This paper examines the growing importance of nursing informatics competencies in modern healthcare. It outlines how the integration of nursing science with computer and information science — as promoted by the TIGER Initiative — equips nurses to use electronic health record systems (EHRS) more effectively. The paper discusses how data collection, storage, and dissemination through EHRS improve patient safety, care quality, and operational efficiency. It also addresses federal mandates and HIMSS goals driving full EHRS implementation, and argues that informatics literacy is rapidly becoming a core professional competency that benefits both nurses and their patients.
In an increasingly digital world driven by new and emerging technology, nurses are still expected to deliver quality, compassionate care to the best of their ability. While new technology may often seem overwhelming at first, it can prove very beneficial to the nurses who are exposed to it. In order to help more nurses become comfortable with utilizing technology to its fullest potential, the field of nursing informatics has evolved to integrate nursing science with computer and information science (The TIGER Initiative, p. 3). Nurses who become certified in nursing informatics are valuable to their organizations by increasing accuracy in documentation and improving workflow (The TIGER Initiative, p. 3). Eventually, such measures will be considered commonplace in the nursing profession.
Most of the new technology enhancing the nursing profession pertains to information handling. This includes technology to collect data, analyze that data, and then present it as usable information or knowledge (Gugerty & Delaney, 2009, p. 7). The data collected can be something as simple as taking a blood pressure reading, but more commonly refers to the data collected within the electronic health record system (EHRS) (Gugerty & Delaney, 2009, p. 7). The EHRS has not changed the kind of data collected, only the way it is collected, stored, and utilized. Nurses remain responsible for exercising caution regarding patient privacy, as they always have been, but they may need to learn new methods of managing that privacy when using EHRS. Furthermore, such systems have the ability to be linked into other systems across different healthcare networks, providing more information than was ever previously available.
Substantial evidence links the use of information technology with improvements in patient safety, care quality, access, and efficiency (Fetter, 2009, p. 3). The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) set a goal for 75% of all healthcare information systems to be instilled with optimized safety and quality improvement tools by 2014 (Quality and Patient Safety, 2013). The federal government also made a push for informatics competency by mandating full implementation of EHRS by 2014, which would require nurses to use information technology to deliver, document, and obtain reimbursement for patient care (Fetter, 2009, p. 3).
All of these developments indicate that nursing informatics is rapidly becoming a core competency of the nursing profession and should be embraced rather than feared. Anything that improves patient care is a benefit to the healthcare profession in general, and it helps nurses do their jobs better both in the short term and over time. It is also likely that full implementation of EHRS will eventually reduce the volume of paperwork that continues to overwhelm healthcare offices. Most nurses are inundated with documentation while simultaneously trying to provide the best care possible; full EHRS implementation could change that significantly.
For patients, the benefits are equally clear. Informatics compliance will allow nurses to focus more of their time and energy on patient needs rather than on documentation and data analysis. An effective EHRS will also facilitate better communication between nurses and physicians, both within the same facility and across institutions worldwide. It is possible for information to remain confidential while data is collected and disseminated among healthcare professionals to generate the best possible patient outcomes.
Nursing informatics is a growing field that will soon become standard practice for all nursing professionals. The benefits of such systems mean that healthcare providers will be unable to ignore them, and the implementation push made by both the government and insurers ensures that EHRS will become standard throughout the healthcare system. Nurses will need to demonstrate competence with these technologies to show that they are capable of providing care in the new reality of a healthcare environment guided by information technology.
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