Role of Nurse Leader During SDLC

The Role of the Nurse Informaticist in Systems Development and Implementation

The advancements in technology and the integration of technology in healthcare to increase efficiency and improve patient safety have resulted in additional roles for nurses in the informatics field (Risling, 2017). In systems development and implementation, nurses should be involved in the entire process as they are critical to the success of the system. Systems development aims to provide a solution to an existing problem and who is better to offer the link between the developers and the healthcare facility other than the nurse informaticist? The nurses are the majority in the healthcare workforce and spending the most time with patients will better understand the issues they face and how they would like solutions implemented. Involving nurses will result in better outcomes for the system implementation and the patients.

The Systems Development Life Cycle

The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) comprises several steps and the nurse leader should be involved in all these steps. The nurse leader will not only be providing ideas, but they will also offer details on the scope of the problem. In the development of a system for supporting nursing documentation, there will be five major steps involved namely planning and requirements definition, analysis, design, implementation, and post-implementation support (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The nurse leader should be involved in every step to increase the success of the system as they are well informed and they understand what is required by other nurses. During the development, a nurse leader will identify any workflow issues and communicate them immediately to the developers saving critical development time.

Planning and Requirements Definition

The planning stage is the most vital in SDLC for ensuring a high chance of success in the system being developed (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The nurse leader will be responsible for providing a healthcare plan to the system developers in SDLC. In conjunction with other nurses, the nurse leader will determine the scope of the problem and the solutions to the problems. This is then communicated to the system developers by the nurse leader as he or she is the liaison between the nurses and the developers. The information provided by the nurse leader will be used to plan the best method for developing the system. The system requirements will be identified by the nurse leader after discussing with a couple of nurses and receiving their input on the system. The inputs and outputs of the system will be identified in this phase and they will be incorporated into the system. The system developers will then come up with a plan for coding the inputs offered.

Analysis

The workflow and processes of the system will be established at the analysis stage. There will be a determination for ascertaining if the requirements offered can be met. This is vital as the developers can offer vital information on how best to meet the needs of the system (Schoville & Titler, 2015). Also, in case some of the requirements cannot be achieved, this must be determined early so changes can be made. The nurse leader will explain to the developers how the components of the current system if one exists were working and why there is a need for change. This information will assist the developer to understand how best to design the system to meet the needs of the nurses. The focus of this stage is identifying the functional requirements of the system. The developers and the nurse leader will communicate how those requirements can be achieved in the new system.

Design

The overall look and feel of the system are determined at the design stage. The development team will make several decisions based on the type of data required for the system to create a prototype of the system. The development team can create sample reports, mockups, screenshots, and prototypes to present to the nurse leader (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The main goal of these samples is for the nurse leader to see how the new system will look and get a feel of the new system. The samples can be shared with other nurses to get their input and approval. In case of any requested changes, the nurse leader will pass on the information to the developers. Flowcharts will be provided showing the flow of information within the system. The nurse leader will have to scrutinize them and determine if they follow the desired path and give out the expected output.

Implementation

The actual development and coding of the system take place at the implementation stage. In this stage, the developers will write code to link all the different aspects of the system (Ronquillo, Currie, & Rodney, 2016). The nurse leader's role during this stage is to check on the functionality of the new system and alert the developers of any issues faced when using the system. Barriers to the implementation of the new system should be identified by the nurse leader and he or she should formulate a plan for overcoming these barriers. Each process will be evaluated once completed to ensure it meets the system requirements and modifications can be requested at this stage (Collins, Yen, Phillips, & Kennedy, 2017).

Post-Implementation Support

Before the system is delivered it should be thoroughly tested to ensure it meets the requirements of the users. The nurse leader should check to ensure the outputs of the system are as expected. In case of any issues, they should be rectified before the system is delivered. The nurse leader will be responsible for organizing training to educate nurses on the system and how to use the system. The system integration process will be overseen by the nurse leader. System maintenance will be communicated to the developers by the nurse leader.