Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker - Nursing Informatics

This assignment examines the concept of the nurse leader as a knowledge worker, as defined by Peter Drucker, and its application within nursing informatics. It explores the role of nurse leaders in supporting care professionals, patients, and multidisciplinary teams through their knowledge and expertise. The assignment includes a discussion of nursing informatics, the role of a nurse leader, and a hypothetical scenario involving Catheter Acquired Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI), including data collection methods and adherence to CDC guidelines. The solution also incorporates peer feedback on monitoring and evaluating compliance with CDC guidelines, emphasizing the importance of education, monitoring, and potential penalties for non-compliance to ensure stringent adherence to infection control protocols.

The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker
CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE
WORKER
• As stated by Patalas-Maliszewska (2013), knowledge workers are defined as high-
level workers who integrate theoretical and analytical knowledge in order to foster
service development
• The concept of knowledge worker was propounded by Peter Drucker and finds its
first use in his book ‘The Landmarks of Tomorrow 1959’
• Ducker identified knowledge workers as the most valuable asset of the 21st
century.
NURSING INFORMATICS
• Nursing informatics can be defined as the speciality domain within the nursing
profession that deals with the nursing science to manage multiple information and
apply analytical sciences so as to recognize, define, communicate and manage
important data and knowledge that are essential for Nursing practice (McCormick
& Saba, 2015).
• The branch of Nursing Informatics makes use of information structures,
information processes and information technology in order to store and manage
important data.
ROLE OF A NURSE LEADER
 Effectively motivate and manage human resource
 Maintain customer focus
 Appropriately manage finances
 Ensure quality in terms of service provision
 Align resources and workforce interests with organizational vision
ROLE OF NURSE LEADER AS A
KNOWLEDGE WORKER
• Nurse Leaders support care professionals, patients, service users, multidisciplinary
team of professionals and other stakeholders with their knowledge and expertise
in the decision making process across different roles and settings to acquire
desired outcome (McGonigle et al., 2014).
• As stated by Nurse Leaders assist care professionals with a clinical supervision tool
that helps in rendering holistic care services and at the same time helps in
improving the quality of the services provided.
• .
EVALUATION OF HYPOTHETICAL
SCENARIO
The hypothetical scenario has been chosen as the increased prevalence of Catheter Acquired
Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) among the hospitalized patients. In order to determine the
incidence of the infection rate, a quantitative data collection method could be used. Observation
and documentation of patients with catheter placement and indication of catheter placement could
be documented for reference. The nursing professionals must determine the length of catheter
placement and communicate it to the physician and the multidisciplinary team of professionals. The
catheters must be placed as per the CDC guidelines and care professionals must comply with the
infection control protocol that comprise of hand hygiene, knowledge about catheter placement
using the aseptic technique, ensure maintenance of unobstructed urine flow and collect urine
sample for culture. The culture analysis would help in determining the potential risk of CAUTI in
patients. I had successfully been able to implement my proposed plan in my previous placement and
the six month data suggests no incidence of CAUTI within the acute and critical care unit.
PEER POST AND FEEDBACK
REFERENCES:
McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics. McGraw-Hill Education.
Retrieved from: https://lib.hpu.edu.vn/handle/123456789/32430
McGonigle, D., Hunter, K., Sipes, C., & Hebda, T. (2014). Why nurses need to understand nursing
informatics. AORN journal, 100(3), 324-327. Retrieved from:
https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=I4GHCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=nursing+informatics&ots=7om4h8yfa
W&sig=BXJ55vOvN3LomnaanuX3UNnByhE#v=onepage&q=nursing%20informatics&f=false
Patalas-Maliszewska, J. (2013). Managing Knowledge Workers. Value Assessment, Methods, and
Application Tools. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-
36600-0
• Peer Post: How would you monitor and evaluate compliance with CDC
guidelines?
• Regular workshops could be conducted to impart education and disseminate
awareness in relation to infection control guidelines recommended by CDC.
Nurse Leaders could monitor the quality of service delivery by the care
professionals and encourage reporting from fellow colleagues in case of non-
compliance. In case of non-compliance, identified professional could be
penalised in terms of salary/leave balance deduction depending upon the
frequency of non-compliance. This would ensure stringent compliance with the
CDC guidelines on infection control.