Nursing Informatics

Nursing Informatics

Introduction

Technology never ceases to amaze us. Every day, scientists are developing newer, safer and more reliable techniques to help fellow beings in all walks of life. They continually work towards creating new and more effective treatments, safer medicines, more effective procedures, and numerous other tools to help increase the quality of care provided to patients throughout the world. It comes as no surprise that administrative authorities at places like hospitals expect the doctors and nurses they employ to incorporate the use of such advancements in the care they provide to their patients. Using newer methods, along with tried and tested techniques, doctors can become a lot more efficient, increase the quality of care and possibly even prevent ailments by constantly and easily monitoring their patients. This can be done with all sorts of new technology that can collect, sort, assess and deliver required information, in real time, to nurses and physicians. By cutting down the requirement to physically be present in order to transfer, communicate and receive information, health care professionals can now focus entirely on those that need help.

Information systems have made all this possible. By organizing, storing and retrieve relevant data, computer systems truly help physicians face and conquer numerous challenges. Information systems that are specifically designed for the needs of the health care system are called medical informatics. It can be defined as a system that deals with the promoting and understanding of organizations, the basic analysis of information, its management and effect delivery of the said information (www.amia.org). Today, numerous hospitals all around the world utilize systems that function as described. Pharmacies have been linked up to each patient records and medication is ready to be retrieved once it has been assigned by your physician. Nurses no longer have to run to stationary points for retrieving and providing necessary information. The mobility has allowed them to focus more on their patient's care, comfort and well being. All this was not possible a few decades ago. The Agency for healthcare Research and Quality, commonly referred to as the AHRQ, has funded and supported research in the field on informatics. Most of the systems employed in hospitals today were somehow related to AHRQ research and funding (Fitzmaurice et.al, 2002).

This paper discusses the benefits of such systems, security concerns and standard with respect to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the benefits of active involvement of nurses in planning, implementing and choosing such systems and how their handheld devices can be integrated into these systems. It goes on to discuss two specific systems that can be applied to a community hospital with a hundred beds and their individual benefits. The paper concludes with a recommendation, with justification, of one of the two systems.

Discussion

Management Systems and Quality of Care

Initially, information technology and information systems were considered extremely radical concepts. It is not entirely false. Gone are the days when everything had to be written down, maintained in filling cabinets and retrieved when the doctor needed it ...