Question

While discussing the increased use of technology to gather, store, and access healthcare information, senior nursing students discuss the importance of preventing data security breaches and the implication of such breaches on nurses professionally. The class is divided into groups to research and prepare information on various relevant topics to present to the entire class.

1. A group is assigned to create a summary of information related to the ethical aspects of electronic data collection to the profession of nursing. What information will be included?
2. A group of students is assigned to research information regarding a healthcare organizational risk assessment. What will that group focus upon?

Answer 1

Answer:

The EHR( electronic health record ) has several  unintended complications, to overcome this there are some ethical priorities to be maintained.Privacy and confidentiality is first among them.In healthcare, confidentiality has a great importance.If a nurse or healthcare worker failed or forgot to logoff the computer after he/ she entered the data, another person( it can be patient, patient relative or other health care provider or anyone) would be able to access the patient datas and it will break the confidentialty of healthrecord.Inaccurant data is another ethical concern. The multidisciplinary data regarding a patient determine his/her treatment protocol.If a nurse has enterd wrong information about a patient or has enterd data on different patient accidently,it will badly affect the patient diagnosis and treatment.Illegaly accessing patient data can break  the security of health information.Lack of knowledge related to the use of EHR can end up in inadequate data to the provider.

Risk assessment in healthcare is meant to reduce or eliminate any harm , potential injury or medical error to the patient, staff within the hospital setting.It is important to know how the risk assessment can be carried out.This can be patient centered or staff centered.For example, if a patient had fall,assess the factors associated with it, like patient's conscious level,effect of any medication, unavailabity of bystander, busy shift( lack of staff),uncompetent staff, e.t.c. .This process can be done through reporting a problem, identifying the situation( how it happend), assess the risk and take action and document the findings.Many patient risk can be reduced by providing adequate training, competency tool, developing strong communication and counseling,Patient safety can be enhanced through these process.