NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

Sample Answer for NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies Included After Question

In the Discussion for this module, you considered the interaction of nurse informaticis with other specialists to ensure successful care. How is that success determined?

Patient outcomes and the fulfillment of care goals is one of the major ways that healthcare success is measured. Measuring patient outcomes results in the generation of data that can be used to improve results. Nursing informatics can have a significant part in this process and can help to improve outcomes by improving processes, identifying at-risk patients, and enhancing efficiency.

Resources

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.

WEEKLY RESOURCES

To Prepare:

  • Review the concepts of technology application as presented in the Resources.
  • Reflect on how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence may help fortify nursing informatics as a specialty by leading to increased impact on patient outcomes or patient care efficiencies.

The Assignment: (4-5 pages not including the title and reference page)

In a 4- to 5-page project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency. Your project proposal should include the following:

  • Describe the project you propose.
  • Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project.
  • Explain the patient outcome(s) or patient-care efficiencies this project is aimed at improving and explain how this improvement would occur. Be specific and provide examples.
  • Identify the technologies required to implement this project and explain why.
  • Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the nurse informaticist in the project team.
  • Use APA format and include a title page and reference page.
  • Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.

By Day 7 of Week 4

Submit your completed Project Proposal.

submission information

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A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

Title: NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

The main goal of this paper is to describe a project proposal to one health care organizational leadership. This proposal of nursing information establishes the aim of improving patient care efficiencies and patient outcomes. The first section contains a well-established project description. The following section is the stakeholders. After identifying stakeholders, the paper will then explain how the project will impact the stakeholders. Next, after impacts will be the section containing patient care efficiencies or patient outcomes this project aims to enhance and how the enhancement will occur. Besides, the paper will also discuss the technologies required for the project to be implemented. Lastly, this paper will also discuss the project team and their responsibilities, especially the role contributed by nurse informatics on the project.

Project Description

The proposed project is about using Telehealth and telemedicine technology like laptops, iPads, and smartphones. The four main types of Telehealth will be mobile health, remote patient monitoring, live video-conferencing, and lastly, asynchronous video. Every health care personnel must be entitled to wear monitored smartphones used at the start of their working shifts. Also, every nursing station should be entitled to at least one or more laptops. With the availability of laptops in each nursing station, nurses, clinicians, doctors and other health care staff will record and store patient information such as admission, discharge and other records needed for further use. Through laptops and smartphones, nurses and other health care experts can monitor the health of their patients, mostly for those in charge of in-patient care and can also use some apps o monitor chronic illness at home. Technological devices should be given to nurses to help them monitor patient signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and blood glucose remotely. Nurses can be alerted through alarms when patients at home need immediate attention.

NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies
NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

For telemedicine, some nurses can use it as the primary way of providing care to remote patients. Noted that telemedicine websites, nurse hotlines, and online chart technologies can be very useful in connecting nurses to their remote patients for daily questions or management of symptoms. Besides, the phones, laptops, websites, nurse hotlines can all be used by the medical team to speak to one another. For instance, a senior medic in his absence can use such tools to guide other nurses on what to do to manage emergencies. Tucson et al., 2017 adds that through this hotlines or direct Whatssap messages or telegram, the lab experts can send text messages to alert expert care providers about critical lab results. Appropriate action can be decided straight away to prevent the patient from death or severe complications. Through telehealth technologies, nurses will also be able to quickly share patients’ information with specialists in real-time and link patients with the best care across the globe.

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Stakeholders

The key stakeholders for Telehealth will comprise of a large group. These will include the ministry of health, hospital administrators, IT department teams, specialists, doctors, therapists, Nurse Informaticists, nurses, patients, director of nurses, clinical departments and other supporting staff. The ministry of health, hospital administrators and nurses will use Telehealth to monitor the performances of the selected stakeholders. Doctors, nurses, therapists will use telehealth technologies to provide care for patients. The patients will use Telehealth to receive Medicare care, and they are the most impacted. The IT team will create an appropriate internet base to enhance the selected software and hardware. They are central to the project because their role is paramount. According to Li (2018), Nurse Informaticists possess clinical, technical knowledge and clinical expertise needed to decide and choose the best technology that meets the demands of the patients and the health care organization in general. The hospital administrator will play the role of managing budgets and staff in between departments. Lastly, the nurse director is responsible for overseeing all nursing staff and creating policies, training and procedure as required. They are also entitled to developing training programs for all the teams and new ones.

Patient care Efficiencies or Patient Outcome

Currently, technology has transformed the delivery of health care services. Technology has now taken a central role in the field of health care. According to Kruse et al. (2017), healthcare has increasingly transitioned into a more technologically delivered service. This has made life easy for patients because with Telehealth in place, patients can now receive health care services at the comfort of their homes without taking the trouble of physically visiting the hospital facilities. Besides, Telehealth is increasingly transforming healthcare to boost the quality of care and patient outcome. Tele-health has enabled patients to access health care more effectively, with lower cost and easier access to the best specialist in the world. The devices used to lower healthcare costs are the portable laptops, and smartphones patients can use to make video and conference calls with their specialists (Sullivan, 2014). With the help of wearable monitor devices, nurses can prevent patients from dying due to a lack of medical care. There is increased patients satisfaction.

These devices also help lessen the possibilities of infections, given that there is limited individual physical contact with one another. Portable computers and wearable monitor smartphones also aim to prevent patient mortality rates in the hospital and complications and increase patient and healthcare worker’s satisfaction. During the current pandemic, these dives were so relevant in minimizing relevant challenges faced in health care systems.  Kvedar et al. (2014) add that through live interactive videos, sharing of interactive video and information transfer helps health care providers to make consultations with patients, administer the best diagnosis and make appropriate treatment recommendations.

Technologies required for the project to be implemented

There is increased creativity and complex telehealth types of equipment, implying that telehealth projects will require various technologies to be implemented. Nonetheless, this project will not require most equipment types to get started (Gagnon, 2020). There will need for portable laptops and wearable smartphones plus a standard server for integrating with other health care facilities. The other technologies are digital cameras. These are needed to do any conference. Nurses will need a webcam to take detailed medical images. For instance, a nurse will need to take a photo of the patient’s skin and share it with a skin specialist in another location. Down on the list is the telehealth kit required by the health care providers who provide frontline care in remote areas. These kits resemble a sturdy briefcase and comprise of a camera, a small screen laptop with an integrated screen and a simple mobile device. The other most important technology is telehealth software. Some telehealth providers need to purchase a software system that requires installing it on medical practices’ computers. They will need extra pieces of equipment like data storage hardware.

The Project Team

The project team will comprise various individuals, including nurse managers, charge nurses, and normal nurses. The other team is that of the support staff, including scheduling representatives, EMT and CAN coordinators. In addition, the project will also have an IT team, nurse informatics, who are the strength of the project, then therapists, nutritionists and a team of doctors. The project team encompasses everyone starting from patient admission, checkups, diagnosis, treatment and discharge from the hospital. Given that nurse informatics is so important in promoting this project, their roles are worth explaining. According to Li (2018), the role of nurse informatics in telehealth projects is to set up these types of equipment in the home of patients, teaching both the patients and other health care providers how to use them and troubleshooting in case of technical errors. Besides, they also play the role of collecting information and interpreting it for patients and other health providers. Chigliuti (2015) adds that nurse informatics is also responsible for ensuring that current and new staff orientation and training are carried out. It is also the responsibility of nurse informatics to liaise with the IT team for any change in the system, and case upgrades are required to improve service quality. Any orientation and training are needed from each department; nurse informaticists will be.

Conclusively, Telehealth as the proposed project for the health care organization is the best. With the advancement in technology, there is no way health care facilities will guarantee the quality of patient care without incorporating necessary technologies. This is the reason the proposed project is the best. After analyzing what some literature reviews talk about Telehealth, it is important to note that health care quality will greatly improve shortly. Technology is still advancing. Much as the health care sector is already benefiting from telehealth technologies, and the best is yet to come. With this, this paper concludes.

 

 

References

Chigliuti, M. S. (2015, December 18). What is the role of nurse informatics in telemedicine? LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-role-nurse-informatics-telemedicine-cigliuti-bsn-rn-

Gagnon, D. (2020, December 14). Nursing week | Telehealth technology. Southern New Hampshire University – On-Campus & Online Degrees | SNHU. https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/2020/05/role-of-telehealth-in-nursing

Kruse, C. S., Krowski, N., Rodriguez, B., Tran, L., Vela, J., & Brooks, M. (2017). Telehealth and patient satisfaction: A systematic review and narrative analysis. BMJ Open, 7(8), e016242. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016242

Kvedar, J., Coye, M. J., & Everett, W. (2014). Connected health: A review of technologies and strategies to improve patient care with telemedicine and Telehealth. Health Affairs, 33(2), 194-199. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0992

Li, C. (2018, June 30). Nursing leadership through informatics – Leadership and influencing change in nursing. Leadership and Influencing Change in Nursing – Simple Book Publishing. https://leadershipandinfluencingchangeinnursing.pressbooks.com/chapter/chapter-14-nursing-leadership-through-informatics-facilitating-and-empowering-health-using-digital-technology/

Sullivan, K. (2014, July 17). Stakeholders see benefits with the use of Telehealth. AJMC. https://www.ajmc.com/view/stakeholders-see-benefits-with-the-use-of-telehealth-. (n.d.).

Tuckson, R. V., Edmunds, M., & Hodgkins, M. L. (2017). Telehealth. New England Journal of Medicine, 377(16), 1585-1592. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsr1503323

 

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A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

Title: NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

The trend accelerated even faster with the advent of more sophisticated technology. There are now wearable devices with stronger technology that allows the individual to transmit blood pressure readings, for example, to their doctor’s office where the doctor can immediately act in the event that the patient’s numbers are of concern. This quick and real-time transmission of patient’s data allows the provider to keep a finger on the “pulse” of their patients.

The fueling of the upward trend of medical informatics does not stop at mere blood pressure readings on wearable mobile devices but are now integrated with our smartphones as smartphone ownership has increased over 30% in the last two decades (Poushter, 2016). There are certain software and sensors that can be adapted to one’s smartphones in an effort to collect accurate blood pressure readings and to transmit those readings immediately to one’s healthcare provider. In addition, one’s smartphone is able to graph and do other data analysis while also transmitting such data to one’s healthcare provider. These smartphones and integrated software can also alert the individual whenever blood pressure or pulse rate approach abnormal levels.

The sophistication of technology does not only allow the patient to obtain real-time blood pressure readings or pulse rates. Smartphones are now equipped with sensors to measure an abundance of other medical readings such as glucose levels, EKG as well as blood oxygen levels (Del Rosario, 2015). These types of readings were only recently and exclusively done in the doctor’s office (Demetris, 2016). Individual consumers are now able to generate such data and provide it to their healthcare provider. In addition, it adds a new level in patient participation in generating abundance of medical data that can then be used more efficiently and carefully by the doctor.

It is quite clear that as technology becomes more sophisticated, the more informatics trends in an upward direction. In addition, this trend allows individuals to also become involved in generating medical data and become active participants in their health care. The overall effect is that information is now transmitted more abundantly and rapidly as this promotes better healthcare outcomes for the patient. Doctors and other medical providers now have access to more patient data and can treat patients more skillfully with this access. In the long run, the upward trend of informatics promotes a better healthcare system. It is therefore predicted that this trend will continue and individuals will become accustomed to generating usable data for their healthcare providers.

Hello Patricia, thanks for an informative post. Recently, a friend of mine informed me that they want to work remotely from home so they plan on quitting their current job. Indeed, many different professions are relying on informatics and technology to make important timely decisions. (Backonja et al., 2022) Imagine not being able to communicate the right information about a patient who needs urgent attention and the patient ends up coding. The electronic medical records is a big win for the nurses as documentation time has been cut down to less than what it used to be. This ultimately leads to better and safer patient care. Data collected on  a health issue of a patient, can be used across the hospital and this makes continuation of care easier. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017)

References

Backonja, U., Langford, L. H., & Mook, P. J. (2022). How to support the nursing informatics leadership pipeline: Recommendations for nurse leaders and professional organizations. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 40(1), 8-20. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000827 Links to an external site..

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

Title: NURS 6051 The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

Success in health care industry is often measured through patient outcomes. This metric is vital in ensuring that the available practices and procedures are efficient and also help in recognizing the ones that are not effective. Nonetheless, measuring patient outcomes is always associated with big data sets that are utilized to enhance these results in several ways. In turn, health informatics can play crucial role in this process. For instance, informatics can help in appropriately gathering, assessing, and leveraging the data, which can be used to enhance processes, improve efficiency, identify patients who are at risk, and advance research in an effort to enhance patient outcomes. Moreover, McGonigle & Mastrian (2017) argue that informatics has led to emergence of new technologies in clinical practice such as smart pumps, electronic health records, wearables, bar-code medication administration systems, and smartphones which are designed to enhance efficiency, foster safety, and streamline nursing practice. As such, it is imperative for nurses to have informatics competency to help them fostering effective communication, mitigating medical errors, managing knowledge, and supporting point of care decision making (Glassman, 2017). It is against this backdrop that this paper will explore use of electronic health records (EHR) as the proposed nursing informatics project to improve patient outcomes and care efficiencies.

Description of the Project

EHRs connote the digital adaption of patient paper based health records. The initiative has been proposed to address the issues that arise from the paper-based health records such as duplication, errors in drug administration, loss of records, mistaken identity, making of uninformed clinical decisions, and inefficient billing (Kruse et al., 2017). Since the health care environment is consistently changing and becoming highly competitive, the adoption of the EHRs can play a vital role in leveraging the patient care delivery and enhance the competitive capability of the care organization. Given the vital role that EHRs play in health care, Glassman (2017) calls for the meaningful use of EHRs. This involves sharing the data with patients and engaging them in their care within the frameworks of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Moreover, crucial patient care devices including vital sign monitors, cardiac monitors, and I.V. infusion pumps can be connected to EHRs to enhance the capacity of initiative and further improve patient outcomes (Glassman, 2017). Essentially, the use of EHRs is also supported by the American Nurses Association who calls for universally recognized terminologies among its members to support nursing practice within the EHR solutions (American Nurses Association, 2018).

Stakeholders

Clinicians

Clinicians encompass health care providers such as physicians, nurses, and pharmacists et cetera who take center stage in patient care provision. Therefore, EHR implementation will help them to access accurate and updated patient records to enable them provide the best diagnosis and treatment to realize positive patient outcomes.

The Management

This is the key stakeholder who can either ensure the success of the project or its failure. A good management should provide all necessary support required for change and ensure that the project aligns with the expectations of other players. The success of the project will enhance the health setting’s reputation as an affordable, quality health care provider.

The Patients

This is the primary stakeholder for implementing the EHR project. All the EHR endeavors are designed to improve the outcomes for patients and so, the project is designed to benefit the patients. Essentially, the success of the project will be measured based on the outcomes of the patients.

Front Office Staff

The staff at the front office plays a vital role in EHR implementation because they are tasked with key responsibility of feeding critical patient information including medical history, demographic, billing, and contact information into the EHR system. Any inappropriate entry in the system may lead to adverse impacts for patients.

EHR Vendors

EHR vendors are expected to design flexible systems that can meet the expectation of the organization, failure to which, the project will face eminent fall.

Patient Outcomes or Patient-Care Efficiencies

The implementation of EHRs will ensure enhancement of patient outcomes through provision of quality care. EHRs ensure provision of real-time, patient-oriented health data that are availed instantly and safely to the authorized users. Moreover, apart from providing medical and treatment history of the patient, EHRs also enable wider options of patient care due to its capability of accessing evidence-based care practice tools that can help providers to make informed decisions at the point of care. In addition, EHRs enables real-time point of care communication, which is essential in avoiding time wasted in peruse manual health records. Ultimately, the implementation of EHRs will lead to positive patient outcomes such as quality of health care, patient-centered care, reduction in hospital stays, and reductions in health care costs (Wani & Malhotra, 2018).

Technologies Required for the Project

Technology is a vital requirement in optimization of EHR. The project will require a standard server to join together with the rest of the system in the health care setting. The available computers will be utilized in EHR system, but they will be upgraded with the current operating system. To address compatibility issues, EHR system will be updated to be compatible with OS and windows. Moreover, the IT experts will be required to conduct training among the stakeholders to create awareness on how the system operates and the kind of processes that will be needed in every stage. Other technological requirements include application of virtual assistants to help in documentation, improving the interoperability through artificial intelligence, and optimizing the interface of EHR to increase usability.

The Project Team

The Project Manager

The project manager (PM) is one of the key members of the project team. The PM is expected to be technologically savvy and experienced in EHR implementation. The PM is tasked with responsibilities of overseeing the overall success of the project including attaining requirements and realizing deadlines for the implementation of the new EHR system (Vant, 2020).Moreover, the PM links various phases of the project to sophistically integrate and work together. The PM is also expected to facilitate the processes of planning, developing, designing, implementing, and testing phases of EHR to ensure they coordinate their effects to realize the desired goal of the project.

Physicians

Physicians are tasked with important responsibilities in EHR project including creating goals for the EHR implementation, identifying the best EHR vendor, trail staff satisfaction, address clinical needs, assess and select technology, defining the scope of the project and establishing budget, anticipate the profitability and check the progress, and to monitor the effect of the EHR on productivity.

Clinicians

Clinicians are expected to play a role of evaluating clinical workflows and propose changes, scrutinizing the clinical usability of the EHR software, and validating the descriptions of future clinical workflow. Moreover, clinicians can potentially work alongside EHR vendor to address any issue and also champion for the project among colleagues.

IT Experts

The IT professionals have responsibilities of evaluating software and hardware requirements, deal with or supervise system maintenance or upgrades, run system testing and go-live, and coordinate support and service for the system. The IT experts may also collaborate with the vendor for trouble shooting and also act as project manager.

Office Manager

The office manager is responsible for appraising the routine usability of EHR software, managing the change from paper-based records to digital records, help in overseeing system training, managing integration with supporting software such as back-office applications, recognize data transformation and reporting needs, and supervise EHR integration with legacy technology.

Front Office Staff

During the project implementation, the front office staff are tasked with various responsibilities including data entry to facilitate billing and coding, routine change from normal paper records to EHR data, use and testing crucial functions including scheduling, documentation of patient records such as insurance authorization, confirm data swap with pharmacies and other vendors, and recording any hitches or incompatibility in routine operations.

Essentially, engaging the project team is crucial in integrating all the features that are required in different stages and departments ranging from patient visit to the treatment process. Regarding the role of nurse informaticist, McGonigle & Mastrian (2017) postulate that they play a vital role of gathering and analyzing complex patient data and diffusing to different concerned stakeholders within the EHR system. Moreover, nurse informaticists also initiative system changes and improvement alongside IT experts to ensure quality service provision.

References

American Nurses Association. (2018). Inclusion of recognized terminologies supporting nursing practice within electronic health records and other health information technology solutions. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/official-position-statements/id/Inclusion-of-Recognized-Terminologies-Supporting-Nursing-Practice-within-Electronic-Health-Records/

Glassman, K. S. (2017). Using data in nursing practice. American Nurse Today, 12(11), 45–47. Retrieved from https://www.americannursetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ant11-Data-1030.pdf

Kruse, C. S., Mileski, M., Vijaykumar, A. G., Viswanathan, S. V., Suskandla, U., & Chidambaram, Y. (2017). Impact of electronic health records on long-term care facilities: systematic review. JMIR medical informatics, 5(3), e35.

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Vant, A. (2020). Four Crucial Members of an EHR Implementation Team. Ehrinpractice.com. Retrieved 11 June 2020, from https://www.ehrinpractice.com/four-crucial-members-of-an-ehr-implementation-team-154.html.

Wani, D., & Malhotra, M. (2018). Does the meaningful use of electronic health records improve patient outcomes?. Journal of Operations Management, 60, 1-18.