The last couple of decades has brought dramatic changes to all the industries and career fields due to the rapid development of the computer technologies. The field of nursing has not become an exception; it has seen dramatic changes enforced by the integration of informatics in the workplace. Today, nursing practitioners are expected to learn constantly to be able to embrace the latest innovations and provide medical care in a highly technological setting (Daniel & Oyetunde, 2013). In many cases, the process of integration of the information technologies can be complicated by multiple factors such as the lack of funding, lack of time required for the adjustments of the workplace, costs for the staff training, and the individual attitudes of the employees to the innovations.
Speaking about my personal impression of the nursing information, I am going to be honest and admit that I consider myself a person who is not computer savvy. That is why, I have always found it challenging to learn how to operate digital devices, adopt new technological wonders, and grasp the new software. Since I am a nursing supervisor, my professional responsibilities involve a multitude of staff management practices along with numerous reports and policies. In other words, I could subdivide the scope of my duties as human resource management (communication with the staff, feedback provision, consultations, workload allocation, response to various professional situations) and organizational tasks (reports to my superiors, budget and expenditures monitoring, patient confidentiality matters). Most of these duties involve using a computer for the documentation or communication. In the past, I have noticed that using nursing informatics speeded up my work process and minimized the errors; also it ensured a better organization of documentation and an easier and faster communication opportunities.
Attending this class and learning more about the nursing informatics has made its importance even more obvious. Even though I still struggle to master all the innovations, their use and impact have become much clearer to me. In addition to my reading, I challenged myself to do a research and find information about evidence-based practices involving the use of informatics in nursing.
As I work with the nursing staff daily and need to organize their schedules and workloads, I found that many of the practices relying on the use of informatics are able to ensure a higher efficiency of operations. For instance, in the study by Cicolini et al. (2013), the researchers find that regular communication between nurses and the patients with hypertension within an email-based program helps the former to affect the patients’ lifestyles and diets and thus minimizing the risk of the hypertensive crisis. Moreover, LeBlanc (2012) describes the informatics-based education practice ensuring better medication safety for in-home administration in geriatrics. Finally, Ramundo (2012) offers using informatics for the operation optimization (namely, with the management of patient flow and bed occupation). All of these evidence-based practices demonstrate that a nursing management and the staff could benefit massively from the informatics application as it would significantly improve the efficiency of work without overloading the employees. I find that this is an extremely important benefit since nursing shortage always results in excessive workloads and in turn complicates the supervisor’s responsibility of finding a balance between the number of nurses available and the tasks that need to be accomplished. This imbalance is highly dangerous for both the nurses and the patients as it may result in medical errors.
References
Cicolini, G., Simonetti, V., Comparcini, D., Celiberti, I., Di Nicola, M., & Capasso, L., … Manzoli, L. (2014). Efficacy of a nurse-led email reminder program for cardiovascular prevention risk reduction in hypertensive patients: A randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 51(6), 833-843.
Daniel, G. O., & Oyetunde, M. O. Nursing informatics: A key to improving nursing practice in Nigeria. International Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, 5(5), 90-98.
LeBlanc, R. G. (2012). Using an Evidence Based Practice Informatics Guided Medication Safety Intervention to Improve Medication Safety among Community Dwelling Older Adults. Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Capstone Projects. Paper 16, 1-57. Web.
Ramundo, D. New technologies to enhance nursing practice. Nursing Critical Care, 7(3), 40-42.