Nursing Informatics Report: EHR, Patient Safety, and Documentation

This report provides an overview of Nursing Informatics (NI), emphasizing the application of information technology and computer science within nursing practice. It highlights the role of electronic health records (EHR) in improving data management, patient safety, and healthcare quality. The report discusses the application areas of NI, including clinical practice, management, education, and research, while also acknowledging nurses' concerns about EHR design and implementation. It references key studies and articles that explore the challenges and opportunities of EHR, such as interoperability and the need for nursing input in technology design. The document underscores the importance of addressing issues related to healthcare technology to ensure the effective integration of informatics into nursing practice, ultimately aiming to enhance patient care and improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery. Furthermore, the report also mentions the need for digitalization and synchronization of prescription, dispensing, transcription and administration to combine bar code administration technology and real-time medication monitoring, improved adverse drug event warnings and data on negative event monitoring.

“Nursing informatics is and how it is important to the nursing profession.”
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“Nursing informatics is and how it is important to the nursing profession.”
“Nursing Informatics (NI)” is based on the concept of information technology and computer
science in the field of nursing study and practice. Advancements in IT accelerates efforts to
introduce informatics such as the “electronic health record (HER)”, so as to promote the
production, management and handling of suitable data in order to use information and develop a
knowledge that helps nursing in all areas of practice. The e-Health Register (EHR) consists of a
collection of all interactions between an individual and the health system that is electronically
accessible to health professionals anywhere in a country (subject to privacy, confidentiality,
security and legislation) (Lavin, Harper & Barr, 2015). The application areas of nursing
informatics include (Vasuki, 2016):
a. Clinical practice for electronic health records recording of patient evaluation information,
recording workload and procedures as an electronic by-product;
b. Management to analyze MIS reports produced by a software implementation for spreadsheets,
to review result indices using software for decision support;
c. Distance learning/teaching education through the internet;
d. Research on the assessment, using a normal minimum information set, of nursing-sensitive
results measures using the internet.
While EHR is applauded by nurses, they have shown displeasure to their design and
complicated electronic procedures. The EHR is a documentation instrument that provides
information that is helpful to increase the safety of patient, assess the standard of healthcare,
improve effectiveness and measure the requirement of staff (Beck et al., 2013).Although the
nurses show discontent with the concept of EHR and its cumbersome electronic procedures
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“Nursing informatics is and how it is important to the nursing profession.”
(SOCKOLOW, WEINER, BOWLES & LEHMANN, 2011), the EHR and the information
produced are seen as a way to enhance care, security, coordination and quality (Cipriano et al.,
2013) and as an instrument for studying, assessing and forecasting suitable nursing staff
requirements (Beck et al., 2013). EHR problems shared by personnel members of the Nursing
Practices Committee (IT) (“Missouri Nurses Association”) and suppliers should be given due
importance to ensure that the stakeholders feel comfortable in using nursing informatics (Lavin,
Harper & Barr 2015).
In the subject article (Lavin, Harper & Barr 2015), the expert-reflecting thinking and action
model was used to know the perspectives of nursing staffs. They shared the thoughts and
recommendations of their committee in order to increase both documentation and documentation
technology. Things related to healthcare include security of drugs, paperwork and practice
norms, and effectiveness in EHR. Interoperability, suppliers, nursing voice, innovation,
collaboration and education are all IT issues. Interoperability continues to be a major health
informatics problem. Providers and IT departments are recognized for responding to this
problem. This development will continue to enhance patient safety and the quality of healthcare,
including the growing use of big data and electronic measures. The document (Lavin, Harper &
Barr, 2015) will help nurses and the nursing sector to articulate issues and to understand and
enhance the role of EHR in visible data practice in the nursing industry. The community of
nursing practice also recommends the digitalization and synchronization of prescription,
dispensing, transcription and administration (including the category for medicines). In order to
attain the therapeutic goal, such a measure would combine bar code administration technology
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“Nursing informatics is and how it is important to the nursing profession.”
and real-time medication monitoring in the care area, improved adverse drug event warnings and
data on negative event monitoring (Lavin, Harper & Barr, 2015).
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“Nursing informatics is and how it is important to the nursing profession.”
References
Beck, S., Weiss, M., Ryan-Wenger, N., Donaldson, N., Aydin, C., Towsley, G., & Gardner, W. (2013).
Measuring Nurses’ Impact on Health Care Quality. Medical Care, 51, S15-S22. doi:
10.1097/mlr.0b013e3182802e8b
Cipriano, P., Bowles, K., Dailey, M., Dykes, P., Lamb, G., & Naylor, M. (2013). The importance of
health information technology in care coordination and transitional care. Nursing Outlook, 61(6),
475-489. doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2013.10.005
Lavin, M., Harper, E., & Barr, N. (2015). Health Information Technology, Patient Safety, and
Professional Nursing Care Documentation in Acute Care Settings. Retrieved 27 August 2019,
from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/
OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-20-2015/No2-May-2015/Articles-Previous-Topics/Technology-
Safety-and-Professional-Care-Documentation.html
SOCKOLOW, P., WEINER, J., BOWLES, K., & LEHMANN, H. (2011). A New Instrument for
Measuring Clinician Satisfaction with Electronic Health Records. CIN: Computers, Informatics,
Nursing, 29(10), 574-585. doi: 10.1097/ncn.0b013e31821a1568
Vasuki, R. (2016). The importance and impact of nursing informatics competencies for baccalaureate
nursing students and registered nurses. IOSR Journal of Nursing and Health Science (IOSR-
JNHS), 5(1), 20-25.
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