Question Description
The Role of the Informatics Specialist in Healthcare
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). The Nurse Informaticist [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze interactions between nurse informaticists, data/technology specialists, and other professionals in healthcare organizations
Recommend strategies to improve interactions between nurse informaticists and other professionals
Analyze how nursing informatics as a specialty and new technologies impact interactions between nurse informaticists and members of healthcare teams
Recommend nursing informatics projects to improve outcomes or efficiencies in healthcare organizations
Identify stakeholders impacted by nursing informatics projects
Analyze how nursing informatics projects improve outcomes or efficiencies in healthcare organizations
Identify technologies required for implementation of nursing informatics projects
Analyze the role of the nurse informaticist in nursing informatics project teams
Identify and analyze the ways in which nursing informatics as a speciality and new technology affect interactions between nurse informaticists and other members of healthcare teams
Make recommendations for nursing informatics projects that will improve patient outcomes or increase efficiencies in healthcare settings.
Identify the stakeholders who will be touched by nursing informatics initiatives.
Examine the ways in which nursing informatics projects improve outcomes or increase efficiencies in healthcare settings.
Develop an understanding of the technologies that will be necessary for the implementation of nursing informatics initiatives
Examine the role of the nurse informaticist in the context of nursing informatics project teams.
Learn more about learning resources here.
To access the required library resources for this week, please visit the Course Readings List link, which can be located in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Readings that are required
McGonigle, D., and Mastrian, K. G. (in press) (2017). Nursing informatics and the establishment of a solid foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, Burlington, Massachusetts.
Chapter 25, “The Art of Caring in Technology-Laden Environments” (pp. 525–535), discusses the art of caring in technology-laden environments.
Chapter 26, “Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge” (pp. 537–551), discusses the relationship between nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge.
The American Nurses Association is a professional organization that represents nurses worldwide (2018). Including established nursing terminology in electronic health records and other health information technology solutions to Help nurses in their daily practice is a priority. Inclusion of recognized terminologies supporting nursing practice within electronic health records was retrieved from https://www. nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ official position statements/id/Inclusion of Recognized Terminologies Supporting Nursing Practice within Electronic Health Records/.
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Chapter 25, “The Art of Caring in Technology-Laden Environments” (pp. 525–535)
Chapter 26, “Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge” (pp. 537–551)
American Nurses Association. (2018). Inclusion of recognized terminologies supporting nursing practice within electronic health records and other health information technology solutions. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/official-position-statements/id/Inclusion-of-Recognized-Terminologies-Supporting-Nursing-Practice-within-Electronic-Health-Records/
Glassman, K. S. (2017). Using data in nursing practice. American Nurse Today, 12(11), 45–47. Retrieved from https://www.americannursetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ant11-Data-1030.pdf
Macieria, T. G. R., Smith, M. B., Davis, N., Yao, Y., Wilkie, D. J., Lopez, K. D., & Keenan, G. (2017). Evidence of progress in making nursing practice visible using standardized nursing data: A systematic review. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, 2017, 1205–1214. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977718/
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2017). Standard nursing terminologies: A landscape analysis. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/snt_final_05302017.pdf
Rutherford, M. A. (2008). Standardized nursing language: What does it mean for nursing practice? Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 13(1), 1–12. doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol13No01PPT05.
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Thew, J. (2016, April 19). Big data means big potential, challenges for nurse execs. Retrieved from https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/nursing/big-data-means-big-potential-challenges-nurse-execs
Wang, Y. Kung, L., & Byrd, T. A. (2018). Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 126(1), 3–13. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2015.12.019.
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Executive Producer). (2012). Data, information, knowledge and wisdom continuum [Multimedia file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/NURS/6051/03/mm/continuum/index.html
Public Health Informatics Institute. (2017). Public Health Informatics: “shipping” information for better health [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1gNQ9dm0zg.
Public Health Informatics Institute. (2017). Public Health Informatics: knowledge “architecture” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sofmUeQkMLU.
Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists
Nature offers many examples of specialization and collaboration. Ant colonies and bee hives are but two examples of nature’s sophisticated organizations. Each thrives because their members specialize by tasks, divide labor, and collaborate to ensure food, safety, and general well-being of the colony or hive.
Of course, humans don’t fare too badly in this regard either. And healthcare is a great example. As specialists in the collection, access, and application of data, nurse informaticists collaborate with specialists on a regular basis to ensure that appropriate data is available to make decisions and take actions to ensure the general well-being of patients.
In this Discussion, you will reflect on your own observations of and/or experiences with informaticist collaboration. You will also propose strategies for how these collaborative experiences might be improved.
To Prepare:
Review the Resources and reflect on the evolution of nursing informatics from a science to a nursing specialty.
Consider your experiences with nurse Informaticists or technology specialists within your healthcare organization.
ASSIGNMENT 1 : write a description of experiences or observations about how nurse informaticists and/or data or technology specialists interact with other professionals within your healthcare organization. Suggest at least one strategy on how these interactions might be improved. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain the impact you believe the continued evolution of nursing informatics as a specialty and/or the continued emergence of new technologies might have on professional interactions.
Assignment 2: The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies
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)
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.
Submit your completed Project Proposal.
