With the development of technology, informatics entered nursing as well as many other spheres. Nursing informatics is expected to reduce the time needed for documentation, streamline searching activities, and provide more opportunities for communication with healthcare professionals and patients. Some of its areas are also relevant to my current position. For example, coordination of activities among departments and the staff provides an opportunity to control patient flow and develop new best practices aimed at the improvement of patient care. Informatics streamlines these processes because it allows linking various data and sharing information, which affects decision-making positively.
In my practice, I often work with databases and check nurses’ schedules to ensure that overload is avoided. The area of consultation is also relevant because technology facilitates the integration of optimal care to meet the client’s needs (Parker, 2015). As a nurse, I spend the majority of my working time focusing on the clients. I define the basic care needed by them, and informatics facilitates me greatly. The quality of practice can be sufficiently improved if technologies are approached.
My employers pay enormous attention to the quality of the provided services because they affect people’s well-being. Informatics allows me to be aware of the quality standards, to get to know how they can be improved (based on coworkers’ experiences) and to monitor my achievements. I emphasize education because my current practice requires me to learn new tools and caring approaches to be up-to-date and provide clients with the most benefit. As a result, I receive an opportunity to develop as a professional and enhance my performance.
The TIGER competencies are also critical for my profession and functional areas. However, I believe that improvement is needed only in the framework of some of them. For instance, concepts of information and communication technology (ICT) are significant because they ensure that I have basic knowledge regarding hardware and software systems. Of course, I am aware of the way ICT is used in practice, but security and legal issues related to computers alter with the time, which means that it is vital to improving knowledge constantly (TIGER, 2009).
Unfortunately, I do not allocate enough time for this activity. It will be beneficial if I develop a habit of reading at least two-five articles related to ICT every month to be aware of current tendencies. I should think of practical applications of this information and discuss it with my colleagues. I also need to develop a competency related to the usage of databases. Improvements in the sphere of informatics encourage healthcare facilitates to resort to the most advanced software. As a result, I find it difficult to use databases after the implementation of changes. I need to gather guidelines and accomplish training tasks that are focused on developing, formatting, and modifying information in databases. Such activity should be maintained each time a change is observed.
Developing nursing informatics competencies, I will become able to improve my performance at the workplace. My effectiveness as a nurse will increase because I will spend more time with patients instead of computers. I will be able to find all significant information related to a case very fast and will approach any professional my client requires regardless of one’s location. In addition to that, informatics competencies will make it easier for me to educate patients because I will be able to use various software developed for these purposes.
References
Parker, C. (2015). Nursing informatics. Web.
TIGER. (2009). Informatics competencies for every practicing nurse.