The Nursing Practice and the EHR System

¶ … Nurses in New York State Verses Nevada Nurses in different states often have varying scopes of practice in as much as there are some basic nursing standards that are universally adhered to across the globe and the U.S. in general. The state specific practices are meant to help in moderating the health r provision and also to enable an environment where the most relevant nursing care is provided in line with the specific environment where the infection may occur or that the patient may find themselves in.

In New York State (NYS) there are regulations that are specific to the nurses and some which are specific to the physicians, both in line with their professional training and the expected duties. In NYS the nurses are expected to have patient specific orders for the medications and tests that they conduct. This however exempts certain immunizations, HIV testing, anaphylaxis treatment agents and purified protein derivative (PPD) which can be based on non-patient specific orders and protocols.

A professional registered nurse in NYS is not allowed to be hired by business ventures like the nutrition stores, med spas and durable equipment companies, to provide professional health care services for such organizations. A licensed professional physician in NYS is not allowed to delegate tasks that are exclusively within the practitioner's scope of practice to other licensed professional like the RNs hence the RNs are not allowed to take up such tasks from the physicians (New York State Education Department, 2009).

In as much as the RN in NYS can diagnose illness and prescribe treatment, the practice of nurses in NYS are often limited specified areas which are often informed by the educational background and also stated in their certificate of practice within NYS. On the other hand, in Nevada NPs need to have the supervision of a qualified physician to conduct a diagnosis and treatment of a patient.

In NYS the NPs do not function under the supervision of the physician but rather in collaboration with the physician hence the NPs are independently responsible for the diagnosis, decisions and treatment of the patients under their care. This is the same independence that is found in Nevada, however, in Nevada there are always practitioners who are in positions where they are in charge of a number of nurses and support staff in a given branch (Education Career Articles, 2013).

In general, the medical practitioners are strictly advised to venture into areas that they have been sufficiently trained for and feel competent enough to handle patients in. if the PN or RN is asked to float into unfamiliar territories, they have the obligation to raise objection and in this case they will not be charged with patient abandonment.

Electronic Health Records The implementation of the Electronic health Records (EHR) has been a necessity in most health care facilities and their access has widely become shared among relevant bodies in the health care system.

The EHR is meant to positively impact the workflow through making managing messages to be easier, better scheduling of patients, checking in patients becomes easier, allocating roms to patients becomes quicker, conducting of examinations can be made effective, renewal of medications is to be made more accurate and traceable and also makes it easier and quicker to check out patients.

The EHR is meant to realign the organizational workflow system and in effect it will maximize efficiency in the organization, it will enhance health care quality and safety, it is also meant to remove chaos from the workflow and also improve care coordination among the relevant bodies (Health IT, 2013). The EHR is meant to make work easier for the medical practitioners to not only do the provision of health care and treatment efficiently but also to make orders for supplies that can make their work effective.

The nurses are able to make orders for educational materials that they will use in community and patient education. These can be both print and audio visual materials that will facilitate their work best. They can also make standing orders for immunizations, screening and diabetes measures and in this process they adopt new roles (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013).

Since the EHR system is interoperable, physicians are also able to order for lab results of patients and also share the results with the relevant and concerned practitioners for quick action. The physicians can also order for prescriptions, electronically order for referrals, order for laboratory radiology tests, electronic transmission of orders to pharmacies and laboratories, and also use the EHR to track the test-order status hence a reduction in errors and increase in quality (Miller R.H.