Assignment: The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies
Nursing informatics is the use of information technology and systems in nursing practice, education, and research. It involves the integration of data, information, and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of healthcare.
There are several ways in which nursing informatics can impact patient outcomes and patient care efficiencies:
Improved patient safety: By using electronic health records (EHRs) and other information systems, nurses can access and update patient information more quickly and accurately, which can help prevent errors and improve patient safety.
Enhanced patient care: Nursing informatics can help nurses access and share important patient information, such as lab results and medication lists, which can improve the quality and timeliness of patient care.
Increased efficiency: By using nursing informatics tools, nurses can streamline their workflows and reduce the amount of time they spend on administrative tasks, freeing them up to focus on patient care.
Enhanced communication: Nursing informatics can improve communication between healthcare providers, which can lead to better coordination of care and faster treatment for patients.
Improved patient education: Nursing informatics can be used to create patient education materials and provide patients with access to reliable health information, which can help them take an active role in their own healthcare.
In the Discussion for this module, you considered the interaction of nurse informaticists with other specialists to ensure successful care. How is that success determined?
Patient outcomes and the fulfillment of care goals is one of the major ways that healthcare success is measured. Measuring patient outcomes results in the generation of data that can be used to improve results. Nursing informatics can have a significant part in this process and can help to improve outcomes by improving processes, identifying at-risk patients, and enhancing efficiency.
To Prepare:
• Review the concepts of technology application as presented in the Resources.
• Reflect on how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence may help fortify nursing informatics as a specialty by leading to increased impact on patient outcomes or patient care efficiencies.
The Assignment: (4-5 pages not including the title and reference page)
In a 4- to 5-page project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency. Your project proposal should include the following:
• Describe the project you propose.
• Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project.
• Explain the patient outcome(s) or patient-care efficiencies this project is aimed at improving and explain how this improvement would occur. Be specific and provide examples.
• Identify the technologies required to implement this project and explain why.
• Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the nurse informaticist in the project team.
• Use APA format and include a title page and reference page.
• Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.
In a 4- to 5-page project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient care efficiency. Your project proposal should include the following:
• Describe the project you propose.
• Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project.
• Explain the patient outcome(s) or patient-care efficiencies this project is aimed at improving.
• Explain how this improvement would occur. Be specific and provide examples. Use sufficient supporting evidence in your response.
Identify the technologies required to implement this project and explain why.
• Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the nurse informaticist in the project team.
Required Readings
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Chapter 25, “The Art of Caring in Technology-Laden Environments” (pp. 595–607)
Chapter 26, “Our Expanding Realities” (pp. 611–624)
Mosier, S., Roberts, W. D., & Englebright, J. (2019). A Systems-Level Method for Developing Nursing Informatics Solutions: The Role of Executive Leadership. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(11), 543-548.
Ng, Y. C., Alexander, S., & Frith, K. H. (2018). Integration of Mobile Health Applications in Health Information Technology Initiatives: Expanding Opportunities for Nurse Participation in Population Health. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36(5), 209-213.
Sipes, C. (2016). Project management: Essential skill of nurse informaticists. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 225, 252-256.
The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies
Describe the Project
The proposed project is to utilize technology to enhance hand hygiene in the healthcare environment. Hand hygiene remains a pivotal aspect of care since it determines the safety of a patient. Poor hand hygiene can transfer bacteria or viruses to patients causing hospital-acquired infections (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). For instance, the US government spends an additional $340 million to treat catheter-related infections. The cost is higher for various hospital-acquired infections since some families lose their loved ones to various complications. Hygiene is one of the pivotal measures for ensuring cleanliness and eliminating the risk of hospital-acquired infections (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The technology will aid healthcare units in safeguarding the health of patients. The majority of the beneficiaries are pediatric and geriatric patients. Pediatric and geriatric patients risk bacterial or viral infections that can compromise their health. Improving hygiene is a critical component in the delivery of care. Patients at risk of hospital-acquired infections suffer from various illnesses that undermine their recovery and extend their hospital stay.
The proposed project is to ensure healthcare workers use wearable technology to monitor their handwashing exercises. Wearable armbands are fitted with sensors to monitor the activity of the hands during washing. The sensors monitor the activity of the forearm, fingers, and palm to determine cleanliness. The technology can be used to monitor, measure, and communicate feedback. The feedback will be essential data to enhance hygiene among nurses and physicians. Monitoring the hand hygiene of the nurses and physicians will encourage them to maintain high hygiene standards. The wearable technology will be easy to implement since nurses and physicians wear them on their hands (Sipes, 2016).
Identify the Stakeholders Impacted by this Project
Stakeholders are the parties impacted by the technology or people who will participate in the project’s success. The stakeholders in the project are nurses, physicians, social workers, and informaticists. Nurses and physicians provide direct care to patients making them primary stakeholders of the project since they are involved in direct and primary care (Mosier et al., 2019). Direct interaction with the patients involves diagnosis, assessment, physical examination, dressing, and administering medication. Social workers also interact with the patients making them primary stakeholders. Informaticists are important stakeholders since they will be involved in the technology’s repair, maintenance, and running. For instance, it is the role of informaticists to gather the data and summarize it for appropriate action (Ng et al., 2018). They must monitor the wearable bands’ effectiveness and ability to convey hand hygiene feedback.
The technology will impact the healthcare management team of the organization. The input is to ensure they deploy the technology and realize the output of a clean working environment (Ng et al., 2018). The organization will realize better hygiene that will translate into better patient outcomes, less risk of hospital-acquired infections, and affordable care for the patients.
Explain the Patient Outcome(S) or Patient-Care Efficiencies or Improvements
The patient outcome or improvement that the technology will realize includes reducing hospital-acquired infections. Patients are at risk of hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, catheter infections, and incision site infections. Improving hand hygiene benefits healthcare professionals and patients (Knepper et al., 2020). Reducing hospital-acquired infections will translate into shorter hospital days, fewer care costs, and higher patient satisfaction. Patients who get hospital-acquired infections experience multiple complications that prove difficult to treat. Another important improvement is reducing mortality related to hospital-acquired (Knepper et al., 2020). For instance, research estimates that hand hygiene can avert over 380,000 preventable infections and 9000 deaths in USA healthcare facilities (Giuliano et al., 2018). Preventing numerous infections and death is significant progress for the healthcare organization. Another improvement is reducing the cost of care. Statistics indicate that America spends over $340 million annually on hospital-acquired infections such as catheter infections (Giuliano et al., 2018).
The wearable technology will enhance the nurses’ and physicians’ skills and caution in maintaining hand hygiene. The feedback will be crucial in changing the behavior of nurses and physicians (Chawla, 2020). Promoting culture and behaviour change will be essential to enhance patient outcomes. The culture will enhance hygiene standards and promote better patient outcomes.
Identify the Technologies Required to Implement the Project and Explain Why
One of the essential technologies is a wearable device for gesture control. The device is placed in the forearm and can monitor hand movement. Some of the important features of the technology include the multichannel EMG (electromyograph) and non-axis unit for inertial measurement (Chawla, 2020). The technology is compatible with various operating systems, such as Bluetooth. The purpose of the wearable device is to measure the effectiveness of handwashing. The wearable data will collect the data regarding hand activity and compare it with the reference data.
The second important technology is the use of electronic monitors to gauge the hygiene level. The wearable device will communicate to the electronic monitors to show the level of cleanliness. Nurses can see the level of hygiene and take appropriate action. Nurse managers or supervisors will use the data sent to their hand devices to determine the appropriate actions.
The project’s implementation will require servers containing the data from wearable devices (Chawla, 2020). The objective of the servers is to store the data. Storing the data and retrieving it will be vital in analyzing it, generating patterns, and identifying areas for improvement.
The implementation of the project will require additional water and soap dispensers to ensure that every nurse or physician has an opportunity to wash their hands. The different technologies will participate in generating positive results in the healthcare units. They will be installed in various strategic positions to foster quality outcomes.
Identify the Project Team (By Roles) and Explain How to Incorporate the Nurse Informaticist in the Project Team
A team of specialists will be deployed to actualize the project. The first specialist is an informatics expert who will understand the connection between various data points. For instance, the connection will run from the wearable device to the monitors. Integrating the data to generate feedback requires an informatics specialist (Giuliano et al., 2018). The informatics specialist will be required to buy various devices from the best suppliers in the market. For instance, buying quality wearable devices is vital for generating quality feedback.
The second team in the project is the medical team. The team will involve nurses and physicians who must wash hands and maintain hygiene. It is important for nurses and physicians to wear wearable devices effectively (Giuliano et al., 2018). Nurse managers and supervisors will be critical in ensuring the nurses improve their feedback. The objective of stakeholder collaboration is to maintain a high level of hygiene in the healthcare units.
References
Chawla, N. (2020). AI, IOT and wearable technology for smart healthcare? A review. Int J Green Energy, 7(1), 9-13.
Giuliano, K. K., Baker, D., & Quinn, B. (2018). The epidemiology of nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia in the United States. American journal of infection control, 46(3), 322-327.
Knepper, B. C., Miller, A. M., & Young, H. L. (2020). Impact of an automated hand hygiene monitoring system combined with a performance improvement intervention on hospital-acquired infections. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 41(8), 931-937.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Mosier, S., Roberts, W. D., & Englebright, J. (2019). A Systems-Level Method for Developing Nursing Informatics Solutions: The Role of Executive Leadership. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(11), 543-548.
Ng, Y. C., Alexander, S., & Frith, K. H. (2018). Integration of Mobile Health Applications in Health Information Technology Initiatives: Expanding Opportunities for Nurse Participation in Population Health. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36(5), 209-213.
Sipes, C. (2016). Project management: Essential skill of nurse informaticists. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 225, 252-256.
