Importance of Informatics in Nursing and Healthcare

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATICS IN NURSING AND HEALTHCARE 1
Importance of Informatics in Nursing and Healthcare
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IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATICS IN NURSING AND HEALTHCARE 2
Importance of Informatics in Nursing and Healthcare
Information plays a significant role in facilitating effective decision making and delivery
of high quality services in healthcare and nursing practice. According to McGonigle and
Mastrian (2018), nurses make use of information in the processes of evaluating the healthcare
requirements of their clients, advancing the required care plans and fostering proper analysis of
staffing, budgets and reports. Glassman (2017) define health informatics as the combination of
technology, people, information, science and processes with the aim of supporting healthcare
professionals, clients and patients in their decision making endeavors. The current study seeks to
undertake a critical analysis of the significances of informatics in improving quality, fostering
effective decision making and minimizing the costs of operation in nursing and healthcare.
Informatics is of great essence in nursing. According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2018),
practicing nurses can take advantage of the novelties presented by informatics such as electronic
health records (EHRs) to foster positive interactions with the health care system. Lin, Hsu and
Yang (2017) reveal that by adopting EHRs, members of the nursing profession are presented
with ample opportunities of instilling effective decision making procedures. EHRs avail nurses
with progress notes, imaging and consultation record s as well as test results that guide in
decision making procedures. On the other hand, Glassman (2017) reveals that nursing
informatics could be used to initiate operational procedures that are aimed at promoting the
processes of generating, managing and processing applicable professional data to facilitate the
initiatives of generating knowledge.
Informatics plays an effective role in fostering the improvement of healthcare quality and
reducing operational costs. Lin et al. (2017) reveal that the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (2009) obliges the federal government to invest over $25 billion as a way of