NCM 110 Nursing Informatics Historical Perspective Quiz

Historical Perspective of Nursing Informatics

• The use of computers in healthcare began in the 1950s and 1960s, initially for administrative and accounting functions.
• In the 1960s, studies explored how computer technology could be utilized in healthcare, and the nurses' station was seen as the center for developing computer applications.
• By the mid-1960s, nurses saw opportunities for computer use, but documentation time increased, and medication errors rose, prompting the investigation of computer-based information systems.

1970s

• Hospitals developed computer-based information systems, focusing on physician order entry, results reporting, pharmacy, laboratory, radiology reports, and financial management.
• Some systems included care planning, decision support, and interdisciplinary problem lists.
• Nurses were involved in implementing systems, and interest in computers and nursing began to emerge in public and home health, and education.

1980s

• The field of nursing informatics emerged, becoming visible in healthcare and nursing.
• The nursing profession needed to update practice standards, determine data standards, vocabularies, and classification schemes for computer-based patient record systems.
• Many mainframe healthcare information systems (HISs) emerged with nursing subsystems, documenting aspects of the patient record.

1990s

• Advances in relational databases, client-server architectures, and new programming methods allowed for better application development at lower costs.
• Legislative activity, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, paved the way for electronic health records.
• The complexity of technology, workflow analysis, and regulations shaped new roles in nursing.

2000s

• In 2004, an Executive Order established the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Healthcare Information Technology (HIT), aiming for interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) by 2014/2015.
• Wireless, point-of-care, regional database projects, and IT solutions proliferated.
• Smaller mobile devices with wireless or Internet access increased access to information for nurses within hospitals and in the community.

2010s

• The impact of the Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) demonstrated the need for consensus and effort to implement minimum nursing data into clinical practice.
• A new nursing informatics research agenda emerged, focusing on integrating nursing care data into HIT systems.
• The ONC convened national committees to outline and design the focus for the "Meaningful Use" legislation, aiming to implement complete, interoperable EHR and/or HIT systems in all US hospitals.
• Meaningful Use stages 1, 2, and 3 were introduced, focusing on computerized physician order entry, quality indicators, and reimbursement for implementation.