Evidence-Based Strategies That the Nurse and Interdisciplinary Team Can Use To Effectively Manage Patients’ Protected Health Information

The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requires health professionals to enhance the security and confidentiality of protected health information. The act outlines three safeguards that professional must adopt to protect patients information, including technical safeguards, physical safeguards, and administrative safeguards (Kruse et al., 2017). Informatics nurses can train other health professionals about the use of firewall software to protect patients’ sensitive and confidential information. Additionally, informatics nurses can advise healthcare professionals on the use PINs, passwords, and encryption techniques to limit unauthorized access to patient information.

 Nurse informatics in collaboration with other medical professionals can implement various types of controls to enhance the security of protected health information. These controls include access controls, local controls, administrative control, and physical control. Physical control entails the supervision of computing facilities and work environment, and locks to protect confidential and sensitive information (Cohen & Mello, 2018). Administrative controls include designing guidelines, standards, and policies for workplace computer systems.  Informatics nurses must also educate healthcare workers on the use of data and software to control access to computer system and information (Cohen & Mello, 2018). Healthcare workers must be aware of the significance of password and user authentication.  The use of access controls will limit individuals’ access to information based on their functions and roles in the organization. Adoption of these strategies will assist nurses and interdisciplinary to safeguard protected health information.

Opportunities and Challenges

 Informatics nurses are competent in interpreting technology from multiple viewpoints like information technology, nursing workflow, and patient care.  They add value to healthcare facilities by integrating knowledge and information systems to boost efficiency and patient experience with care delivery.  Nurse informaticists assist healthcare workers in applying various technologies like computerized provider order entry and Electronic Medical Records in care delivery.  They also work with multiple stakeholders in the health care sector to bridge the gap between technical and clinical perspectives while maintaining the patients’ safety (Nagle, Sermeus & Junger, 2017). However, the addition of the nurse informaticist role has brought various challenges to nurses and the interdisciplinary team. For example, the pace of technological advancements makes some of the information gained by nurses and allied healthcare workers irrelevant. For this reason, nurses must continuously update themselves with the latest technologies in the market to promote care delivery.

Another challenge is that clinical practice will be team-based in the future. The team will comprise of patients and their families and interprofessional groups, and various virtual devices. The organization of teams will be around a specific client. Healthcare workers will have to identify new ways of labeling these temporary online teams because they will be members of different virtual teams (Nagle et al., 2017).Therefore, technological implementation will challenge the management, leading, and evaluation of teams as well as information exchange and communication within groups. It will be nurse informaticists’ responsibility to collaborate with the interdisciplinary team in using data analytics, assuming new roles, and interpreting and applying new knowledge to improve quality care outcomes through technology.

Summary of Recommendations

The key takeaways that the Chief Nursing Officer and Human Resource Manager should remember are:

        i.            Nurse informaticist role is crucial in improving patient care delivery by using technology to reduce medication errors and improve patient experience

   ii.            Nurse informaticists through their guidance and contributions in technological adoption improve workflows and best practices in managing information technology, processes, and information structures

    iii.            Nurse informaticists monitor daily workflows, educates healthcare workers on the use of the electronic system, and address any challenges they may face when navigating the system.

Conclusion

The nursing profession is advancing at a rapid rate and nursing informatics will change the nursing practice through technological advancements. Informatics nurses role is to bridge t