Clinical Decision Making and Health Information Technology

Running head:CLINICAL DECISION MAKING AND HEALTH INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Clinical Decision Making and Health Information Technology
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CLINICAL DECISION MAKING AND HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY1
Part A: Factors Influencing Clinical Decision-making
The most significant part of providing excellent clinical care to patients is to have a
ready mind and rapid decision-making ability. This essay aims to shed light on the factors
that influence how the nursing staff make medical decisions to provide the best possible care
to their patients, followed by how Health Information Technology aids in the process of
nursing care and enhances the quality of care the patients receive from the healthcare
professionals.
Clinical decision making can be referred to the decisions taken by the nurses or
caregivers by evaluating and assessing the patients to plan out the best possible intervention
for them to ensure the best patients outcomes. Several factors influence the way nurses come
to a decision (Wu, Yang, Liu & Ye, 2016). The key elements that influenced the decision
making by the medical staff are listed as regular supervision and feedback from supervisors,
teamwork and cooperation, commitment, the availability and knowledge of medical
appliances and continuous learning and acquiring of professional knowledge (Gizaw et al.,
2018),
One of the more critical factors affecting the decision-making process is the role of
the supervisor and their feedback. The supervision is carried out by the nursing leaders and
the way they conduct themselves influences the decision-making of the nurses. If a leader is
open and frank with the nurses, it usually has a very positive effect on the clinical decision
making of the nurses. The nurses are not afraid to take decisions when required or ask for
help when needed because they are sure that the leader is there to help and will provide the
best guidance without admonishing them for not knowing. In a clinical setting such as a
primary inpatient facility, it is essential that the nurses stay ready and take decisions when
necessary (Sarto & Veronesi, 2016).

CLINICAL DECISION MAKING AND HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY2
In some cases, the leader is incompetent and does not provide any feedback causes the
nurses to be unsure of what do to and unlikely to make the best decisions. Another problem
occurs when the leader takes all decisions by herself and does not involve the nurses. This
hampers the clinical decision making of the nurses as they do not get the necessary
experience and are often confused in emergencies. When they do take decisions, it is often to
please the supervisor and not necessarily in the best interest of the patient. It has been
observed that better leadership and supervision makes the nurses sure of their decision-
making abilities and in turn, have better patient outcomes (Boamah et al., 2018).
Part B: Health Information Technology
With the increasing world population, the need for rapid, efficient and quality patient
care is on the rise. The concept of Health Information Technology (HIT) has taken medical
settings by storm in recent times. It has been implemented in more and more medical settings
in the recent times and is believed to increase teamwork, morality and provide a better quality
of care to patients (Ko, Wagner & Spetz, 2018). One of the most significant examples of HIT
is the use of Electronic Health Record, also abbreviated as EHR. It is one of the oldest
examples of HIT and has been implemented in a large number of health facilities (Nesheva,
2019). EHR can be described as the electronic version of a patient record which was
traditionally done by paper. It is rapid and provides detailed patient information to the nurses
and authorities whenever they require it.
Many studies have supported the idea of EHR and provided evidence that it is
beneficial and handy in terms of simplifying the collection of patient data. By increasing the
speed of documenting patient data and easy access to those data whenever needed, the
administration of medical care has become prompt and much more efficient (Nguyen,
Bellucci & Nguyen, 2014). Apart from these obvious benefits, it has also been said to result