Running head: NURSING INFORMATICS IN HEALTH CARE
Nursing Informatics in Health Care
Fonique Lazarre
Capella University
July, 2019
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NURSING INFORMATICS IN HEALTH CARE
Nursing Informatics in Health Care
Nursing informatics and integrates computer and information science into nursing for the
management and transfer of information in the nursing practice. Nursing informatics was
initially recognized as a specialty in 1992 by the American Nurse Association. Nursing
informatics involves the application of computer technology to the various fields in nursing
practice Impact of health informatics on nursing, (2018). Nurse informaticists make use of this
specialty in their regular practice. Employing a nursing informaticist on staff in this institution
will bring about great benefits from the knowledge and expertise they will demonstrate. These
benefits will increase staff morale and satisfaction of patients eventually.
Nursing informatics and the nurse informaticist.
Nursing informatics is the science that integrates knowledge and information associated
with the practice of nursing with technological information and communication technologies to
promote patient care and improve workflow among clinicians (Broach, 2015). A nurse
informaticist role is to come up with an interdisciplinary team made up of information
technology professionals and nurses so as to enhance patient safety, improve care standards and
increase satisfaction among workers. Nursing informatics is continuously evolving as nurses
incorporate information technology in their nursing practices. Informaticists and Other Health
Care Organizations
The care of patients involves several areas, teams and dozens of individuals. Nursing
informaticists help in coming up with protocols and processes that make certain of proper
interaction and communication between patients hospital staff (Broach, 2015). They aid
healthcare workers to look for the truth through the application of electronic health records. This
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helps everyone have the insight and context that is needed to ensure continuity of excellent care.
This shows the important role that nursing informaticists play in improving patient outcomes and
driving efficiency and best practice in a healthcare organization. At Texas Health Resources in
Dallas-Fort Worth, informatics nurses use mobile technology to serve the homeless. The benefits
of electronic health records help in creating walk-in visits, prescribe and deliver medications as
well as monitor treatments. This technology helped in reducing the number of ED visits and
complications that are preventable.
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
Healthcare is very expensive, and it is estimated that half of all medical expenditures are
spent on repeat procedures delays in care, errors, and traditional methods of sharing information.
Introducing electronic health records systems will help in curbing these problems. Laboratory
results will take less time to reach their destination and thus reducing malpractice claims. Health
informatics helps in increasing communication and reducing errors driving efficiency where
there was costly incompetence as well as obstruction (Hull, 2015). Nursing informatics also
improves patient participation as the patients can educate themselves about prognoses and
diagnoses and can keep better track of their symptoms and medications. Patients are also able to
interact with physicians and nurses more easily yielding better outcomes. All these eventually
lead to better patient care and workflow. Protection of health information has been identified as a
critical issue in the rapidly evolving field of nursing informatics. Nurses, more than other people,
collect and record patient’s health information, and they have a responsibility to make sure that
this information is secure. This is to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of personal
information (Tubaishat, 2015). To protect this information, various methods are used. These
methods include identification authentication, providing audit trails or access activity records
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relating to health information and protection from unauthorized access to personal health
information.
Opportunities and Challenges
Informatics provides many opportunities in the advancement of nursing science. The
design and implementation responsibilities continue to grow, and so do innovation in health care
technology. Healthcare organizations are continuously searching for efficiency value and
seamless experience for clinicians. Nursing informaticists will go on spending a huge amount of
time in creating and implementing systems that maintain the voice of clinicians in their designs.
Roles that involve data analysis, presentation skills and visualization are on-demand creating
many opportunities for nurses (Abdrbo, 2015). Informatics nurses will also continue playing a
major role in supportive end educative roles as systems improve and change. Nurse informatics
field has over time faced major challenges; for instance, roles are not clearly defined due to its
broad definition. Nursing informatics mixes clinical knowledge, information technology,
information management and quality improvement. In this case, it is not clear what roles nurses
play in healthcare settings. Further, the profession requires lengthy periods to complete and
qualify as a nurse informaticist, which discourages most people from undertaking the course.
Despite the many challenges that face the field of nursing informatics, it is evident that nursing
informatics will be a crucial aspect of enhancing care coordination and hence, patient experience
in the health sector and much needs to be done to alleviate these challenges.
Conclusion
Evidence-based practices have played an important part in nursing for a long time. Health
informatics is used to determine those best practices today. Analyzation of large quantities of
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data collected from patient care and outcomes helps in determining the best way to treat various
conditions and situations in the future. Resulting conclusions tend to be more accurate as more
data is collected and thus providing the best information possible used in determining the best
ways to take care of patients in the future.
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References
Abdrbo, A. A. (2015). Nursing Informatics Competencies Among Nursing Students and Their
Relationship to Patient Safety Competencies. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing,33(11),
509-514. doi:10.1097/cin.0000000000000197
Broach, D. (2015). Integration of Clinical Research Documentation in Electronic Health
Records. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing,33(4), 142-149.
doi:10.1097/cin.0000000000000134
Hull, S. (2015). Patient-Generated Health Data Foundation for Personalized Collaborative
Care. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing,33(5), 177-180.
doi:10.1097/cin.0000000000000159
Impact of health informatics on nursing. (2018, October 26). Retrieved from
https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/the-impact-of-health-informatics-on-nursing-practice/
Tubaishat, A. (2017). Evaluation of Electronic Health Record Implementation in Hospitals. CIN:
Computers, Informatics, Nursing,35(7), 364-372. doi:10.1097/cin.0000000000000328