NR 351 Week 7 Discussion: Informatics In Professional Nursing (Graded)

NR 351 Week 7 Discussion: Informatics in Professional Nursing (Graded)

NR 351 Week 7 Discussion: Informatics in Professional Nursing (Graded)

Informatics, or the science of information impacts the management of information and technology with emphasis o security and confidentiality of patient and provider information (Rossel, 2003).

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates confidentiality of client medical records and certain information shared with insurance companies, physicians, hospitals and other health care providers (Hood, 2018).

Being an RN, I take special measures to ensure patient privacy.  During my assessment and interview in the pro-operative area I am aware of how loud my voice is and I always pull the privacy curtain.  I am diligent in logging out of the computer after my charting as well.  If I make any notes for myself, I only use the patient initials as my identifier and make sure my notes are shredded after my care is complete.

During my time as a circulator, I have encountered high-school peers, friends, relatives colleagues and people who I know from my church.  If the situation allows, I approach them with the option of me excusing myself from participating in their care.  In some cases, I know the patient would not wish for me to be involved so I simply explain to my charge nurse and ask to be re-assigned. As a surgical technologist, there were times that I only realized that I knew the patient after they had entered the surgical suite.  As a surgical technologist, I could remain in the “shadows” and under my hat and mask remain anonymous.  I would not greet them and make my presence and identity known.

Regarding the use on-line resources for finding credible information, I use the Chamberlain Library as directed and if not searching the library, I try to find web-sites that end in .gov or .edu.  There are standard sites that I return to time and again because I feel that they are legitimate sites based on the reference used in their sitings.  

This class has expanded my knowledge of how to find credible sources and I find that when I see an article, I am now better informed on how to research further and investigate thoroughly so that my information is credible.

References

Rossel, C. L. Chart (CHART), 2003 Jan-Feb; 100(1): 11-11.(1p)

Hood, L. J. (2018).  NR351. Leddy and Pepper’s Professional Nursing (9th edition).  Philadelphia, PA Wolters Kluwer 

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I use informatics in my everyday practice by applying evidence-based practice along with my own personal experiences to better communicate with patients. According to the Massachusetts Nurse of the Future (2016), nurses need, “to analyze as well as synthesize information and collaborate in order to make critical decisions that optimize patient outcomes” (p. 26).  Similarly the Massachusetts Nurse of the Future (2016), also states under evidenced-based practice, that nurses need to, “evaluate, and use the best current evidence coupled with clinical expertise and consideration of patients’ preferences, experience and values to make practice decisions” (p. 47).  While informatics and evidence-based practice are their own core competencies for nursing, I see many areas where they overlap.

According to Hood (2018), informatics is, “the science of information” (p. 355). When I hear the word science, it makes me think of the scientific method and how emotion and different belief systems are left out of the equation. This is where there is room for ethical issues to arise from using nursing informatics in professional nursing.

One example of an ethical issue is whether to treat cancer or let nature take its course. While the medical field might have answers on how to treat cancer due to nursing informatics and evidence-based practice, a person might not want to do so. According to Roy (1989), people have realized that withholding life support is sometimes the right thing to do. “Allowing terminally ill patients to die with dignity…may involve withholding or discontinuing such interventions as respirator support, chemotherapy, surgery and even assisted nutrition and hydration” (p. 343).

References:

Hood, L. J. (2018). Leddy & Pepper’s professional nursing (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies: Registered Nurse. (Revised March 2016). Retrieved from http://www.mass.edu/nahi/documents/NOFRNCompetencies_updated_March2016.pdfLinks to an external site. Roy, D. J. (1989). Ethical issues in the treatment of cancer patients. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 67(4), 341-346. Retrieved from https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/pmc/articles/PMC2491264/?page=3Links to an external site.

Informatics is helping to change the face of healthcare and technology continues to have the capability to change our practice for the better. Performing glucose readings on my unit is very common with our pregnant moms. These monitors are very user friendly and provide a quick result along with the ease of automatically downloading the results to the computer after redocking it when the testing is complete. By embracing informatics in healthcare and technology along with understanding strengths and weaknesses we can use them to help with making clinical decisions. Providers can stay ahead of the curve as well as help advance practice and patient safety. Computer and information literacy are very important for nursing in the future (AACN, 2008).

Safeguarding the privacy and security of health information is very important along with the appropriate disclosure of health information as well as ensuring it is available. Having the ease of automatically downloading the results eliminates the risk of data entry errors and data breaches can occur if information is not secured (Kruse, et al 2017).Having this information automatically entered can also allow more time for patient care.

References:

AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. October 20, 2008 Pages 17-20. 

Kruse, C. S., Smith, B., Vanderlinden, H., & Nealand, A. (2017). Security Techniques for the    Electronic Health Records. Journal of Medical Systems, 41(8). doi: 10.1007/s10916-017-0778-4