Class Response: The Need to Understand Informatics by Nurses

Class Response: The Need to Understand Informatics by Nurses

this is the initial discussion topic below

As you reflect on your score, identify areas where your knowledge could use improvement. Whether you are a new graduate or a seasoned nurse, it is important to keep in mind that all professional nurses are knowledge workers. What questions do you have as they relate to nursing informatics and the AACN essentials?

Professor and class,

I scored a 30 in the AACN Essentials Nursing Self Assessment. Although I am an novice nurse, I worked as a medical assistant for the past 10 years at a hospital. The hospital I used to work in started using EPIC last year. Before EPIC we were using another EMR called Eclipsys. Change is not always easy to accept, but I feel like the EPIC system is much better than the previous system. You’re able to see where the patient is at in any given time, whether they were triaged and if they were already seen by the doctor or just waiting. There was many times where we would give suggestions to the EPIC team and they would do their best to try to customize the system to our liking. I’m not sure what its like for the nursing personnel and the inpatient units since I was working in an outpatient clinic.

“EHRs bring a meaningful medium to enhance continuity of care, care coordination, access to information, and satisfaction for both patient and provider, while decreasing costs” (Hebda, 2019 p.10). It is without a doubt that technology has brought much more information at our fingertips. This saves us time and allows us to provide more attention to our patients. We don’t have to worry about pages falling out of the charts or getting lost. We don’t have to worry about not being able to understand a doctor’s order. Informatics is definitely a benefit in healthcare.

I currently don’t have any questions that relate to nursing informatics and the AACN essentials. But I do agree with McGonigle. “In this era of large amounts of data, nursing informatics competencies are key to safe, efficient, and quality practice, and good use of nursing informatics can result in enhanced patient care outcomes” (McGonigle, 2014).

References:

Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals(6st ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

McGonigle, D., Hunter, K., Sipes, C., & Hebda, T. (2014). Why nurses need to understand nursing informatics. AORN Journal, 324-327.

 

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