FPX4040 Assessment 1 Instructions: Nursing Informatics in Health Care

Write a 4-5 page evidence-based proposal to support the need for a nurse informaticist in an organization who

would focus on improving health care outcomes.

As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are encouraged to complete the Team Perspectives of the Nurse

Informaticist activity. Completion of this will help you succeed with the assessment as you explore the nurse

informaticist's role from the different perspectives of the healthcare team. Completing activities is also a way to

demonstrate engagement.

Nurses at the baccalaureate level in all practice areas are involved in nursing informatics through interaction with

information management and patient care technologies. Nurses must not only demonstrate knowledge of and skills

in health information and patient care technologies, but also how to use these tools at the bedside and

organizational levels. Moreover, nurses need to recognize how information gathered from various health information

sources can impact decision making at the national and state regulatory levels.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies

through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

Competency 1: Describe nurses' and the interdisciplinary team's role in informatics with a focus on electronic

health information and patient care technology to support decision making.

Define nursing informatics and the role of the nurse informaticist.

Explain how the nurse collaborates with the interdisciplinary team, including technologists, to improve

the quality of patient care.

Justify the need for a nurse informaticist in a health care organization.

Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information.

Explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively

manage patients' protected health information (privacy, security, and confidentiality).

Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient

care technologies.

Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.

Create a clear, well-organized, and professional proposal that is generally free from errors in grammar,

punctuation, and spelling.

Scenario

For this assessment, assume you are a nurse attending a meeting of your state’s nurses association. A nurse

informaticist conducted a presentation on her role and its impact on positive patient and organizational outcomes in

her workplace. You realize that your organization is undergoing many technological changes. You believe this type of

role could provide many benefits to your organization.

You decide to pursue proposing a nurse informaticist role in your organization. You speak to your chief nursing

officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager, who ask you to prepare a 4–5 page evidence-based proposal to

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4/30/2021 Assessment 1 Instructions: Nursing Informatics in Health Care ...

support the new role. In this way, they can make an informed decision as to whether the addition of such a role

could justify the return on investment (ROI). They need your proposal before an upcoming fiscal meeting.

Preparation

To successfully prepare for this assessment, you will need to complete these preparatory activities:

Review assessment resources and activities.

Conduct independent research on the nursing knowledge and skills necessary to interact with health

information and patient care technology.

Focus your research on current resources available through peer-reviewed articles, professional

websites, government websites, professional blogs, wikis, job boards, and so on.

Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and authoritative sources.

Interview peers in your network who are considered information technology experts.

Ask them about how information technology advances are impacting patient care at the bedside, at

the organizational level, and beyond.

Proposal Format

The chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager have asked you to include the following

headings in your proposal and to be sure to address the bullets following each heading:

Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist

What is nursing informatics?

What is the role of the nurse informaticist?

Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations

What is the experience of other health care organizations with nurse informaticists?

How do these nurse informaticists interact with the rest of the nursing staff and the interdisciplinary team?

Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology

How does fully engaging nurses in health care technology impact:

Patient care?

Protected health information (security, privacy, and confidentiality)?

Workflow?

Costs and return on investment?

Opportunities and Challenges

What are the opportunities and challenges for nurses and the interdisciplinary team with the addition of a

nurse informaticist role?

How can the interdisciplinary team collaborate to improve quality care outcomes through technology?

Summary of Recommendations

What are 3–4 key takeaways from your proposal about the recommended nurse informaticist role that you

want the CNO and the HR manager to remember?

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall

message.

Submission length: 4–5 double-spaced pages, in addition to title and references pages.

4/30/2021 Assessment 1 Instructions: Nursing Informatics in Health Care ...

Citations and References: Cite a minimum of three current scholarly and/or authoritative sources to support

your ideas. In addition, cite a minimum of one current professional blog or website to support your central

ideas. Current means no more than five years old.

APA formatting: Be sure to follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references. For an

APA refresher, consult the Evidence and APA page on Campus.

ANSWER

A nurse informaticist develop information and communication technologies in health care. They also function as educators, software engineers, researchers, and chief nursing officers. They work in developing evidence-based policies and processes for organizations. It also involves integrating nursing science with other sciences to attain definition, management, and communication of data and knowledge in nursing practice.  

Functions of A Nurse Informaticist

They are responsible for aligning clinical workflows with the best practice. They work towards achieving the best patient outcomes. This process involves maximizing patient care by applying the best practices. Thus, they are interested in clinical workflow reviews, procedure design, and treatment and diagnostics plans (M Kleib et al., 2021). Nurse informatics considers the options for providing care, using facts, analyzing the options, and presenting the best choice for the patient. 

A nurse informaticist improves the clinical policies, processes, and protocols. They mainly use data to measure the successes of different approaches, protocols, and operations in an organization. They then measure and analyze how organizations perform under these procedures. Their analysis focuses on patient outcomes. From their results, they then make changes to enhance the clinical care processes. 

A nurse informaticist are also responsible for providing training and learning based on objective data. They train the clinical staff to improve patient outcomes. They collect data on a health issue and then develop the best ways to approach the problem (M Kleib et al., 2021). From there, they train the clinical staff.  The teachings are also taught to the new team or used for external education. 

A nurse informaticist is also responsible for selecting and testing new medical devices. They are responsible for digesting and understanding the data in health care facilities. They, therefore, understand the vast amount of patient data in an institution. Consequently, they are responsible for recommending the best way to record, access, and use data. They, therefore, are best positioned to elect the best medical devices that to ensure data management. 

 A nurse informaticist reduces medical errors as well as costs. This is because they provide training, improve medical processes and recommend the best medical methods for improving the quality of care. These practices reduce patient risks as well as medical errors.  Medical errors are brought about by factors like inefficient communication (M Kleib et al., 2021). A nurse informaticist analyses the communication of an organization around patient information. They then identify the communication gaps and provide recommendations on filling the gaps to prevent future errors. 

A nurse informaticist is also responsible for enhancing end-to-end treatment and ensuring continuity of care. Patient care involves a collaboration of people from different specializations and departments. A nurse informaticist provides proper communication between these groups by creating efficient communication protocols and processes (M Kleib et al., 2021). They also help the health care workers attain knowledge and skills on electronic health records.

Collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Teams

Nurses are continually assessing and reassessing patients on the progress of their care. They then report and communicate to other disciples accordingly.  This communication is done appropriately, timely and should not be fragmented. Nurse, managers, and the patient care coordinator work together to review the care plan and ensure all disciplines and multidisciplinary teams contribute their services according to the care plan. Nurses collaborate with patients, fellow nurses, physicians, and patients' families to ensure optimum quality-level care. 

Nurses work with physicians to obtain patient information and instructions. After the diagnosis and drug and therapy recommended by a physician, the nurse takes over in taking care of the patient. They, therefore, have to work together to ensure quick patient recovery and maintenance. The nurses also work with the patient and their families. The patient often receives instructions from the nurse and is expected to flow them to obtain the best results (Nagle, 2017). These instructions are also giving to the patient's family, who ensure that the patient follows instructions and helps them as much as possible. All these teams work in synergy to achieve proper health care.

The primary cause for collaboration in a health care institution is ensuring optimum patient care. The central feature of teamwork is communication. Nurses communicate with the significant teams regarding a patient's condition. Communication is achieved by other groups that are not involved in treating a patient (Nagle, 2017). These teams include the information technology team. However, this team is responsible for functions like managing patient information, ordering and receiving lab results, bailing, and many more. Therefore, nurses work in synergy with the IT department to ensure optimum patient care. 

Justification

A nurse informaticist is critical in a health care organization. They play an essential role in improving health care for the patients. They do this by first ensuring proper communication between the clinicians and other stakeholders in a health care institution. They identify communication loopholes and provide recommendations to improve communication.

 Secondly, a nurse informaticist improves a health care institution's processes and procedures. A nurse informaticist analyzes the options and gives feedback on the best for the patient's care. They also improve the current techniques to provide the best results (Nagle, 2021). They also identify gaps within the institution. Analyze and give the best approach for the problems in a health care institution. A nurse informaticist is therefore critical because their roles contribute towards the mitigation of errors and patient risks. They also contribute to improving health care providence by incorporating the best systems and processes in the organization.

Protecting patient data

Using an electronic health records system has been proven to improve health recordings and has made access to patient's records easier. However, the threat of security of health information should be mitigated to prevent access to patient information by unauthorized people. This is because electronic health records have become a target for criminal activity. The following ways can help ensure patient's data is protected.

The first strategy is performing regular risk assessments. With the constant changes taking place in health care organizations, it is essential to perform routine risk assessments (Art Gross, 2019). These changes could pose a risk, and evaluation ensures that the risks are identified and addressed in time. 

The second strategy is performing vulnerability scans and penetration tests. These tests are sometimes referring to as penetration tests. These tests identify the vulnerabilities in an organization. These vulnerabilities could allow access to the ePHI, following the exposures seen in networks (Art Gross, 2019). These tests, therefore, help in identifying misconfigurations before cybercriminals do. These vulnerabilities include a hole in the firewall or unpatched systems. A penetration test should follow a vulnerability test. This test is done from outside the network, and it is an attempt to break into the system. It tests the competence of the system. 

The third strategy is utilizing encryption. This provides the required patient data protection. It is essential to encrypt both data in transits and at rest. Encryption renders data essentially useless, protecting it from cyber criminals (Art Gross, 2019). It is therefore essential to encrypt the institution's laptops, systems, and emails. Encryption is vital because despite taking provocative measures, data breaches are a common occurrence.

References

Art Gross. (2019, December 11). 5 tips for protecting your electronic health records. Health IT Answers. https://www.healthitanswers.net/5-tips-for-protecting-your-electronic-health-records/

M Kleib, L Nagle, & A Chauvette,. (2021). Approaches for defining and assessing a nurse informaticist... : JBI evidence synthesis. LWW. https://journals.lww.com/jbisrir/Fulltext/2021/04000/Approaches_for_defining_and_assessing_nursing.6.aspx

Nagle. (2021). The role of the informatics nurse. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-58740-6_11

Nagle, L. M., Sermeus, W., Junger, A., & Bloomberg, L. S. (2017). Evolving role of the a nurse informaticist specialist. Stud Health Technol Inform, 232, 212-22.