University Nursing Informatics: Client Care and Safety Report

This report delves into the critical role of nursing informatics within healthcare systems, emphasizing its impact on enhancing service delivery and improving patient care. It explores how the integration of healthcare processes with IT systems leads to increased efficiency and quality of care, including the early identification of potential issues and the use of real-time data for informed decision-making. The report highlights the significance of accurate data utilization in minimizing medical errors and improving patient safety, discussing the benefits of tools like computerized provider order entry. Furthermore, it addresses the evolving role of nurses in the healthcare landscape, emphasizing the need for advanced technological skills and education to adapt to industry changes and contribute to quality care delivery. The report also cites relevant references to support its findings.

Running head: Nursing Informatics
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Nursing Informatics
Student’s Name
University

Nursing Informatics
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The Role of Nursing Informatics in Health Care Systems.
Nursing informatics is used in healthcare systems to increase service delivery through
increasing communication of data between nurses and other departments in the organization.
Therefore, the system allows nurses to work at the bedside of the patient thus reducing the need
to move from one point to another either collecting information or reaching out to other
healthcare professions. The outcome is an improved care system that is a result of integration
between evidence-based practices and informatics.
The Primary Role of a Nursing Informatics
The role of nursing informatics is to integrate healthcare processes with the IT system in
the organization thus improving quality of care and efficiency in responding to patient situations.
Darvish, Bahramnezhad, Keyhanian, & Navidhamidi (2014) suggest that use of nursing
informatics can help is early identification of problems like changes in patient status for
interpretation of data using scientific tools to assist the nurse in making decisions. Therefore, real
time data collection and decision making is achieved through use of the system thus increasing
service delivery in the healthcare system
How Nursing Informatics Impact Client Safety
The foundation of nursing informatics is the accurate use of data and information
collected from patients to make medical decisions. Through placing patient information safety at
the table, nurses minimize errors in entering data and analyzing the same data thus improving the
safety of the patient. According to UC Irvine Health (2012), the use of tools like barcodes and
computerized provider order entry, the nurse reports accuracy in reporting patient data and

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allocating required medical resources thus achieving an accuracy of over 80%. The outcome is a
reduction of medical errors which have cost many hospitals and patients due to use of wrong
information to analyze and diagnose patients’ cases (Effken & Carty, 2002). Further, it allows
quick up-to-date access to patient information in itself reduces medical errors thus increasing
safety. For example, computer printed orders are easy to read since they are written in clear
language as compared to handwritten orders which may vary in writing thus leading to errors.
Further, the system allows the nurse to use available information to advise patients during
discharge while at the same time allowing patients to access health information even when out of
the facility.
Technological Skills Needed by Nurse Informaticists
o Clinical experience and competence
o Critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving.
o Computer skills
o Project management skills
Ways in Which Nursing Informatics Impact the Future of Client Care
The use of health informatics has shifted the primary role of the nurse in the healthcare
system and put them at the strategic end of the organization. This process has led to a growth and
an evolution in the role of the nurse in the healthcare system (Elkind, 2009). Today, the field is
experiencing significant changes that are changing where nurses work and how they deliver care.
Therefore, nurses will require more education to adapt to these changes in the system as a way of
meeting the required needs that they have. Since most hospitals are implementing new health

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systems for improving patient quality, nurses have to be empowered with more education to
allow them to adjust to the technological changes in the industry. The field of nursing has
changed with nurses being recognized as part of the quality care delivery system.

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References
Darvish, A., Bahramnezhad, F., Keyhanian, S., & Navidhamidi, M. (2014). The Role of Nursing
Informatics on Promoting Quality of Health Care and the Need for Appropriate
Education. Global Journal of Health Science, 6(6), 11-18.
Effken, J. A., & Carty, B. (2002). The Era of Patient Safety: Implications for Nursing
Informatics Curricula. Journal of Medical Information Association, 9(2).
Elkind, E. (2009). Why information systems are helpful to nursing. The Pennsylvania Nurse,
64(1), 24-25.
UC Irvine Health (Producer). (2012). Nurse informaticists take electronic medical records to the
next level [Motion Picture].