ASSESSMENT:1 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.

ASSESSMENT:1 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.

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 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. This is not an essay, but instead, it is a proposal to create a new Nurse Informaticist position.

One important part of this assessment is the justification of the need for a nurse informaticist in a health care organization and references from relevant and timely scholarly or professional resources to support the justification for creating this nurse informaticist position. The term justify means to show or prove that the nurse informaticist position brings value to the organization. This justification must include evidence from the literature to support that this position will provide a return on investment for the organization.

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)?

■ In this section, you will explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse informaticist and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients’ protected health information, particularly privacy, security, and confidentiality. Evidence-based means that they are supported by evidence from scholarly sources.

○ 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?

○ This is the section where the justification for the implementation of the nursing informaticist role is addressed. Remember to include evidence from the literature to support your recommendation.

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.

● Font: Times New Roman, 12 point. ● 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.

 

 

Resources in assessment: History of info Tech in Nursing ● Chauvette, A. (2016). History of nursing informatics in Canada. Canadian Journal of

Nursing Informatics, 11(4). ○ This paper examines the evolution of nursing informatics in Canada and its

significant influence on nursing practice. ● Grandia, L. (2017). Healthcare information systems: A look at the past, present, and

future [PDF]. http://www.healthcatalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/A-Look-at-the-Past-Present- and-Future-Healthcare-Information-Systems.pdf

○ This article provides a rationale for prioritizing data warehousing and analytics over other improvements in health care information technology.

● OpenText. (2017). The history of health information management – from then to now [Blog post]. https://blogs.opentext.com/history-heath-information-management-now/

○ This article explores the history of health information management from the 15th century through the early 21st century.

Resource:Info Tech changing healthcare

Classen, D., Li, M., Miller, S., & Ladner, D. (2018). An electronic health record-based real-time analytics program for patient safety surveillance and improvement. Health Affairs, 37(11), 1–8.

● This article provides insight on how EHRs improve patient outcomes.

Heath, S. (2018). Patient health data access top-of-mind in ONC draft framework. https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-health-data-access-top-of-mind-in-onc-draft-fra mework

● This article explains the need for patients to have seamless access to their own health data to improve patient engagement as prioritized by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. (2011). Position statement on transforming nursing practice through technology and informatics [PDF]. https://www.himss.org/sites/hde/files/d7/HIMSSorg/handouts/HIMSSNIPositionStatementMonog raphReport.pdf

● This position statement identifies specific recommendations for eliminating barriers and addressing nursing’s role in transforming health care through the use of IT, particularly in regard to the role of nursing informatics.

Murphy, Z. R., Wang, J., & Boland, M. V. (2020). Association of electronic health record use above meaningful use thresholds with hospital quality and safety outcomes. JAMA Network Open, 3(9), 1–13. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770283

 

 

● This article provides examples of ways EHR affects health care.

Neumeier, M. (2016). Can nursing informatics improve person-centered care? Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 11(4).

● This discussion reviews how care recipients and care providers need better access to more appropriate information in a more timely fashion in order to improve care.

Patel, M. R., Smith, A., Leo, H., Hao, W., & Zheng, K. (2019). Improving patient–provider communication and therapeutic practice through better integration of electronic health records in the exam room: A pilot study . Health Education & Behavior, 46(3), 484–493.

● Study authors say that evidence-supported training initiatives that can help providers meet greater demands to manage information are promising.

Rauv, S. (2017, June 14). The impact of technology in healthcare. https://www.elcomcms.com/resources/blog/the-impact-of-technology-in-healthcare-trends-benefi ts-examples

The following health care and nursing informatics websites provide resources, education, and networking opportunities for nursing informatics professionals:

● Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. (n.d.). https://www.himss.org/ ● American Nurses Informatics Association. (n.d.). https://www.ania.org/ ● Alliance for Nursing Informatics. (n.d.). https://www.allianceni.org/

Activity done the assessment: (listed below just as a resource)

St. Anthony Medical Center

The Nurse Informaticist Role You are a new nurse at St. Anthony Medical Center, a large hospital in Minneapolis. While you know plenty about clinical care and nursing responsibilities, you’re less familiar with the Nurse

 

 

Informaticist (NI) role. What do NIs do? How do they interact with your role? What is their impact on your work and on the hospital as a whole?

Five people at the hospital have volunteered to explain how the NI role interacts with other roles and the organization. Listen to each one. Afterward, you’ll have an opportunity to answer questions about the NI role.

TARA Jennings: Director of Nursing After practicing as a nurse a few years, I decided I wanted to do more to improve patient care outcomes at St. Anthony Medical Center. I read about the nurse informaticist role and learned that I could help nurses to enhance care and care standards. So I earned an Informatics Nursing Certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The certificate was perfect for me because I could combine my qualifications as a nurse with my informatics and computing skills.

Now, as Director of Nursing Informatics at St. Anthony Medical Center, I focus on integrating nursing practice with electronic medical record management information and communication technologies. I educate, train, and support nurses who use technology in their care delivery. I help nurses understand and safeguard the technology they use.

I also work alongside the interdisciplinary team, IT, and administration. I help to develop policies related to information and care technology, and to establish and monitor quality control measures. I also work with our project manager of special programs.

My favorite project was when I consulted with the medical-surgical nurses to set up their patient monitoring devices to decrease the incidence of falls.

My role is often confused with IT, and with that of the health informaticist, who focuses on the administrative end of data security and technology compliance standards. But those roles focus on building, administering, and maintaining the technology; I focus on how nurses use the technology. I hope to help nurses overcome their fears about information technologies like the electronic health record. My ultimate goal is for nurses to embrace technologies like these, because they are the gatekeepers to patient safety.

MARGO LETTERLY- Health Info Tech Specialist

The NI helps nurses make sense of data security and technology compliance standards that relate to clinical practice and quality care outcomes. They are a logical extension of the IT team, because they help our direct care providers to maintain the security of health records and to document health care treatment modalities and patient care outcomes.

Without our nurse informaticist, we could not achieve improved health outcomes. Our patient satisfaction scores have improved since she came on board.

As a health information technology specialist, I rarely see the patients. We are not health care professionals. We specialize in software, hardware, databases, network management, and database administration.

 

 

Together, we make a great team and we keep technology and patient care running smoothly.

HEATHER TAYLOR- Med Sur RN:Whenever I have a question about the EHR, I call Tara. She has been a lifesaver. When Vila Health transitioned from the old EHR to a more advanced one, the entire nursing staff—even the physicians!—wanted to quit. Staff morale was really low, and our patient satisfaction scores plummeted. We were really frustrated because, although the new system had better capabilities, it took a lot more time to figure out how to document everything. That took us away from our patient care duties, and nobody liked that.

Tara offered training to all of us, and helped us individually. She would come up on the unit to walk us through the EHR documentation if we needed her. I think she really understands where we are coming from as nurses, because she is a nurse herself. And she has the patients’ best interests in mind. Now patient care documentation is much easier, and I have more time to spend with my patients.

HAILEY DIXON- Project manager

I am proud to be a nurse informaticist and project manager at St. Anthony Medical Center. While not all project managers are NIs, it seems like there are more of them all the time. Usually, project managers focus on larger projects at the hospital, but NIs like me work more intimately with the nurses.

As a project manager, or PM, I wear many hats to keep my projects on schedule and on budget. Because I am also an NI, I work more closely with the nursing staff on the units than other PMs. My primary goal is to eliminate costly mistakes and optimize clinical workflow while maintaining quality standards and outcomes at the hospital. My NI and PM credentials and experience give me the knowledge and skills I need to help SAMC achieve its operational goals.

I lead a team of dedicated professionals, and our goal is to integrate clinical information systems and clinical transformation projects. I take the team through the key phases of project management: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing.

At times, my role as a PM has not been easy. Personality conflicts, financial constraints, and poor or unprofessional communication all play a role. The most challenging experience I had was when I worked with the staff on the oncology unit, who just had their nurse manager resign. They had poor morale and weren’t very enthusiastic about my project.

MAry Mills–Nurse Manager

I felt like resigning when I had to assume the nurse manager position on my unit. The previous nurse manager supposedly left because of medical reasons — but we think it was something

 

 

else. She sure didn’t have the support she needed from nursing administration to transition the unit to the new EHR. So that project fell to me, and I didn’t know where to start!

After all, I never had any project management courses in nursing school. Some computers had to be upgraded to handle the new EHR. Staff had to be educated on how to use it effectively. We really had to hit the ground running. There was no time for errors, and patient care could not be impacted.

If it wasn’t for Tara, I’m not sure we would have been able to successfully transition to the new EHR. Tara used her PM and nursing skills to help me to understand that I am not alone in this project and that we would work as a team. She helped us to identify a plan and how to execute it, including the training of my staff. Tara walked me through the entire project. With a lot of help from Tara, my unit has smoothly transitioned to the new EHR, and some of the most resistant staff now say that the new system is actually pretty good!