A hospital is looking to implement an EHR. It has been suggested that an INS be hired. This position does not involve direct patient care and the administration is struggling with how to justify the position. How can this position be justified?
Using reference:
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett. (ISBN 978-1-284-04351-8)
HERE IS THE RESOURCES GIVEN:
Nursing Informatics Learning Goals/Outcomes
Upon completion, the student will be able to:
- Analyze the sciences underpinning nursing informatics and their relationship to nursing informatics practice.
- Discuss the evolving roles and competencies of nursing informatics practice.
- Describe how clinical information technologies are and will impact nursing practice.
- Explore how nurses can create and derive clinical knowledge from information systems.
- Speculate on the future of nursing in the context of health informatics.
Required Resource
- View Youtube video: Interview with a Nurse Informatics Specialists (Links to an external site.)
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES- WEBQUESTS
http://www.allianceni.org/ (Links to an external site.)
http://www.ahima.org/ (Links to an external site.)
https://www.amia.org/ (Links to an external site.)
https://www.ania.org/ (Links to an external site.)
http://www.himss.org/ (Links to an external site.)
http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/ (Links to an external site.)
http://www.imia.org/ni/ (Links to an external site.)
Nursing Informatics Mini Lecture
The IMIA-NI (Nursing Informatics: Special Interest Group of International Medical Informatics Association)definition, agreed at their General Assembly in Stockholm in 1997, and amended for clarity at the General Assembly in Seoul, 1998 defined Nursing Informatics as the integration of nursing, its information, and information management with information processing and communication technology, to support the health of people world-wide.
Evolution
The term “medical informatics” has its foundation with the French term “informatique” which concerns all the aspects of the computer as a tool for use in processing of information. The term “medical informatics” was used before “nursing informatics” and “health informatics”. Medical informatics is the use of computers for classification and retrieval of data and for the management health care information, enabling use to explore and better understand the informational and cognitive foundations of medicine3 (Blois, 1986).
In 1985 Hannah defined nursing informatics as the use of information technology by nurses carrying out their duties and which are in relation in relation to any function in the purview of nursing (as cited in Ball et al, 2000).
Graves and Corcoran (1989) state that nursing informatics is a “combination of computer science, information science, and nursing designed to assist in the management and processing of nursing data, information, and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care.”
Romano (as cited in Ball et al., 2000) adds a further dimension to this definition by asserting that nursing informatics is “the application of the principles of information science and theory to the study, scientific analysis, and management of nursing information for the purpose of establishing a body of nursing knowledge”.
The ANA definition of nursing informatics. Nursing informatics is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice.(ANA, 2008) Nursing informatics facilitates the integration of data, information, and knowledge to support patients, nurses, and other providers in their decision-making all roles and settings (ANA, 2008 p. 1). Aiding in their roles is what makes this definition role-oriented. Role oriented definitions seem to be the most complete of these NI definitions. They describe how the NI specialty functions under the broader scope of health informatics yet has specific components such as: differentiated practice, defined research, organizational representation, educational development, and credentialing (2008). As the definition has evolved, it has become more specific to nursing.
In summary, several definitions of nursing informatics have been proposed. The definition can be categorized as:
- Technology-focused (Ball)
- Conceptual-focused (Graves and Corcoran)
- Role-orientated (ANA)
While the specialty of Nursing Informatics typically requires master’s level preparation, it is important for every nurse to have a good understanding and awareness of the concepts underlying nursing informatics. Both the ANA and the Essentials for Baccalaureate Education from AACN state that nursing students must have an understanding of nursing informatics.
According to ANA (2008), Nursing Informatics is a discipline-specific practice within the broader perspective of health informatics. NI has been recognized as a specialty for registered nurses in 1992. The focus of NI is on representation of nursing data, information, and knowledge; and the management and communication of nursing information within the broader context of health informatics.
Nursing informatics:
- is nursing practice
- adheres nursing values and beliefs
- provides a practice base of the specialty of NI
- produces new nursing knowledge
- distinguishes a group of nursing practitioners
- focuses on the phenomena of interest to nursing (patient, environment, health, nursing)
- provide a domain-specific language, terminology and knowledge representation system.
Nursing Informatics is a specialty in nursing through it’s:
- differentiated practice. In addition to the four phenomena of interest to the discipline of nursing, NI focuses on structure and algorithm of data, information, and knowledge used by nurses.
- defined research program. Priorities for NI research are development of nursing languages and terminologies, databases for clinical information, patient as users of information technology, Telehealth, and issues of data privacy and confidentially.
- organizational representation in international (e.g., IMIA) national (e.g., AMIA), regional, local level organizations providing opportunities for networking and professional development.
- educational programs such as emerging NI graduate programs.
- credentialing through ANCC
In addition the differentiation of NI as a specialty in nursing is also supported by:
NI’s own scientific nursing underpinnings
- integration of concepts and tools from information science and computer science
- application of Human computer Interaction (HCI) and ergonomics principles
The goals of Nursing Informatics are to improve health worldwide by optimizing nursing information management and communication.
The Informatics Nurse Specialist has at least a master’s degree in nursing informatics (system degree) and functions in the role of project manager, consultant, educator, researcher, development support, policy development or entrepreneurs related to nursing information technology application.
Although NI is considered a specialty practice within the discipline of nursing, some informatics competencies are required for all nurses. So is expected that a beginning nurse has fundamental computer literacy skills and information literacy skills related to patient care; the experienced nurse has proficiency in information management and communications in their area of practice such as community health, patient education, etc. The informatics Nurse Specialist is expected to have all the competencies outlined in the beginning and experienced nurse, and to demonstrate the competencies enumerated in the Standard of Practice (ANA, 2001), collaborate with other informaticists, and function within interdisciplinary environments such as health care, HCI, information science, and computer science.
Standards of Informatics
The American Nurses Association published the third iteration of its nursing informatics scope and standards of practice in 2008. This work reflects the significant evolution of the specialty from the original scope of practice statement published in 1994 and the first nursing informatics standards of practice in 1995. Although the definition of nursing informatics remains essentially unchanged from that presented in 2001, the inclusion of “wisdom” reflects today’s emerging mandate for evidence-based practice and decision support resources for the knowledge worker and emphasizes nursing informatics competencies and functional areas. Overall, it articulates the essentials of nursing informatics, its accountabilities and activities for both nursing informatics specialists and generalists. Its standards are those by which all nurses practice nursing informatics, and reflect and specify practice priorities and perspectives.