In: Nursing
Epic information systems or nursing information systems can help organize the procurement and implementation part of this acute sector. The Resource Management program allowed hospitals to consider how best to use information and information technology (IT) to support nursing. Nurses had to respond quickly to articulating their information needs. The choice of a computer system requires many decisions and the pace of change inevitably caused its own problems.
The main functions that can be found in current ward nursing information systems are:
-Care planning
Nursing Clinical Record
Care evaluation
Discharge planning
Workload assessment (prospective and or retrospective)
Personnel management
Staff rostering
Attendance recording
Skill mix management
Costing
Budget management
Traditionally everything was written down on paper which in the long run could be time-consuming and inefficient. An information system has a promising aspect of storing everything in an organized manner which makes assessment by the nurses easier. This thereby helps in the decisions they make.
For using a information system nurses should have skills in handling information; deciding what information they need to collect to do their jobs; how to analyze it, present written reports well supported by both quantifiable and qualitative data is now well recognized.