Nursing Course in Informatics Reflection

Information technology transforms healthcare services. However, the integration of information technology into existing healthcare systems has been challenging. This course has helped me to understand how healthcare workers and their organizations can better utilize healthcare informatics, with the goal of improving patient outcomes and public health. Similarly, this course has illuminated specific pathways to success. Nurse leaders need to take concrete steps towards advocating for improved information technology integration, transforming organizational cultures, practices, and procedures. Ultimately, this course helps show how nurses can become active in healthcare policy analysis.
The core competencies gained in this course have been related to the theoretical and practical concerns related to informatics and information technology. Secondary competencies include greater awareness of health disparities and other population health issues, and how technology can help reduce those disparities and problems. We learned about existing laws and regulations related to healthcare informatics, coming to terms with issues like privacy, confidentiality, and data security. The ethical concerns linked to healthcare informatics and other medical technologies need to be thoughtfully and carefully resolved, balancing the needs for a more efficient and integrated healthcare system with the needs for protecting patient information. Ultimately, information technologies have the potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce medical errors (Burwell, 2015).
Integrating technology into practice requires administrative and legislative supports. This course has helped clarify reasons for resistance to change, and resistance to adapting new technologies. Fear of the negative consequences of healthcare technologies should not override the tremendous benefits of the tools that can improve public health outcomes and ensure continuity of care across multiple spectrums. As Burwell (2015) also points out, healthcare information technology also improves cost savings and creates higher value care. Telemedicine is also “a key strategy for making health care more cost-effective,” (Kvedar, Coye & Everett, 2014). Information technology and telemedicine methods streamline administrative procedures. Therefore, this course has demonstrated ways of pitching new technologies to hospital administrators. Especially as patient populations may be more mobile than ever before, integrated health information systems are becoming critical for effective delivery of care.
Although we did not learn how to code our own health information software or databases, we did learn the key concepts behind database design to help us better understand how these systems are employed. Understanding the technologies that are already on the market will help us to make critical decisions regarding how to best train nursing staff and implement the systems on a hospital-wide basis. As the drawbacks of telehealth and informatics are minimized through more robust system design, the benefits of implementing healthcare technologies for both patients and healthcare workers becomes apparent. Existing strategies have been far too fragmented, inhibiting the widespread use of information technologies. When systems are better integrated, individual institutions can use different platforms, systems, or cloud-based services while still being able to access patient data and the tools necessary for evidence-based practice.
Technology cuts costs, making the healthcare system more efficient and liberating resources that can be diverted towards improving patient health. Outreach services and advocacy also depend on the effective use of information technology to communicate with patients and partners in the community. This course has helped me master the competencies and leadership skills critical for healthcare workers. Using diverse technological tools to manage financial and human resources and promote positive patient outcomes, I now feel better equipped to be an effective healthcare leader and patient advocate.




References

Burwell, S.M. (2015). Setting value-based payment goals. The New England Journal of Medicine 372(1): 897.
Kvedar, J., Coye, M.J. & Everett, W. (2014). Connected health. Health Affairs 33(2): 194-199.