Information management and documentation are essential procedures that healthcare professionals need to take seriously. Medical practitioners receive adequate training and skills to capture the relevant patient data during admission and apply it throughout the care delivery process. Unfortunately, many institutions rely on traditional documentation systems that tend to trigger gaps and mishaps. This paper presents a summary of a scholarly article focusing on this issue in the field of geriatric nursing and its implications for future practice.
Summary
In the article “‘Gaps, Mishaps and Overlaps’. Nursing Documentation: How Does it Affect Care?”, the authors wanted to understand how mishaps, gaps, and even overlaps affected the health care experiences and outcomes of older patients. These challenges emerged due to poor documentation practices that resulted in omission of critical information, thereby worsening or disorienting the care delivery process. Due to the age of these beneficiaries, chances of presenting inaccurate or unreliable information could increase significantly (Charalambous & Goldberg, 2016). When these errors occur, clinicians and practitioners would find it hard to complete comprehensive geriatric assessments (CGA) accurately. Consequently, the professionals would be unable to provide personalized, high-quality, and sustainable medical services.
After interviewing eight licensed nurse practitioners (NPs), these scholars acquired meaningful insights that could guide policymakers and medical professionals to improve practice. When omissions occur, the captured information is usually incomplete and incapable of supporting the assessment and decision-making processes (Charalambous & Goldberg, 2016). A new gap will emerge whereby the caregivers and other members of the multidisciplinary team would be unable to design the best or personalized care delivery models (Fox et al., 2017). These outcomes could affect the overall health outcomes of more elderly patients.
Implications for Nursing Practice
The insights, arguments, and ideas gained from the selected article could be applied in the field of nursing to meet the demands of more patients. First, professionals should liaise with older citizens and their family members to identify and locate possible omissions and inconsistencies throughout the documentation process. This practice becomes the best defense against possible mishaps in the care delivery process (Fox et al., 2017). Second, nurses could countercheck the collected information and liaise with the targeted patient to support the formulation of desirable decisions. Third, workers in geriatric settings can engage in continuous learning to acquire additional concepts and ideas for streamlining documentation processes and ensuring that the inputs of all patients are taken into consideration.
Fourth, all professionals should consider how emerging technologies could improve the process and identify possible challenges that might emerge. Finally, they can consider the importance of controlling the manner in which documentation protocols are developed and implemented. Such initiatives will present new opportunities for ensuring that the available medical services are timely, complete, and personalized depending on the expectations of the targeted elderly citizen (Charalambous & Goldberg, 2016). These initiatives and ideas have the potential to improve geriatric nursing and ensure that more patients record positive health outcomes.
Conclusion
The above discussion has identified the process of effective documentation as essential in geriatric care. Clinicians and nurses need to collaborate, develop appropriate protocols, and partner with their patients to collect high-quality information. The consideration of emerging technologies in healthcare could also streamline the process. In conclusion, the proposed measures will prevent possible mishaps and eventually support the delivery of personalized and sustainable medical support or services to all elderly patients.
References
Charalambous, L., & Goldberg, S. (2016). ‘Gaps, mishaps and overlaps’. Nursing documentation: How does it affect care? Journal of Research in Nursing, 21(8), 638-648. Web.
Fox, M. T., Sidani, S., Butler, J. I., & Tregunno, D. (2017). Nurses’ perspectives on the geriatric nursing practice environment and the quality of older people’s care in Ontario acute care hospitals. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 49(2), 94-100. Web.