NURS 6051 THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Telephone triage

The phone rings on a busy Saturday afternoon and the pleasant voice of a registered nurse answers professionally, greeting the caller seeking advice and care. This could be a day for a typical for an ambulatory telephone triage nurse. The concept of telephone triage and consultation can be one of a registered nurse using evidence-based algorithms from electronic databases. The nurses, like most nurses, working in a progressive health care industry are using technology to counsel patients. According to McGonigue & Mastrian, (2022), “For information to be valuable, it must be accessible, accurate, timely, complete, cost-effective, flexible, reliable, relevant, simple, verifiable, and secure.” p.9.

This information could be valuable to many leaders in the healthcare team. Accessibility would be easiest in form of electronic records and telephone recordings. McGonigue & Mastrian (2022), argue, “Computer science offers extremely valuable tools that when used skillfully, can facilitate the acquisition and manipulation of data and information by nurses, who then can synthesize the data into an evolving knowledge and wisdom base ”p. 35). Accurate and timely information could be an interest in nursing quality and control. One argument on how telephone triage could be cost-effective is that paying nurses to man the phone lines is cheaper than using inappropriate resources such as the emergency room to care that can be directed elsewhere. Flexibility, reliability, simple, verifiable and secure would require a more in-depth look into the nature of telephone triage and program development within a system, but the concept of triage nursing seems to be malleable to the interest of how the data would be used.

An additional source of centralized evidence-based algorithm software program could also be used and from my research is being used in assisting the nurses to effectively triage the caller and ensure best practice standards. Documentation done by triage nurses would have data from the callers that are subjective and objective, the nursing assessment, and recommendations based on the call.

From this data collection, multiple departments within healthcare could use this or would have an interest in this data collection. Intradisciplinary teams have an opportunity to look at how to retrieve data from electronic retrieval of health records or from recorded lines if those are being used.  An ambulatory nurse manager might be interested in using the data as a system educator of staff development and improvement strategy to support the training needs within their triage staff. A quality nurse might want to use this data to help in creating of protocol development and safety improvements for effective triage and outcomes. Ambulatory providers could use data to see the patient population’s interests and barriers to care and from there use it to modify their practices.  Health information technology departments within health care organizations could be supportive of this nursing department in implementing programs in making documentation more time efficient and detailed. Nursing leadership could use this as a cost-effective strategy.

                All departments could build off one another and become temporary team members to gain knowledge and benefit in patient care and satisfaction. Emerging roles could be created as, “Teams are working across boundaries of organizations and will be organized around a particular patient.” (Nagale et al, 2017, p. 215).   Within most healthcare systems the mission and visions of these organizations are built on patient outcomes and patient centered care. An informatics nurse specialist could support patients, nurses, providers, and leaders with the interpretation of data analytics and therefore participate in applying new knowledge from data to wisdom. (Nauright et al., 1999)

This hypothetical scenario of a nurse working at a telephone triage call center would benefit immensely from data access, problem-solving and the process of knowledge formation. In a real-time, scenario, I could see how this could impact patient care and outcomes on a global level and be a perfect role for a nurse informatics specialist to pilot.

References NURS 6051 THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Nauright,L.P.,Moneyham,L.& Williamson,J.1999. Telephone triage and consultation: An emerging role

for nurses,Nursing Outlook, 47(5) , 219-226.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0029-6554(99)90054-4.

Nagle, L., Sermeus, W., & Junger, A. (2017).  Evolving Role of the Nursing Informatics Specialist Links to an external site. Links to an external site.. In J. Murphy, W. Goosen, &  P. Weber  (Eds.), Forecasting Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health (212-221).

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

In the modern era, there are few professions that do not to some extent rely on data. Stockbrokers rely on market data to advise clients on financial matters. Meteorologists rely on weather data to forecast weather conditions, while realtors rely on data to advise on the purchase and sale of property. In these and other cases, data not only helps solve problems, but adds to the practitioner’s and the discipline’s body of knowledge.

Of course, the nursing profession also relies heavily on data. The field of nursing informatics aims to make sure nurses have access to the appropriate date to solve healthcare problems, make decisions in the interest of patients, and add to knowledge.

In this Discussion, you will consider a scenario that would benefit from access to data and how such access could facilitate both problem-solving and knowledge formation.

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:

Reflect on the concepts of informatics and knowledge work as presented in the Resources.
Consider a hypothetical scenario based on your own healthcare practice or organization that would require or benefit from the access/collection and application of data. Your scenario may involve a patient, staff, or management problem or gap.

BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 1

Post a description of the focus of your scenario. Describe the data that could be used and how the data might be collected and accessed. What knowledge might be derived from that data? How would a nurse leader use clinical reasoning and judgment in the formation of knowledge from this experience?

I like the scenario you have shared. Thank you for your example of how nursing informatics can be beneficial to provide critical information and guide our nursing interventions. Which goes in contrast with Sweeney, 2017, “Health informatics and Nursing Informatics are very relevant in evolving health systems. New technology and initiatives are constantly being developed.”

According to McGonigle and Mastrian, 2022, “The data that are processed into information must be of high quality and integrity to create meaning to inform assessments and decision making.” However, nurses are required to have the technical skills necessary to manage equipment and carry out procedures, the interpersonal skills necessary to interact with people in an appropriate manner, and the cognitive skills necessary to observe, recognize, and collect data; analyze and interpret data; and come to a conclusion that is reasonable and serves as the basis for a decision.

The concept of informatics and knowledge is introduced because the nursing profession depends heavily on using information, and the foundation of nursing practice science is the stages of using information, applying knowledge to a situation, and responding with wisdom. On the other hand, the Information is made up of data that is turned into interventions by using knowledge. (McGonigle and Mastrian, 2022)

References

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Sweeney, J. (2017). Healthcare informatics Links to an external site.. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(1).

BY DAY 6 OF WEEK 1

NURS 6051 THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days, asking questions to help clarify the scenario and application of data, or offering additional/alternative ideas for the application of nursing informatics principles.

*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues.

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ReplyReply to Module 1: Week 1: Discussion

Collapse Subdiscussion Deanna Linn Howe

Deanna Linn Howe

Nov 17, 2022Nov 17 at 11:21am

Manage Discussion Entry

TIPS for Success in Discussion Posts!

Every semester I have students who do not meet the posting requirements. It is important to read the grading rubric so that you understand the expectations.

The main post is always due by midnight on Wednesdays.
Peer posts are due no later than Saturday at midnight.
There must be three (3) total posts in one week.
The main post must include a minimum of three (3) scholarly sources as an in-text citation and as references. Each reference must have a matching in text citation and every citation a matching reference. They both should match.
Peer posts must include a minimum of two (2) scholarly sources as an in-text citation and as references. Each reference must have a matching in text citation and every citation a matching reference. They both should match.
APA 7th edition formatting guide has been used for a year now. The expectation is that you use this appropriately. I will give feedback but please read each discussion week to ensure you are improving.
Write in a substantive way. Participation is important in online courses, and I am assessing what you are learning. Just a few sentences are not adequate and result in lower scores.

I am looking forward to working with each of you this semester. Dr. Howe

Telephone triage

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From this data collection, multiple departments within healthcare could use this or would have an interest in this data collection. Intradisciplinary teams have an opportunity to look at how to retrieve data from electronic retrieval of health records or from recorded lines if those are being used. An ambulatory nurse manager might be interested in using the data as a system educator of staff development and improvement strategy to support the training needs within their triage staff. A quality nurse might want to use this data to help in creating of protocol development and safety improvements for effective triage and outcomes. Ambulatory providers could use data to see the patient population’s interests and barriers to care and from there use it to modify their practices. Health information technology departments within health care organizations could be supportive of this nursing department in implementing programs in making documentation more time efficient and detailed. Nursing leadership could use this as a cost-effective strategy.

All departments could build off one another and become temporary team members to gain knowledge and benefit in patient care and satisfaction. Emerging roles could be created as, “Teams are working across boundaries of organizations and will be organized around a particular patient.” (Nagale et al, 2017, p. 215). Within most healthcare systems the mission and visions of these organizations are built on patient outcomes and patient centered care. An informatics nurse specialist could support patients, nurses, providers, and leaders with the interpretation of data analytics and therefore participate in applying new knowledge from data to wisdom. (Nauright et al., 1999)

References NURS 6051 THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Nauright,L.P.,Moneyham,L.& Williamson,J.1999. Telephone triage and consultation: An emerging role

for nurses,Nursing Outlook, 47(5) , 219-226.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0029-6554(99)90054-4.

Nagle, L., Sermeus, W., & Junger, A. (2017). Evolving Role of the Nursing Informatics Specialist Links to an external site. Links to an external site.. In J. Murphy, W. Goosen, & P. Weber (Eds.), Forecasting Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health (212-221).

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Dec 3, 2022Dec 3 at 5:37pm

Manage Discussion Entry

Response week 1 . Telemedicine

It was great going through your post. Telehealth is a crucial part of our healthcare system, especially with technological advancement in the recent past. I agree with the benefits of telehealth, as your post indicated.It allows access to healthcare information in a swift manner. Technology helped telemedicine reduce congestion in hospitals as patients can easily access information via teleconference. It has also expanded the opportunities for the nurses who interact closely with the patients.
Telemedicine is a sustainable type of healthcare and can open several doors for treatment for patients and practitioners. It saves time, and treatment is convenient and affordable for people who dread visiting the doctor and avoid going to the hospital. In addition, telehealth is helpful in diagnosis, administrative work, and professional and patient education.
A study assessing the effectiveness of telehealth consultations discovered they could improve patient outcomes in certain areas. Telehealth may not help and completely replace traditional office visits — after all, many services and procedures can only be done in person — but it can reduce the need for them. Telehealth effectively reduces the spread of infectious diseases, especially in this Coronavirus (COVID-19) warfare. When other patients have an infectious disease, they can stay home and call their healthcare provider to get treatment. By staying at home, patients do not expose their illnesses to healthcare professionals and other patients. Patients also reduce the chances of contracting an infectious disease from another person or transmitting and spreading their own while using telehealth services.

References NURS 6051 THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Aggarwal, A. (2017). Telepyschiatry: Current outcomes and future directions. International Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and Mental Health, 5. https://doi.org/10.12970/2310-8231.2017.05.07Links to an external site.

Menage, J. (2020). Why telemedicine diminishes the doctor-patient relationship. BMJ, m4348. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4348Links to an external site.

Stokel-Walker, C. (2020). Why telemedicine is here to stay. BMJ, m3603. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3603Links to an external site.

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I have spent the last 10 years working in emergency rooms as a staff nurse. One of the biggest challenges that my department faces regularly is delays with getting admitted patients out of the ED and onto their assigned units. These delays negatively impact the patients waiting for emergency treatment in the lobby and hallway stretchers. There are a number of factors that can prolong ED length of stay. Some of these include lack of bed availability due to hospital overcrowding, treatment delays such as loss of IV access, and delays caused by hospital personnel during the handoff report process (Paling et. al, 2020). Some of these factors, such as hospital overcrowding, are unavoidable and difficult to work around, which is why it is important for hospitals to assess which factors they can control to expedite patient flow out of the emergency room.

For my hospital’s scenario, the emergency department would collect data about admission delays that are specifically caused by disruptions in the nursing telephone report process. In my current workplace, there is not a standardized electronic handoff form, despite the fact that several studies have demonstrated the efficiency and increased patient safety outcomes associated with the transition to standardized electronic nursing report (Wolak et al., 2020). Instead, the ED nurse calls the receiving unit on the telephone, gives a verbal patient care handoff, and then transfers the patient to their hospital room. By collecting data about where in the handoff process delays are occurring, the ED could try to streamline the handoff process with the medical floors.

The emergency department nurses would collect quantitative data about the length of time between the first attempt to call report to the medical floor, and the time of the patient’s actual departure from the ED. The data would be recorded in the section of the EMR called “time to disposition” for each patient that is admitted. The ED leadership team could then pull a certain number of charts per month (or all the admission charts, if time allowed) and assess how long it takes on average for patient transfer to happen after report. Generally, most hospitals set their goals for disposition time for handoff and transfer within a 30-minute window (Potts et. al., 2018). If there are frequent delays causing transfer time to take greater than 30 minutes, the ED leadership team or unit-based council could meet with leadership from the floors where patient transfer takes the longest. By demonstrating the hard numbers associated with patient care delays, the teams could better understand the factors that lead to admission delays and work together to find solutions that expedite the admissions process.

References: NURS 6051 THE APPLICATION OF DATA TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Paling, S., Lambert, J., Clouting, J., González-Esquerré, J., & Auterson, T. (2020). Waiting times in emergency departments: Exploring the factors associated with longer patient waits for emergency care in England using routinely collected daily data. Emergency Medicine Journal. https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2019-208849

Potts, L., Ryan, C., Diegel-Vacek, L., & Murchek, A. (2018). Improving patient flow from the emergency department utilizing a standardized electronic nursing handoff process. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(9), 432–436. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000645

Wolak, E., Jones, C., Leeman, J., & Madigan, C. (2020). Improving throughput for patients admitted from the Emergency Department. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 35(4), 380–385. https://doi.org/10.1097/ncq.0000000000000462

I like the scenario you have shared. The EMRs have been very helpful to refer to past medical histories and even drugs histories. Nursing practices are continually evolving to pursue and process new knowledge. (Nagle et al., 2017). Technology, analysis methodologies, ethics, decision support tools, patient care, human-computer interfaces, information systems, imaging informatics, e-learning, electronic medical records, and telecare are all integrated with this discipline. This has created a field of informatics for contemporary nurses (Pramanik et al., 2020). Technology is crucial to providing quality patient care, and its importance, relevance, and participation are increasing. According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMMS), electronic recording allows nurses to get information quickly and efficiently, which they may then utilize to improve their everyday workflows. All care team members, including doctors and other healthcare providers and a group of personnel at other healthcare institutions that patients may visit, have greater access to information stored electronically.

Reference

Nagle, L. M., Sermeus, W., Junger, A., & Bloomberg, L. S. (2017). Evolving role of the nursing informatics specialist. Stud Health Technol Inform, 232, 212-22.

Pramanik, M. I., Lau, R. Y., Azad, M. A. K., Hossain, M. S., Chowdhury, M. K. H., & Karmaker,

K. (2020). Healthcare informatics and analytics in big data. Expert Systems with Applications, 152, 113388.