Nursing Informatics: An Introduction

Nursing Informatics Introduction

• Nursing informatics combines nursing and computer sciences for managing data and processing it into knowledge to improve healthcare practices.
• The goal of NI is to improve the health of entire populations by optimizing information management.
• Nurses enhance IT systems, training, clinical practices, and patient outcomes.
• Technology is a powerful tool to aid education and provide health promotion on a global scale.
• Information has been doubling every 5 years.

Defining Nursing Informatics

• Nursing Informatics (NI) integrates nursing science with multiple information management and analytical sciences.
• NI enhances the ability to identify, define, manage, and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice.
• NI supports consumers, patients, nurses, and healthcare professionals to improve decision-making and achieve desired outcomes by using information structures, processes, and technology.

Individuals and Terms Preceding Nursing Informatics

• Karl Steinbuch used the term "informatiks".
• Phillipe Dreyfus used the term "informatics".
• Scholes and Barber used the term "nursing informatics."

Benefits of Nursing Informatics in Healthcare

• Informs and influences IT systems, research clinical practices, and support evidence-based workflows.
• Facilitates stronger nurse training.
• Leverages IT investments.
• Contributes unique wisdom to clinical care through deep understanding of clinical practice and data analysis.
• Enriches the evolving healthcare delivery system.
• Improves patient care, safety, and outcomes with more efficient electronic health records, better IT systems, and research for clinical best practices.

Role of Nursing Informatics Specialists

• Managing the transition from paper to digital records.
• Develop, update, and maintain electronic health records.
• Develop EHR interfaces to improve care and efficiency.
• Improve and manage data to lower costs.
• Work with government to make sure laws promote technological health.
• Help implement technologies outside of electronic health records.

Technology Application in Nursing Practice:

Hospital & Critical Care Applications

• Process, store, and integrate physiological and diagnostic information.
• Accept and store patient care documentation in a lifetime clinical repository.
• Data is presented graphically and supports decision-making through alarms and protocols.
• Nurses can access patient information from any location.
• Compare patient outcomes using data focused on concept-oriented views.

Physiologic monitors

• Sensors
• Signal conditioners
• Files to rank and order data
• Computer analysis and direct reports
• Evaluation/controlling component regulating equipment
• Used for arrhythmia, mechanical ventilation, and hemodynamic monitoring

Microprocessors

• Microprocessors work by analyzing information and controlling direction
• They alert personnel with reports, alarms, or visual notices.
• Hemodynamic monitors measure parameters, evaluate cardiac pump output, volume, and vascular integrity
• Hemodynamic monitors also recognize arrhythmia patterns, assess vascular system integrity, evaluate patient physiologic response to stimuli, continuously measure respiratory gases and glucose levels, store waveforms, and transmit data automatically.
• The bolus for thermodilution technique must be injected within four seconds.
• Injection temperature must be measured accurately for proper placement, while the computer needs a constant
• Telemetry enables continuous monitoring remotely but is susceptible to signal loss.
• Pulse oximetry is a standard, non-invasive method to measures blood oxygen saturation using spectrophotometry.
• Arrhythmia monitors use computerized analysis of cardiac rhythm to detect lethal heart rhythms.

Critical Care Information Systems (CCIS)

• Collect, store, organize, retrieve, and analyze data related to patient care along with free data flow between departments.
• They include patient management service, track length of stay, mortality and readmission rates.
• Also schedule patient activities, treatment, and diagnostic testing, integrating laboratory, radiology, and cardiology results.
• Physiological information is acquired from bedside instruments and integrated.
• Critical care assessments may be tailored to ease data collection.
• They provide alerts based on evidence guidelines and access to evidence-based care, drug information, and procedures, which help facilitate medication and interdisciplinary plans
• Incorporate bar codes and other solutions for patient care.
• It aims to show a complete picture of patients.

Community Health Application & Informatics

• Focuses on the health information system of the community and centers on the majority part of the public.
• Community health applications emphasizes the prevention of disease, medical intervention, and public awareness.
• An effective health application promotes community health, maintains sustainability, and protects health data and information.
• Goal is to help with effective and timely community and population assessments.

Community Health Application System function:

• Encourages optimal application of computer systems, programs, and communication.
• It focuses on preventing, identifying, and eliminating communicable diseases, by ensuring data is accessible to promote health, retrieves data easily, transforms data effectively, and integrates information across disciplines.
• Creates computerized patient records, managing data in a central warehouse, and provides a simple graphical user interface for nurses.

Survey system:

• Gathers numerical data to make inferences about a population.
• Focuses on opinions or factual data depending on the need of the study, and may administer questions to individuals.
• Helps in having more control of disease and sickness and alerts nationally while building strong communication between nurses and health providers.
• Community health application's use is critical to optimize management of hospitals and clinics.

Strategies to strengthen community health application:

• Strengthen the use of surveillance and response capabilities.
• Improve data availability to help public health managers address illness causes.
• Expected uses include collecting, managing, analyzing, and disseminating health-related data.
• They also use maintaining official national statistics, and control disease trends.

Application in Ambulatory Care:

• Emphasizes patient safety and quality nursing care to identify needs, perform procedures, educate, support advocacy, and coordinate services while assisting with patient navigation.
• In emergency situations the overall goal is public health, but prevention must be focused on.

Telehealth

• Telehealth focuses on enabling better healthcare through technology.
• Virtual care and informatics became very important during Covid-19.
• IS tools are useful in mass communications, education, and data privacy.
• They help frontline workers and physicians choose technology wisely to track and forecast outbreaks and guide AI screening.

Informatics for Consideration and Recommendations

• It is recommended that tracking is used with consent, aggregates data, is kept open, examination-free, and time is specified.
• AI helped create screening tools to test for COVID-19 and support fighting disease.

Application of Health Informatics

• Clinical practice includes electronic health records, telemedicine, and e-health, while administrative functions include clinical/administrative assistance and health information systems.
• Informatics plays major Educational roles via e-learning, teleconferencing and webinars.

Nursing Informatics in Practice

• Nurses should have knowledge of technology to protect clients and support decision making.
• Bedside data entry improves client care, improves communication, and allows for data transmission to central.
• Electronic records and computer diagnostics extends nurses reach.

Computerized Client Records

• Computerized client records enable data to be entered and accessed by those who need it
• Help reduce errors, gives more availability to healthcare data, and quality ability
• A nurse informaticist combines computer and nursing science
• Helps use of effective and secure use of electronic records.
• Electronic documents maintain client’s personal and health information.
• Information can be drawn from multiple sources, all managed by one.
• These electronic charts incorporate evidence, guides, and simple alarms.
• Nurses retrieve information over time and use EMRs for standardized care plans.
• Telemedicine supports these practices, sending a remote data.

Intellectual Property Law

• Designed to help creators keep their work original.
• Informatics ethics is also regulated by WIPO on a global scale.

Intellectual Property Rights

• Arise from human intellect and creation.
• This can comprise of distinct artistic and industrial forms.
• Copyright Law protects things originally written and created.
• State policy aims to foster and protect the diffusion of national knowledge.
• These things all allow for innovation.

Copyright Infringement

• Penalties, damages, and criminal actions may apply when expression is copied.
• Fair use allows certain organizations to copy materials.
• Digital media are easily copied so it is important to have security.
• IP (Intellectual Property) rights encompass all copyright materials.

Trademarks include:

• Logo
• Sound
• Symbol
• Word
• Colour
• Design

Various State Policy Declarations:

• It is important to have industrial IP systems in place.
• The state should help promote and further creativity.
• Works that are not protected are things which have facts, recipes, or general ideas.
• Government agencies were put into place to further implement code of ethics.
• One cannot have rights over original works in intellectual domains.
• All can have access to information for daily activity.

What the Copyright Includes:

• Articles
• Sermons
• Pamphlets
• Dramatics
• Drawing
• Sculpture

What it Copyright does NOT Include:

• Recipes
• Ideas
• Facts
• Copyright is meant to be protected in all creations.
• Copyright is owned by their assignees.
• Copyright can be licensed or authorized.
• There is right to apply for this in a variety of forms.
• Some forms last beyond the people involved.

Privacy and Confidentiality

• In data privacy, there are certain times that the ethical standard is involved.
• Privacy means that we do not have to interfere with peoples information.
• Anonymity, Confidentiality, and security all ensures the practices are held.
• There is also a huge data privacy act that helps prevent and promote these guidelines.

The processing of data includes:

• Subject
• Purpose
• Extent
• All communications should be easy to understand.
• Security has to be appropriate and secure.
• In security you have to be careful what you say to people.
• Access, know, maintain all contribute to the same ideals.

Computer Ethics

• Be nice to each other
• Be careful and respectful
• Think about sharing resources appropriately
• There are guidelines to follow
• There are rules and etiquette that help to define the social contract that we all need to understand