NURSING INFORMATICS

Nursing Informatics

Nursing Informatics

Article One

Thesis

Information is key to effective decision-making and integral to quality nursing practice. Much of what nurses do involves information-from assessing the health care needs of patients, to developing care plans, to communicating patient information to other health professionals, to analyzing staffing and budget reports- in fact nurses work in an information-intensive environment.

Article summary

The author says that the advances in information technology have created new roles for nurses, and referred to as nursing informaticians. Increasingly, however, there is a need for all nurses to integrate nursing informatics competencies into their practices.

The author says that the Advanced nursing practice describes the work, or what nurses 'do' in the role. There is no single definition, but agreement that advanced nursing practice extends the traditional scope of nursing, involves highly autonomous practice, maximizes the use of nursing knowledge, and contributes to the development of the profession (ANA 1995a, CNA 2000, RCNA 2000, Castledine 2002). An inherent function of advanced nursing practice is that of change agent, involving collaboration and consultation with health care providers and decision-makers. Advanced practice is another term referring to advanced nursing practice and should not be confused with advanced clinical practice, which refers only to the clinical care of patients (Brown 1998).

In addition the author says that advanced practice nursing includes a variety of roles in which nurses function at an advanced level of practice (ANA 1995a, Brown 1998, RCNA 2000). In countries such as the United States, where legislation, regulatory mechanisms and protected titles for clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse anaesthetists, and nurse practitioners exist, there is less difficulty distinguishing APN roles.

The article concludes to recommend for the future introduction of APN roles can be drawn from this paper. These include the need for a collaborative, systematic and evidence-based process designed to provide data to support the need and goals for a clearly defined APN role, support a nursing orientation to advanced practice, promote full utilization of all the role domains, create environments that support role development, and provide ongoing evaluation of these roles related to predetermined goals.

Article Two

Thesis

Governments across Canada are investing millions of dollars into the creation of electronic health records systems. While these systems offer great promise of improving the nation's health care system, they also pose considerable risks to individual privacy.

Article summary

In this article the author sys that in the first place, there is no new warehouse of information. Rather, the Alberta's EHR is an electronic network that links the patient records which are collected and maintained by health professionals and by regional health authorities. The EHR provides a portal through which this information can flow from one care provider to another. Pharmacist Kumar, who operates a community pharmacy, can use his computer to obtain information about a patient from Dr. Lee's record. A crucial point to emphasize is that professional responsibility is maintained by those who have traditionally had responsibility for the collection, use and disclosure of health ...