Introduction
In this paper, the role of nursing informatics will be discussed about my professional responsibilities in the position that I used to occupy. The occupation that I will use for the overview is nurse manager – a position that deals with multiple responsibilities that are linked to the management of quality of care, staff performance, and patient outcomes. Also, I will identify the present gaps in skills and knowledge, and present a plan for self-improvement in this area.
Nursing Informatics and Its Role in My Professional Responsibilities
Performing administrative duties in their healthcare facilities daily, nurse managers have to operate information systems and use databases to access and interpret statistical data (Yang et al., 2014). Such data may represent the statistics of patient care quality, staff schedule, the state of patients, their length of stay, as well as information about budgets and resource allocation (Yang et al., 2014). The importance of informatics competencies for nurse managers is growing fast.
Currently, there are several important functional areas of nursing informatics that the American Nurses Association outlines. They include information analysis, management, leadership, and administration, oversight of compliance, consultation, coordination, professional development, policy-making roles, education, research, and evaluation (American Nurses Association, 2015). The areas that are the most relevant to the functions of nurse managers are information analysis, management, leadership, and administration, and oversight of compliance.
Information analysis is an important functional area because it stands for the ability of a nurse manager to access and locate the suitable data using information systems and analyze it correctly in application with the working process. The second relevant area includes management, administration, and leadership – the daily functions of a nursing manager. Particularly, informatics skills are applied to compliance oversight, so the two areas overlap in the same set of duties. Nurse managers are to review the performance data and statistics, as well as indicators of the quality of care that are usually kept in databases. Such information needs to be analyzed appropriately and regularly for the managers to make the right conclusions.
Personal Gaps in Skills and Knowledge
Information management, basic computer competencies, and literacy are the major TIGER areas that nursing managers encounter daily (TIGER, 2009). I have some gaps in skills and knowledge in these areas. Specifically, in basic computer competencies, I struggle with the presentation; in information literacy, effective access to information is a challenge; and in management, navigation presents a problem at times. Information management and literacy are essential competencies for a nurse manager.
Self-Improvement Plan
To develop the skills that present an issue for a nurse manager, the following plan can be implemented:
- Browsing the web to find information about literacy and what it represents.
- Browsing the web for tips on navigation and quick information search (the two tasks will help practice literacy and navigation and assist in learning)
- Attending an advanced training course for database navigation and management (it is available in my organization)
- Finding several staff members who require help with the same skills and teaching them what I learned during the class (sharing new information helps improve its practical use skills)
- Finding books and journal articles that provide instructions as to the use of databases and their interface.
- Consulting IP professionals and couches concerning the most complex tasks and challenging aspects of navigation and information management.
- Using a pen and paper to create a step-by-step algorithm to guide me while using the databases and finding the relevant information.
The successful self-improvement would help me find and access data more quickly and interpret in productively. More appropriate decisions can be made when a nurse manager is confident in their analysis of data and that all the relevant information was accessed and included (Jensen, Casteli, Kobayashi, & Leite, 2015). Consequently, I would be able to perform my duties as a nurse manager more effectively by providing clearer and more precise instructions to staff members.
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informatics: Scope & standards of practice (2nd ed.). Silver Springs, MD: American Nurses Association.
Jensen, R., Casteli, C., Kobayashi, R., & Leite, M. (2015). Informatics competencies in nursing management. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 216,1013.
TIGER. (2009). Technology informatics guiding educational reform (TIGER). Web.
Yang, L., Cui, D., Zhu, X., Zhao, Q., Xiao, N., & Shen, X. (2014). Perspectives from nurse managers on informatics competencies. The Scientific World Journal, 391714, 1-5.