through decreasing human errors whereby nursing informatics has aided in the advancement of healthcare technology, such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and computerized data entry. Nursing informatics specialists collaborate with a wide range of partners across the care continuum, ultimately bridging the technical and clinical healthcare issues (Bail et al., 2020).
Their major aim is to maintain a strong focus on patient safety, and their advice and contributions help to reduce healthcare worker duties. Additionally, health care technology generates a faster procedure for substituting drip amounts and dosage. Furthermore, through computerized health records, duplication of tests is minimized, thus giving nurses an easier time in their work. Using scheduling apps as healthcare technology also reduces workforce costs in institutions. This scheduling software effectively distributes human resources and enables firms to meet their objectives without the use of costly alternatives such as overtime and temp employment.
Opportunities and Drawbacks
Nurses and members of the interdisciplinary team are given the opportunity of learning how to use new technology by nurse informaticists. Through this technology, the team can identify the latest trends in the medical fields that can be used to enhance patient protection strategies. Patient care is also enhanced through the capability of nurses to issue accurate information from patients’ data, reducing errors in the conveyance of care. However, the presence of nurse informaticists has also impacted other nurses negatively. Nurses refuse to adopt informaticists’ ideas due to fear of destruction and fragmentation (Bail et al., 2020).
This assertion is because nurses are not prepared for a highly technological environment where all documentation is electronically demonstrated. Therefore, nurse informaticists experience difficulty convincing and teaching nurses and the interdisciplinary team on the benefits of electronic documentation.
Nursing informatics has aided in the development of healthcare technologies such as electronic medical records and computerized provider data entry. Informatics specialists collaborate with a variety of partners throughout the care continuum, their top objective being to keep the focus on patient safety, and their contributions reduce the workload for healthcare workers. Fetal monitors displaying the heart rate of a fetus in the womb and heart monitors showing the electrical pattern and rhythm of a patient’s heart, are both types of system monitors, an application of technology. Other monitoring methods assess the amount of oxygen in a patient’s blood or the blood pressure inside the brain. Additionally, a built-in hospital bed system is a technology that tracks the weight and movement of patients while they sleep.
Generally, nursing informatics has aided in the development of healthcare technology such as electronic medical records (EMRs). The top objective of these informatics is to keep the focus on patient safety, and their advice and contributions help to reduce healthcare worker duties (Kumari, 2019). Nursing informaticians make a substantial contribution to the development of future frameworks that will guide nurses in their ethical use of technology. Understanding, facilitation, and enjoyment of health care technology used are all important goals for both patients and doctors in healthcare.
References
Bail, K., Merrick, E., Redley, B., Gibson, J., Davey, R., & Currie, M. (2020). “Blind leading the blind”: Qualitative evaluation of unanticipated difficulties during nurse testing of a hospital health information system. Collegian, 27(1), 82-88. Web.
Galatzan, B. J., & Carrington, J. M. (2021). Communicating data, information, and knowledge in the nursing handoff. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, Publish Ahead of Print. Web.
Kim, L. (2020). Cybercrime, ransomware, and the role of the informatics nurse. Nursing, 50(3), 63-65. Web.
Kumari, R. (2019). The impact of informatics on nursing education and promoting quality of health care. International Journal of Advances in Nursing Management, 7(3), 285. Web.