BLOG: HOW HAS NURSING INFORMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY IMPACTED YOUR PRACTICE?
BLOG: HOW HAS NURSING INFORMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY IMPACTED YOUR PRACTICE?
It is March 2020, and COVID-19 has resulted in lockdowns and stay-at-home orders nationwide. Patients are fearful to visit healthcare offices and hospitals, for routine care or other illnesses. As a result, virtual technologies are introduced to bridge the gap between healthcare needs and an emerging pandemic. Patients are encouraged to schedule visits virtually and seek care in new ways.
While the impacts of COVID-19 in 2020 were immediate, how might these changes influence the capabilities of healthcare beyond a pandemic? How might these changes become permanent or even facilitate further change and innovation?
For this Discussion, you will explore the impact of digital technology on nursing practice. Consider the influence these technologies may have on nursing practice, and what skills you might need to hone in on in order to address these needs.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE
Review the Learning Resources for this week and focus on the article, “How COVID-19 Accelerated the Digital Transformation of Healthcare.”
Reflect on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare and nursing practice.
Consider your nursing background and professional interests as you view the video.
What potential skills, knowledge, or competencies might you need to develop for your healthcare organization or nursing practice given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic?
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 3
Post a response to your blog describing your own experiences with digital changes and how the COVID-19 has affected your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Address the following:
Summarize how informatics has impacted or changed nursing practice, especially with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Provide an example from your personal or professional experience. Be sure to also include the name of the professional organization you belong to.
Explain how established informatics competencies may influence quality of care, safety improvements, and any other changes since the pandemic for excellence in nursing practice. Be specific. What would you need to do to develop skills, knowledge, and competencies in order to apply the technology?
Describe your informatics strengths and preferences, as well as potential challenges and areas for development.
Do you think the information technology framework discussed in the Ye, et al. (2020) article is applicable in the U.S. to manage COVID and other major pandemics? How much of what is discussed do we currently use?
Describe one strategy for enhancing and updating your project management and informatics skills and competencies. You will reflect on this again in Week 11 and application to the development of your dissertation.
BY DAY 6 OF WEEK 3
Read a selection of your colleagues’ blog posts and respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by expanding upon their responses or sharing additional or alternative perspectives.
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Collapse SubdiscussionTelecia Shantee’ Allen
Telecia Shantee’ Allen
Dec 12, 2022Dec 12, 2022 at 6:17pm
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How has Nursing Informatics and Technology Impacted your Practice?
Informatics has had a tremendous impact on nursing practice and the way nurses interact with technology and use data to inform their decisions. Today, nurses are able to access shared medical records, manage patient information more efficiently, and even provide direct care via telehealth services (Bakken, 2020). This has been particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic as it enabled healthcare providers to continue providing care while reducing the risk of exposure (Vaishya et al., 2020; Bakken, 2020). This discussion summarizes how informatics has impacted the provision of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
My personal experience with informatics has been through my membership in the American Nurses Association (ANA). The ANA has provided a wealth of resources and guidance related to informatics such as best practice guidelines, educational programs, and online forums for nurses to discuss challenges and share successes. Through my involvement with the ANA, I have been able to stay abreast of the ever-evolving landscape of informatics and ensure that my practice remains up-to-date.
During the pandemic, my organization took a proactive approach to promote telehealth services and the use of informatics to ensure that patient care could continue safely. We provided training for staff on how to conduct virtual visits, upload documents into our EHR, and securely access patient records. This has been a great success and has allowed us to provide high-quality care while minimizing risk of exposure.
How Informatics Competencies Influence the Quality of Care
To develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to apply informatics in practice, I have taken advantage of the various educational opportunities available. This has included reading articles and attending webinars related to new technology advancements, participating in online forums for exchanging information, and taking courses specific to informatics that have been offered by my organization and professional associations. In addition, I have had the opportunity to shadow and learn from colleagues with more experience in informatics as well as other healthcare professionals such as pharmacists who use technology extensively in their practice. All of these experiences have helped me to gain a greater understanding of how informatics can be applied and improved upon in nursing practice.
My Informatics Strengths, Preferences, and Challenges
My strengths in informatics lie in my ability to quickly learn new technology systems and understand how they can be used to support patient care. I am also comfortable discussing technical topics with colleagues and troubleshooting technical issues as they arise. My preferred approach is a team-based one, which allows me to collaborate with colleagues to find the best solutions and ensure that everyone is comfortable with the technology being used.
My biggest challenge in informatics lies in staying up-to-date with the ever-evolving landscape and understanding how new technologies can be applied to nursing practice. With advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, telehealth, and data analysis, there are always new concepts that need to be mastered (Jason, 2020). I have found that the best way to stay current is by continuously learning and staying connected with other professionals who work in informatics. Overall, my experiences with informatics have been positive and they have allowed me to remain proficient in this area of nursing practice. With continued education, I will continue to develop my knowledge and skills.
Relevance of Ye et al. (2020)’s Work in managing COVID
In their work, Ye et al. (2020) described a technical framework based on practical experience in China that can be translated into the United States setting. The framework that relies on the use of the Internet of things (IoT) for early detection, early warning, prevention, control, and other tasks related to COVID-19 could therefore prove useful for managing pandemics in the US.
The authors highlight that a major component of the framework is data analysis, which involves integrating data and location-based services for tracking and monitoring the pandemic. This is something that many healthcare organizations are already doing in the US.
In addition, Ye et al. (2020) emphasize the importance of using informatics tools to enhance communication and collaboration among healthcare providers, public health authorities, administrative staff, and patients. This could be beneficial for improving data sharing, gathering real-time information about the disease spread, and streamlining administrative processes.
Overall, it is evident that many of the ideas discussed in Ye et al.’s (2020) work are applicable to managing pandemics in the US. With continued technological advancements and the implementation of evidence-based informatics strategies, healthcare organizations can continue to improve their ability to detect, monitor, and manage diseases such as COVID-19.
References
Bakken S. (2020). Informatics is a critical strategy in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 27(6), 843–844. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocaa101
Jason, C. (2020). How COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation of healthcare Links to an external site.Links to an external site.. EHR Intelligence. https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-covid-19-accelerated-the-digital-transformation-of-healthcareLinks to an external site.
Vaishya, R., Haleem, A., Vaish, A., & Javaid, M. (2020). Emerging technologies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology, 10(4), 409–411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jceh.2020.04.019
Ye, Q., Zhou, J., & Wu, H. (2020). Using information technology to manage the COVID-19 pandemic: Development of a technical framework based on practical experience in China Links to an external site.Links to an external site.. JMIR Medical Informatics, 8(6), Article e19515. https://doi.org/10.2196/19515
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Collapse SubdiscussionVicky Awken Ngang
Vicky Awken Ngang
Dec 13, 2022Dec 13, 2022 at 9:57pm
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Hello Telecia
Thank you for your informative blog this week. I agree that the COVID-19 pandemic has ignited health care technology innovation for telemedicine. COVID 19 pandemic created many challenges and threats to the world, especially for health care professionals. Data use and creativity becomes evident in the shared decision-making process (Dagliati et al., 2021). During the pandemic, all states were under stringent restrictions on the social distance to prevent the spread of infection. Therefore, contactless care and touchless healthcare was the answer to providing a continuum of clinical health care. As telehealth faced challenges it still brought convenience and flexibility for both patients and providers but mostly the hard introduction of healthcare to adapt to virtual care to sustain the relationship between the provider and patient as well as interprofessional collaboration (Breton et al., 2021). Once again, thank you for your insightful blog this week.
Refence:
Breton, M., Sullivan, E.E., Deville-Stoetzel, N., McKinstry, D., DePuccio, M., Sriharan, A., Deslauriers, V., Dong, A., & McAlearney, A.S., (2021). Telehealth challenges during COVID-19 as reported by primary healthcare physicians in Quebec and Massachusetts. BMC Family Practice, 22, 192. https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-021-01543-4#citeas
Dagliati, A., Malovini, A., Tibollo, V., & Bellazzi, R. (2021). Health informatics and EHR to support clinical research in the COVID-19 pandemic: an overview. Briefings in bioinformatics, 22(2), 812-822. https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbaa418Links to an external site.
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Collapse SubdiscussionChristian Offor
Christian Offor
Dec 14, 2022Dec 14, 2022 at 3:41pm
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Telecia, thanks for your post. According to Ye et al., (2020) informatics played a crucial role in nursing practice, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented disruption to the entire world. Soon after the outbreak, there were no effective interventions that could stop the spread of the virus except the implementation of lock downs, social distancing, and mandated mask wearing. Telehealth, which is defined as the provision and management of healthcare services for individuals in their homes, or care support facilitated remotely by healthcare professionals via digital media, played an essential role in balancing the care demands between social distancing and providing everyday care services in public (Chang et al., 2020). During Covid-19, services like telehealth really allowed healthcare to become more accessible to patients who not able to make it into the office but able to utilize services remotely (Zhang, Song., & Haiyan, 2020). With the pandemic, telehealth transformed the model of care and was perceived as more important than ever. Nurses who are competent in these areas were able to provide their best in the Covid pandemic. According to Kaihlanen et al. (2021), a lack of competence in informatics negatively impacts nursing professionals who experience psychological stress and inability to deliver quality care since they cannot perform some tasks.
References
Chang, D., Xu, H., Rebaza, A., Sharma, L., & Dela Cruz, C. S. (2020). Protecting healthcare workers from subclinical coronavirus infection. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 8(3), e13. 10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30066-7
Kaihlanen, A. M., Gluschkoff, K., Laukka, E., & Heponiemi, T. (2021). The information system stress, informatics competence and well-being of newly graduated and experienced nurses: a cross-sectional study. BMC health services research, 21(1), 1-8.
Ye, Q., Zhou, J., & Wu, H. (2020). Using Information Technology to Manage the COVID-19 Pandemic: Development of a Technical Framework Based on Practical Experience in China. JMIR medical informatics, 8(6), e19515. https://doi.org/10.2196/19515Links to an external site.
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Collapse SubdiscussionRosemary Kwaven
Rosemary Kwaven
Dec 14, 2022Dec 14, 2022 at 5:25pm
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Hello Telecia,
Thanks for your informatic post. I belong to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and the American Nurses Association (ANA). Both professional organizations provide members with up-to-date informatics technology to help nurses adapt to the current healthcare system. They provide education and resources on vaccination and testing for COVID-19 and other vital information on health and patient care. Informatics is becoming more significant in nursing due to technological advancement. It has enhanced nursing practice, enabled quicker access to patient information, improved overall efficiency, and reduced potential errors (Darvish et al., 2014). Integrating informatics with evidence-based practice (EBP) can only help improve the care we provide to our patients. The establishment of informatics competencies has contributed to enhancing quality nursing care regarding quality, safety, and overall excellence in nursing practice. It helps nurses provide patient-centered quality care and bridge any gaps in clinical practice. My personal experience includes attending classes and orientations and participating in workshops to improve my knowledge and understanding of clinical practice, informatics, and project management. I am open to learning new skills and constantly applying my knowledge, experience, and competence when providing patient care.
Reference
Darvish, A., Bahramnezhad, F., Keyhanian, S., & Navidhamidi, M. (2014). The role of nursing informatics in promoting quality of health care and the need for appropriate education. Global Journal of Health Science, 6(6), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v6n6p11Links to an external site.
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