Nursing informatics
Nursing informatics presents nursing practitioners with a framework that acts as a guideline about utilizing current information and communication technology to improve the overall model of healthcare provision. In other words, nursing informatics is a specialty that conflates three disciplines that include information science, nursing, and computer science. These three disciplines are salient because they present a perfect blend to promote evidence-based healthcare. Computer science helps to utilize the most current technological resources to ease collecting and storing various information related to different patients. Information science facilitates the entire process of data entry, storage of data, and retrieval. Both computer and information sciences help improve the application of nursing science. It presents practitioners with a platform where they can access the data of different patients over an extended period and make nursing decisions based on critical assessment (Ammenwerth et al., 2011). In other words, information science and computer science help increase the aspect of evidence-based practice in nursing.
It is imperative to take keen note that integrating these three disciplines is not enough to promote the perfect level of the evidence-based healthcare practice that is required. Therefore, particular standards are vital to ensure uniform and superior quality nursing practice in all countries worldwide. One of the most fundamental nursing information standards is the requirement for nurses to be competent enough to utilize both computer and information systems to promote absolute productivity within their nursing practice.
Information Regulations
Regulations are a set of guidelines that restrict people on how to deal with intricate systems. Information regulation standards in nursing require nurses to be computer literate so that they can operate information systems optimally. Also, these regulations expect that nurses should not be overly dependent on the various information systems at their disposal but should always utilize their knowledge in nursing.
There are multiple applications of nursing informatics, which presents opportunities for nurses to improve their overall productivity. A few examples of the applications of nursing informatics are the use of patient tracking, healthcare management, advanced electronic communiquĂ©, performance reporting, and the assessment of improvements, registry functions, and patient self-management, among others (Su & Liu, 2012). The advantage of utilizing advanced information technology systems is the fact that they do not forget any data. Hence, they help increase accuracy when diagnosing and taking care of a particular patient. Moreover, electronic records provide a sense of continuity when dealing with a patient since most patients visit many healthcare providers. An integrated nursing informatics system would help nursing practitioners to gain a profound understanding of a patient’s medical history. Nursing informatics also helps healthcare practitioners to reduce the tendency to make errors because electronic systems have automated features that reveal concealed patterns that would otherwise have been intricate for one to identify. Thus, nursing informatics improves the overall quality of healthcare provision by easing the work for nurses and improving the general healthcare service reception for patients.
Real-Life Illustrations of how Nursing Informatics Improves Healthcare Provision
My experience with nursing informatics has been quite educational because it has helped me appreciate its role in improving the quality of healthcare provision in diverse ways. The most notable application that I have enjoyed so far is the use of telehealth (Nittari et al., 2020). The current global epidemic (COVID-19) has led to the placement of various travel restrictions, making it significantly more difficult for people to access medical services. Regardless, telehealth made it easier to cope as it still made it possible to provide healthcare services to patients. It was especially beneficial to patients with conditional ailments like hypertension or diabetes and required consistent medical checkups.
References
Ammenwerth, E., Rauchegger, F., Ehlers, F., Hirsch, B., & Schaubmayr, C. (2011). Effect of a nursing information system on the quality of information processing in nursing: An evaluation study using the HIS-monitor instrument. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 80(1), 25–38.
Nittari, G., Khuman, R., Baldoni, S., Pallotta, G., Battineni, G., Sirignano, A., Amenta, F., & Ricci, G. (2020). Telemedicine practice: Review of the current ethical and legal challenges. Telemedicine and E-Health, 26(12), 1427–1437.
Su, K.-W., & Liu, C.-L. (2012). A mobile Nursing Information System based on human-computer interaction design for improving quality of nursing. Journal of Medical Systems, 36(3), 1139–1153.