Nursing Informatics



Nursing Informatics

Introduction

Nursing informatics is a specialty that integrates computer science, nursing science, as well as, information science for the management and communication of information, data, knowledge, as well as, wisdom in the practice of nursing. Nursing informatics support the patients, the consumers, as well as, the nurses and others in providing support in decision making under all settings and roles. The use of information structure, information technology and information processes support the decisions that are taken with the help of nursing informatics. Nursing informatics has helped the nursing professionals for many years and still counting. This has made the life of the nursing professionals easier. This has also helped the nursing professionals in taking very important decisions in a better way than before. Nursing informatics has become a part of the professional activities that the nursing professionals do. This has also taken the level of nursing to another higher level by bridging the gap that existed in making nursing not only an art. But also a science (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2007). This assignment will provide an overview of the nursing informatics, as well as, the help and support that this has provided the nursing professionals in the past five years. The ways that this has affected the profession of nursing will also be under discussion. Moreover, the role that electronic medical record (EMR) has played in the nursing profession will also be discussed in detail in the assignment.

Discussion

Healthcare and technology have become an increasingly important and integral part of the healthcare and nursing systems in the country. The use of technology has changed the field of nursing.

Impact on Patient Care Delivery

Challenges of Healthcare Technology

Nursing practice and patient care are widely affected by the nursing informatics that is in place in most of the healthcare organizations since the past few years. The nurses make use of technology to access records of the patients at a much faster pace than they did before. They now have an access to the patient's information that they can retrieve easily and quickly and make use of it while at the same time reducing potential errors that are related to manual induction of information of patients. This has made the life of the nurses easier (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2007).

Clinical Decision Support Systems

The inclusion of informatics in nursing and healthcare has also helped the decision makers in the process of decision making. The healthcare practitioners, especially the nurses now have an access to the healthcare information such as vital signs, trauma history, as well as, current treatments that they can use in the process of decision making. The clinical support systems for decision making are special tools or software that help the nurses and the relevant staff in making decisions while looking at the many different graphics, graphs, statistics, as well as, other useful information for taking decisions in the patient care (Gaumer & Sudbay, 2007). Such recommendations can then also be used in future when similar cases come to the nurses ...