Nursing Informatics
Nursing Informatics (NI) is a discipline that aims at integrating the practice of nursing with many information management and analytical sciences. NI is crucial in supporting nurses, patients and all stakeholders involved in healthcare delivery achieve desired outcomes by aiding in effective decision making (HIMSS, 2017). At the heart of this specialty is nursing, which includes a systematic and logical method of planning and provision of care. Therefore, this paper takes a look at the rational sequence of events followed by a nurse in the case of an emergency.
Figure 1. Emergency Response
It is important to note that more than one step may be going on at once. Assessment forms the corner stone of the nursing workflow. Here, the nurse is tasked with collecting data both on the patient and the medical problem, organizing the received data, validating the data and documentation. All these activities happen at the nurse’s station, the patient’s location, and the Information Technology department (Cain & Haque, 2008). The nurse is allowed to consult where necessary. Thus, the first step is always assessing the situation of the patient.
The second step involves diagnosing. The data collected earlier is analyzed, and the health concern is identified. Strengths and weaknesses are weighed, and the nurse formulates a diagnostic statement. They can also seek assistance or consultation if need be (Cain & Haque, 2008). Therefore, during this step, the medical problem is identified.
Next is the planning stage. The nurse is required to prioritize the problems and diagnoses in the event there are more than one for a single patient. The same applies for multiple patients where the attending nurses coordinate among themselves to prioritize. Afterward, the nurse selects and writes up the most appropriate intervention per their training (Cain & Haque, 2008). Thus, this step mainly involves choosing what to do.
Implementation stage follows. As detonated by the name, this phase entails carrying out of the previously selected intervention (Cain & Haque, 2008). Additionally, the nurse reassesses the patient and determines if further consultation or additional help is required. The nurse then supervises the delegated care if help with the client was inevitable and documents all the nursing activities performed. This step involves actual care taking of the patient following their medical needs.
Evaluation forms the basis of the last stage. During this phase, the nurse is required to collect data about related outcomes, complement the received data with results, actively relate nursing practices to the patient’s needs and infer on the problems current status. Additionally, the nurse is allowed to modify or terminate the client’s care plan. Modifications result in revisiting any stage of the workflow (Cain & Haque, 2008). All these activities would typically happen in the ward where the patient is located. Thus this phase involves watching out for the possible outcome, releasing the patient if the nurse deems it appropriate or a repeat of the process.
Several metrics can be used to assess the quality of care all through the process. These include the patient’s feedback, management of pain, tissue viability, the ability to prevent further infection, assessment of continence and nutritional assessment. The patients’ feedback is important in determining the number of the other mentioned elements of care and an addition of others like confidentiality, dignity, and communication (National Health Foundation Trust, 2012). The said metrics also evaluates the hospital’s and nurses’ record keeping ability. All of them seem to function just fine concerning assessing the quality of nurses’ services. The metrics used, therefore, judge not only the nurses but also the hospital and are doing a good job.
Documented issues often arise in the realm of technology. Barcode medication administration (BCMA) can effectively improve the quality of care instead of always relying on memory written documents which may at times get lost. Additionally, BCMA can effectively enhance the speed of accessing needed information while increasing compliance with the top practices (Cain & Haque, 2008). Where BCMAs are in use, there are inconveniences of accessing the information on a patient’s wrist. Nurses can circumvent this by using the bar codes on the key rings instead. Additionally, where this device is in play, it is a custom that a physician enters an order before a nurse can access medication. In their absence, some nurses are forced to borrow medication in emergencies from patients in ward to give to others until the system reflects. To solve this problem, nurses should get a higher level of access to the BCMA system (Cain & Haque, 2008). Therefore, in hospitals not using the BCMA to manage information a transition would streamline their records system, while those already using it should give nurses more authority.
The deducted workflow has its advantages in a healthcare setup. A concise workflow can improve the efficiency of already organically evolved the system. Also, it can enable parallelization of services. The flexibility in consultation reduces chances of one person making onerous decisions with downstream effects on the patient’s care (Cain & Haque, 2008). Furthermore, a well-defined workflow reduces interruptions, workarounds in service delivery. It also increases communication among relevant parties. Lastly, desired outcomes regarding patients’ health are reached. Accordingly, a flow of activities in nursing has a lot of benefits.
In summary, nursing is a pivotal specialty in nursing informatics. The practice can be deduced into a flow diagram of the various stages involved when handling a patient. The five stages progressively involved are Assessing, Diagnosing, Planning, Implementing and Evaluating. The first step involves data collection and filling while the second stage is about the identification of the problem. After the problem is identified, the nurse chooses the course of action to take in the third stage and implements their decision in the fourth stage. The nurse then evaluates the situation and determines whether to terminate care or not. The quality of the services performed at each level is evaluated using a variety of matrices. The system has a few hiccups all of which can be easily solved. All in all, a structured workflow has proved to be valuable in the health sector.
References
Cain, C. & Haque, S.(2008) Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses: Chapter 31 Organizational Workflow and Its Impact on Work Quality. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2638/
HIMSS. (2017). What is Nursing Informatics? Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/what-nursing-informatics
National Health Foundation Trust. (2012, Aug 13). Nursing Workflow – Metrics. Retrieved from http://www.heartofengland.nhs.uk/nursing-workflow-metrics/
