In the field of nursing, and healthcare in general, informatics, data collection, analysis, and application, can be a significant benefit. The accuracy of nursing documentation is a critical gap that can lead to decreased patient outcomes (Nagle et al., 2017). Such inaccuracies can lead to dangerous errors in treatment and prescription, which can be prevented by improving information collection and access. A common error in documentation is the difference between brand-name and generic drugs being prescribed (Nagle et al., 2017). Although the medications can be chemically identical, the packaging and appearance of the pills themselves can differ (Nagle et al., 2017). Because of this, a patient may erroneously receive a prescription of the same drug twice and take a double dose, not realizing that the two outwardly different pills are actually the same medication (Nagle et al., 2017). This situation can be prevented by improved data recording and presentation standards and consistency.
Informatics, and informatics specialists, can help resolve this issue in multiple ways. Such double prescriptions are especially likely in cases where multiple health care professionals are involved in treating the same patient. Improving and standardizing the documentation of prescriptions and ensuring that the records contained are accurate and up to date will decrease the likelihood of identical prescriptions being filled twice. Improving the accuracy of nursing and health care documentation will similarly lead to better communication between professionals involved in a case, making such mistakes less common. Finally, ensuring that communication and documentation between units are standardized and the medication is consistently referred to by the same name, regardless of the particular brand, will help prevent double prescriptions (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Thus, improved information gathering, storage, and access can have a significant impact on the likelihood of medication or prescription errors.
As hospitals transition to EHRs, the amount of data being collected and stored increases, nursing documentation being just one of the instances of such data. This situation can be beneficial by allowing patterns and connections to be revealed by the analysis of this data, leading to clinical and policy changes (Sweeney, 2017). For instance, prescription records can be cross-referenced to identify which medications are often prescribed together, or cases where double prescription most commonly occurs. Determining such patterns can guide clinical change to the methods of treatment or prescriptions in these cases.
The same data analysis can help identify patient groups that are most susceptible to medication and prescription errors. The knowledge of these groups can drive public health policy change to the ways health care is provided to these groups. Additionally, the increased amount of data can help identify factors that are relevant to personalized medicine and adjust treatment and prescription policies accordingly. Finally, cross-referencing the treatment and prescription data with data on patient outcomes can help identify more or less effective treatment methods, which is especially relevant with novel and emergent methods.
Ultimately, informatics and data science have ever-growing importance in nursing and healthcare, especially as the amount of data collected for medical purposes increases. As the volume and complexity of the gathered data increases, so does the difficulty of collecting, analyzing, and accessing it through traditional means. The low accuracy in nursing documentation is one example of this. Therefore, new and standardized means of collecting and utilizing this data are required to reduce the likelihood of medication and prescription errors and improve patient outcomes.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Nagle Lynn M., Sermeus Walter, & Junger Alain. (2017). Evolving Role of the Nursing Informatics Specialist. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 232(Forecasting Informatics Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health), 212–221.
Sweeney, J. (2017). Healthcare Informatics. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(1), 4–1.