Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology

 
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
Nurse informaticists work in various healthcare setups, such as private health facilities, public health facilities, government organizations, and academia. Females account for more than 75 percent of this population (Zippia.com, n.d.). About 48 percent of these specialists work in private health facilities, whereas 25 percent work in public healthcare facilities (Zippia.com, n.d.). About 19 percent are involved in academia and research, whereas 11 percent practice in government organizations (Zippia.com, n.d.).

Nurse informaticists have been proven to be beneficial stakeholders in academia and public and private facilities. They collect, analyze, interpret data, and disseminate their findings. This feedback forms the basis for optimizing workflow, identifying existing gaps, and developing new policies (Booth et al., 2022). Also, nurse informaticists train and provide continuous education to interdisciplinary team members. Training and education are guided by evidence-based research and organizational data. By so doing, employees acquire pertinent skills and knowledge to improve service delivery quality and increase productivity (Booth et al., 2022). Furthermore, nurse informaticists select, acquire, and implement pertinent health technology (Booth et al., 2022). The emphasis is to acquire the best technology to improve healthcare quality by improving documentation, promoting collaboration, and improving the decision-making process (Booth et al., 2022). Examples of these technologies are telehealth and electronic medical systems.

Nurse informaticists interact with members of the interdisciplinary team during training, policy formulation, or when conducting performance evaluation. The interactions can be physical or virtual. Examples of interdisciplinary team members include physicians, administrators, pharmacists, nurses, nutritionists, and laboratory personnel. Zareshahi et al. (2022) report that training and education equip these stakeholders with information on the underperforming metrics, new technology, merits of the new technology, how to use new technology, and any changes in organizational policies and standard procedures.
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
Healthcare technology will improve the quality of nursing care. This is attributed to various factors. Firstly, technology such as telehealth and EHR systems will allow nurses to collaborate with other healthcare providers (Ngangue et al., 2020). Interdisciplinary collaboration improves the decision-making process and advocates for evidence-based practice hence improving the quality of nursing care. Secondly, technology will optimize workflow and reduce the incidence of medical errors. For example, barcoding and smart infusion pumps will enable nurses to mitigate medication administration errors (Michalek & Carson, 2020). Thirdly, technology such as telehealth will promote remote patient monitoring and optimize patient follow-up.

Appropriate use of healthcare technology will enable nurses to uphold the privacy and confidentiality of protected patient information. Data encryption will allow them to create ciphertext and unique decryption keys to access patient data (Kok et al., 2019). This will avert unauthorized access. Passcodes will allow nurses to regularly create and update their unique codes (Kok et al., 2019). By so doing, unauthorized access to patient data will be averted. Additionally, identity and access management will ensure that only authorized personnel access patient information (Kok et al., 2019). This technique ensures that each user has a unique account. In this context, account details should not be disclosed to other parties.

Healthcare technology will enable nurses to optimize workflow, reduce treatment costs, and get a positive return on investment. Technology such as telehealth and EHR systems optimize workflow by automating documentation and improving interdisciplinary collaboration (Ngangue et al., 2020). Collaboration facilitates care coordination and improves the quality of healthcare services. Other technologies, such as barcoding, reduce medication administration errors by allowing nurses to identify patients accurately (Michalek & Carson, 2020). Care coordination and interdisciplinary collaboration lower the incidence of medical errors, improve the quality of care and improve patient outcomes. As such, healthcare costs are lowered. Automated documentation and billing services reduce the likelihood of monetary losses resulting from inaccurate billing. This applies to both out-of-pocket payments and reimbursements from insurers.
Opportunities and Challenges
The nurse informaticist role offers opportunities and some challenges for nurses and members of the interdisciplinary team. This role will promote the effective use of organizational data. By so doing, evidence-based decisions will be made to optimize workflow and the existing policies and procedures. The role of a nurse informaticist provides an opportunity for continuing education and training (Booth et al., 2022). This will enable nurses and other healthcare providers to acquire new skills and knowledge and improve their competency. Nurses and members of the interdisciplinary team may experience challenges in capturing and recording accurate data (Booth et al., 2022). This will be averted by regular training and performance evaluation.

As aforementioned, members of the interdisciplinary team should work in concert via technology to improve the quality of care outcomes. For instance, physicians should embrace features such as computerized physician order entries (CPOEs) to increase the accuracy of the documentation (Alizadeh et al., 2021). Additionally, decision support systems will enable them to develop evidence-based plans (Alizadeh et al., 2021). CPOEs and barcodes will improve the accuracy and promote safe medication administration by nurses. CPOEs will enable pharmacists to check prescriptions’ accuracy and dispense them accurately (Alizadeh et al., 2021). Ngangue et al. (2020) report that telehealth will enable interdisciplinary team members to collaborate and provide real-time care to patients remotely.
Summary of Recommendations
Nurse informaticists positively impact academia and public and private health facilities. They are involved in initiating and implementing health technology, creating and modifying organizational policies and standard procedures, and supervising data handling and validation (Booth et al., 2022; Forman et al., 2020). Other organizations have benefitted from the role of nurse informaticists. Notably, these stakeholders provide continuous education and training and enforce the appropriate use of healthcare technology to improve the quality of healthcare services. Appropriate use of technology via collaboration with nurse informaticists will enable the nurse to deliver high-quality nursing services, protect patient data and minimize healthcare costs. Nurses and other healthcare providers should collaborate with nurse informaticists to improve the quality of healthcare.
References
Alizadeh, G., Jafarzadeh, A., & Farough Khosravi, M. (2021). Scoping Review of Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in Reducing Medical Errors. Evidence-Based Health Policy, Management and Economics, 5(2), 142–150. https://doi.org/10.18502/jebhpme.v5i2.6559