Use of Nursing Informatics

¶ … Knowledge, and Wisdom Continuum Nursing The selected topic is drug abuse amongst teenagers. The prevalence of drug abuse amongst teenagers has been on the rise over the past decade. The increase is attributed to many factors, but it mostly has to do with the ease of access, peer pressure, and lack of knowledge on the effects of drugs. Most teenagers do not intend to abuse drugs, they are only experimenting with the drugs, but they end up becoming addicted.

This causes huge problems for them later on in life when they try to quit. The problems associated with drug abuse not only have to do with addiction, but teenagers are faced with other health problems like STDs, stroke, cancer, lung disease, and mental disorders. These are all problems that a person can avoid if they stay away from drugs. STDs will mostly be transmitted from one addict to another when they share needles or syringes. Mental disorders are closely linked to drug abuse.

Depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia are conditions that most drug addicts face. Understanding the impact that drug abuse could have on an individual is vital. Teenagers should be educated and made aware of the effects of party drugs. Most teenagers do not start as drug addicts they begin with party drugs, which lead them to hard drugs and addiction. To establish the prevalence, reasons for drug abuse, and solutions one would need to use the four steps of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Working through the four steps a person would manage to gather data that would assist them to translate and make sense of the problem of drug abuse. One has to move successively through the steps in order for them to achieve wisdom and make recommendations. Researching the question Data is normally raw, and it makes no sense. Data has no significance apart from the fact that it exists. It can be in any form. Data can only be used to derive information, but some processing has to take place.

In any research, the researcher will start by gathering data, which would not make any sense or sometimes might be unusable. The data gathered for the research question would allow the researcher to establish how prevalent the problem of drugs is amongst teenagers. Data would only be used to offer further insights into the problem. Data would not be organized (McGonigle, McGonigle, & Mastrian, 2011), which would make it hard to comprehend and use as is. The next step would involve processing the data.

Once the data is processed, it produces information. Information is basically data that has been interpreted, structured, or organized. Information would make more sense than data, but it would still not offer the whole picture. Information would allow a person to peruse through the data and determine how widespread or how many teenagers are abusing drugs in an area. This is beneficial and would allow the nurse to establish or determine whom to target. The areas with high numbers would indicate where most effort should be placed.

Knowledge is obtained from the information (Bernstein, 2011). Knowledge is the capability to identify relationships from the presented information. A person can determine that the prevalence of drugs in certain areas has to do with the number of gangs or traffickers in that area. This information would only be obtained after a connection has been made. The connections should not necessarily be derived from the data collected, but rather one would use what they know regarding the location. Coming up with a solution to tackle the problem is wisdom.

The nurse should incorporate all they know and the information they have gathered in order to identify a workable solution. The search terms to use when carrying out the research include drug abuse, teenage drug abuse, commonly abused drugs, drug abuse health problems, and prevalence of drug abuse. The databases to use are PubMed, MEDLINE, and EBSCO. These databases contain peer-reviewed journals and research studies, which are vital for the research. The information gathered would first be sorted out in order to determine if there are any relationships.

Relationships are vital because they assist in establishing linkages and developing hypothesis. From the information, one can establish how best to handle the problem of drug abuse amongst the teenagers. The areas with the highest percentage of drug abuse would need more effort than the other areas. Identifying these areas is vital. The methodology to use for communicating with the teenagers would also vary based on the area. It would not make any sense to take pamphlets or brochures to teens who cannot read.

They would see no purpose of the material. Using the information one would manage to establish if the teens are educated and the level of education. For teenagers who have not attended school, it would be best to use presentations and social workers. The workers would visit the teens and speak to them about the effects of drug abuse. The social workers would use the model that you develop when reaching out the teens. The model developed would be informed from the information gathered.

The information gathered would enable for the development of effective solutions. Establishing the root cause of drug abuse is beneficial to solving the problem. If the teens start by experimenting, then it would be best to discourage them from experimenting. Reaching out to them before they begin is best. Making use of informatics can allow a nurse to gain wisdom. Nursing informatics involves the use of technology or computers to share information (Matney, Brewster, Sward, Cloyes, & Staggers, 2011).

Sharing and accessing information through the computer is easy and speeds the process of searching for information. Offering the nurse an opportunity to gather data and process the data into information, plus developing relationships informatics would be very useful in gaining wisdom. Using informatics one can access information quickly. The availability of information has made it easy for nurses to make informed decisions, which is based on the wisdom gained from informatics. Using the online databases a person would manage to search for the relevant data (Hunter, McGonigle, & Hebda, 2013).

The data would then be gathered and processed using informatics, which would make it easy and quick. Information would be gained from the data and connections would be established, which would offer the required knowledge. Armed with the discovery and the connections a person would be more suited and able to make informed decisions and suggestions. Wisdom would only be gained after the person has gone through the data and made sense of.