Question

how can we utilize nursing informatics more within the nursing field?

Answer 1

1) Aligning Nursing Best Practice with Clinical Workflows and Care Nursing informatics is focussed on the best ways to achieve good patient outcomes — it is about applying the overall process and best practice to maximize patient care wherever possible. As a result, nurse informaticists are often involved in process design, clinical workflow reviews, and new diagnostics and treatment plans. They take into account the various options for providing care and use objective facts and analysis to determine the actions that will lead to the most patient-centered, value-based care.

2) Improving Clinical Policies, Protocols, Processes, and Procedures Data is the lifeblood of nursing informatics.

A nurse informaticist will measure and analyze how specific parts of the organization are performing, with a focus on the resulting patient outcomes.

They can then make changes to specific parts of the process to streamline activities, avoid bottlenecks, and improve care. Informaticists will see what the results are and continue making changes to enhance every part of the clinical care process.

3) Providing Training and Learning Based on Objective Data One of the most valuable ways a nursing informaticist can enhance patient outcomes is through providing training to clinical staff.

4) Selecting and Testing New Medical Devices

Involving informaticists in the selection of medical devices will ensure you have additional criteria for understanding how device data can inform diagnostics, treatment plans, and ultimately patient outcomes.

5) Reducing Medical Errors and Costs Nursing informaticists can reduce the chance of medical errors in a healthcare organization, together with associated costs. A combination of staff training, process improvement, and best practice will enhance the quality of care and limit patient risks. There are four main areas that drive medical errors:

• Communication doesn’t take place when it should
• Incorrect or incomplete information is communicated
• Information is shared with the wrong recipient or third party
• The message lacks critical facts or is unclear, meaning it isn’t understood correctly.  

6) Enhancing End-to-End Treatment and Continuity of Care A patient’s care may involve several areas, many teams, and dozens of individuals. Nursing informaticists can create protocols and processes to ensure proper communications and interactions between departments, teams, individuals, and patients.