NURS 6051: Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology

Course Introduction

The emergence of electronic data has changed many facets of society. The way we communicate, the way we work, the way we shop, and even the way we relax have all seen some impact from information technology.

Not surprisingly, the way we provide and receive healthcare has been directly impacted by information technology as well. Information—particularly in electronic form—has become so pervasive that many nurses have focused their expertise on the field of Nursing Informatics. Nursing Informatics integrates all of the familiar nursing science with the field of information technology, providing Nurse Informaticists the means to support healthcare by providing access to relevant information and systems that help achieve desired health outcomes.

This course introduces you to the field of nursing informatics, as well as the concepts and approaches used to help collect, provide access to, and apply healthcare information. You will examine how nurse informaticists support other members of the healthcare team, as well as patients and other stakeholders, by developing systems that can support decision-making. And you will examine the impact that informatics has on the achievement of health outcomes.

Welcome to Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology!

Course Description

Nursing informatics is essential to the provision of effective and efficient care. This course examines nursing informatics as a nursing competency and a nursing specialty. Students examine the role of the nurse informaticist in current practices related to the collection, access, and use of health information and knowledge, as well as the implementation of clinical systems. Through this course, students gain an understanding of how informatics is used to improve advanced nursing practice and healthcare outcomes across organizations, public health, and consumer health settings.

Course Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Course Outcomes

By the conclusion of this course, you should be able to:

1. Analyze the impact of informatics and the nurse informaticist in supporting the field of healthcare
2. Apply strategies for the effective use of nursing informatics
3. Analyze the importance of standardized nursing terminologies
4. Assess steps for effective health information technology implementation
5. Evaluate the use of clinical systems to support evidence-based practice and improve patient care outcomes
6. Analyze the role of the nurse informaticist in systems design and implementation
7. Evaluate legislative policies, regulations, and ethical considerations in the application of health information technology

Course Summary:

The Application of Data to Problem-Solving

In order to acquire data that will help enhance clinical processes and clinical judgment and enable the development of future innovations, nursing informatics plays a significant role, as stated by Sensmeier, J. (2019). According to Sensmeier, J. (2019), the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) has plans to transform healthcare through nursing informatics. It permits leadership in the ANI to participate in educational opportunities that allow mentorships for a few years to create members that are skilled in communication, networking, negotiation, leadership, and management. The online care management platform Midas was developed by Conduent Health Healthcare Provider Solutions (2017) and turns data into knowledge that can be used to boost performance.  Conduent Health Healthcare Provider Solutions (2017) gives examples of their capabilities, including case management, quality improvement, and risk reduction among patients. According to Conduent Health Healthcare Provider Solutions (2017), it is the biggest provider of business process services with sophisticated capabilities in analyzing and processing data that is entered into the program to develop interventions. This directly addresses the issue at hand and reduces any adverse risks currently present in a particular healthcare facility. Midas offers and develops “an individual patient care plan worksheet that includes goals, outcomes, and treatments to meet Joint commission” (Conduent Health Healthcare Provider Solutions, 2017, para 8).

The Midas program, which has the potential to become a nurse leader, demonstrates substantial value in developing treatments and producing beneficial results by looking at certain events or data stated in the program. Although Midas can produce results, a nurse leader can apply clinical reasoning and judgment based on experience and knowledge if they have the knowledge and capacity to understand how the results should be implemented accurately. Since there is a lack of bedside nurses in the field, the nurse-to-patient ratio is an example of how data may be collected concerning contemporary healthcare challenges that are surfacing at an all-time high. Nursing informatics was used in a study that was directly related to nurse-patient ratios, as explained by Paulson (2018). The hypothetical example is based on using the Midas program to enter information for when staffing needs aren’t reached and how it directly impacts patient care. Soon, though, it won’t be as fictitious given the nursing shortage affecting every hospital. According to Paulson (2018), the average number of patients in a day multiplied by the number of months or days in a year, or three hundred and sixty-five days, is used by hospitals to compute the number of hours per patient each day. Patient acuity is excluded from the hour per patient day, so the same number of nurses are needed regardless of whether acuity is average or above average. According to Paulson (2018), patient mortality would also increase if a unit’s staffing requirements were not reached and the majority of the nurses had less than two years of experience. Since many experienced nurses have retired, left their jobs, or moved on to accept travel contracts during the pandemic, hospitals are left with new nurses and a shortage of nurses to effectively staff the hospitals. To track and monitor death rates brought on by a shortage of nurses and untrained staff, Midas would be very helpful in any hospital. Using Midas, a nurse leader would use their clinical expertise to propose actions to lower unit mortality and utilize other resources to ensure the unit is staffed appropriately.

References

Conduent Health Healthcare Provider Solutions (2017). Midas Health Analytics Solutions Care Management – Improving Patient Safety and Quality Management. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://downloads.conduent.com/content/usa/en/brochure/midas-care-management.pdf

Links to an external site..

Paulson, R. A. (2018, July). Taking Nurse Staffing. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6039374/pdf/numa-49-42.pdf.

Sensmeier, J. (2019). The value and impact of the alliance for nursing informatics emerging leaders program. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 37(12), 612-614.