HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND NURSING INFORMATICS: INTRODUCTION
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses and respond to your colleagues. continue the discussion by commenting on how your classmates experience could enhance your own practice.
PEER #1
· Debbie Davis
Nursing Informatics is an area that brings together technology and healthcare, allowing for the integration of data and information to improve patient care. (American Nurses Association, 2015).
As a nurse, I have worked with various electronic health record (EHR) systems to document patient care and access information quickly. These systems have streamlined the documentation process, making accessing patient data, clinical notes, and test results easier in real-time. EHR systems have also provided a more efficient way to communicate patient information with other healthcare providers.
Telemedicine is a revolutionary approach to healthcare that utilizes modern technology to provide remote healthcare services. This method enables patients to communicate with healthcare providers and professionals through video conferencing, messaging applications, or phone calls. My experience serving on the COVID-19 Task Force in Washington, DC, gave me the incredible opportunity to participate in providing telemedicine care to individuals who may have been exposed or potentially exposed to COVID-19.
Kaplan (2020) reported that just 24% of healthcare systems in the U.S. utilize telemedicine. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some telemedicine platforms experienced a rise in usage of up to 2000%. The pandemic has emphasized the crucial role of technology in healthcare. With social distancing measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine became increasingly popular for providing healthcare services to patients. (Dagliati et al, 2021).
Telemedicine has proven an effective way to care for patients who could not visit healthcare facilities due to the pandemic. It has also reduced the risk of exposure for healthcare providers and patients. With telemedicine, patients can receive medical advice, consultations, and prescriptions without leaving their homes. Healthcare providers can also remotely monitor patients’ health conditions and provide follow-up care.
Nursing informatics has played an essential role in improving patient care and safety using electronic health record systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of telemedicine, highlighting the importance of technology in healthcare. I believe informatics is a vast field with endless opportunities for learning and exploration. There are always new and innovative approaches to take in this field. Advanced technology like smart computers, which now have facial recognition or the use of our thumbprints to open various applications, has made it an exciting and dynamic area of study (Marr, 2020).
After watching the video on nursing informatics innovators (2021), I found that Debra Konicek’s insights caught my attention. She stressed the importance of understanding how electronic health records are coded to retrieve information later. If the data is not coded correctly, it can cause problems during the billing process, especially for nurse practitioners. Educating nurses on the value of electronic health records and how they can help practitioners receive recognition for their work is vital. By ensuring that their services are accurately documented, nurses can get credit for their work and receive acknowledgment for their documentation. Though we did not do any billing while I worked overseas in the U.S. Embassy health unit, our medical provider continually stressed the importance of documenting every patient encounter to receive credit/acknowledgment of our patient care. I now value the importance of documentation and its accuracy, even though sometimes the task may seem trivial to me (e.g., irrigating a wound and placing a bandage). It will be interesting to delve deeper into the world of nursing informatics and see how it can positively impact my practice in nursing. This course will enhance my skills and introduce me to new technologies and strategies to improve patient outcomes and streamline healthcare workflow.
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informatics.Links to an external site. : Scope and standards of practice (2nd ed.).
American Medical Informatics Association. (2021). Nursing informatics innovators.https://amia.org/community/working-groups/nursing-informatics/nursing-informatics-innovators
Dagliati, A., Malovini, A., Tibollo, V., & Bellazzi, R. (2021). Health informatics and EHR to support clinical research in the COVID-19 pandemic: an overview. Briefing in bioinformatics, 22(2), pp.812-822.
Kaplan, B. (2022). Revisiting health information technology ethical, legal and social issues and evaluation: telehealth/telemedicine and COVID-19. International journal of medical informatics. 143, 104239.
Marr, B. (2022). These 25 Technology Trends Will Define the Next Decade. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/04/20/these-25-technology-trends-will-define-the-next-decade/?sh+459cc02129eLinks to an external site.
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PEER #2
Solomon Soroibe Okwueze
Nursing informatics is recognized as a vital specialty that synergizes technology with nursing practices to manage and articulate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom within the nursing domain effectively (Reid et al., 2021). This field encompasses employing technological tools to enhance patient care outcomes, bolster decision-making processes, and positively influence nursing workflows (Garcia-Dia, 2021). It plays a pivotal role in elevating the quality of patient care, augmenting efficiency and productivity, improving the management of voluminous patient data, facilitating communication among healthcare team members, and enabling patient participation in healthcare management (Garcia-Dia, 2021). The significance of nursing informatics is further underscored by the recognition of 34 innovators in the field, as highlighted by the Nursing Informatics Innovators video, whose contributions have been instrumental in propelling the field forward, ensuring it remains at the forefront of advancement, continual evolution, and scientific innovation (ANA, 2015).
Among the notable contributors to the field is Judy G. Ozbolt, who is lauded for her leadership in developing critical nursing technologies, including the Omaha System and the Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS), which have become instrumental in capturing and disseminating nursing data (American Medical Informatics Association, 2024). Ozbolt’s work has been pivotal in standardizing nursing terminologies and enhancing interdisciplinary communication (American Medical Informatics Association, 2024). Similarly, Kathleen A. McCormick has made significant contributions by developing nursing informatics curriculum guidelines and competencies, equipping nurses with the necessary skills to integrate technology into their practice effectively (American Medical Informatics Association, 2024). Ida M. Androwich has also played a crucial role in developing and implementing informatics solutions, contributing to improved patient care outcomes and nursing workflows (American Medical Informatics Association, 2024).
In my professional practice, I have engaged with various aspects of nursing informatics, including the use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology, which enables the digital recording and real-time updating of patient data (Luan et al., 2023) and Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), which assist healthcare professionals in making evidence-based clinical decisions (Sutton et al., 2020). Additionally, my experience with Health Information Exchange (HIE) and Telehealth has underscored the importance of these technologies in improving care coordination, patient safety, and access to healthcare services (Sarkar, 2022; Brown & Hewner, 2022).
This course is a valuable opportunity to enhance my informatics skills and competencies further. Through acquiring leadership skills, I anticipate becoming better equipped to lead informatics projects and advocate for technological advancements that enhance care quality and efficiency (Khezri & Abdekhoda, 2019). Moreover, the course will enhance my abilities in data analysis and management, improve my decision-making capabilities through exposure to decision-making tools, and foster patient-centered care by empowering patients as active participants in their healthcare (Khezri & Abdekhoda, 2019; Chipps et al., 2022). Additionally, this course will likely improve my communication and collaboration skills and increase my technological proficiency, contributing to my overall professional development in nursing informatics.
References
American Medical Informatics Association. (2024). Nursing Informatics. https://amia.org/community/working-groups/nursing-informatics/nursing-informatics-innovators
American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice.
Brown, J. L., & Hewner, S. (2022). The Role of Telehealth and Clinical Informatics in Data Driven Primary Care Redesign. Journal of informatics nursing, 6(4), jin_21N4_A3.
Chipps, J., Le Roux, L., Agabus, J., & Bimerew, M. (2022). Nursing informatics skills relevance and competence for final year nursing students. Curationis, 45(1), e1–e8. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v45i1.2277
Garcia-Dia M. J. (2021). Nursing informatics: An evolving specialty. Nursing management, 52(5), 56. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000743444.08164.b4
Khezri, H., & Abdekhoda, M. (2019). Assessing nurses’ informatics competency and identifying its related factors. Journal of research in nursing: JRN, 24(7), 529–538. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987119839453
Luan, Z., Zhang, Z., Gao, Y., Du, S., Wu, N., Chen, Y., & Peng, X. (2023). Electronic health records in nursing from 2000 to 2020: A bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in public health, 11, 1049411. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1049411
Reid, L., Maeder, A., Button, D., Breaden, K., & Brommeyer, M. (2021). Defining Nursing Informatics: A Narrative Review. Studies in health technology and informatics, 284, 108–112. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI210680
Sarkar I. N. (2022). Transforming Health Data to Actionable Information: Recent Progress and Future Opportunities in Health Information Exchange. Yearbook of medical informatics, 31(1), 203–214. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1742519
Sutton, R. T., Pincock, D., Baumgart, D. C., Sadowski, D. C., Fedorak, R. N., & Kroeker, K. I. (2020). An overview of clinical decision support systems: benefits, risks, and strategies for success. NPJ digital medicine, 3, 17. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0221-y