Welcome to the last week of our session! I can’t speak for anyone else, but I feel this session flew by and it was so insightful. I remember feeling so intimidated by the word “informatics” because I had no idea what to expect, but I truly enjoyed this class. I feel I have come so far in understanding how the role of a nurse informaticist is one that brings new ideas and safer practice to nursing care through the use of technology. According to Chamberlain College of Nursing (2022), the nurse informaticist understands how technology can minimize risk and enhance individual nursing performance in the delivery of safer patient outcomes. The nurse informaticist is the link between the point-of-care clinician and the information system, ensuring that planning, implementation, and evaluation lead to meaningful use for continued quality improvement in healthcare (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, 2017). In today’s times, technology has been incorporated into majority of healthcare settings to help shape a better future for both our patients and staff. I learned if I want to be the best nurse I can possibly be, then I must familiarize myself with the use of information and communication systems used in daily nursing practice. These systems are benefiting nurses and patients by promoting safer patient care by improving areas like improved time management skills while carrying out multiple tasks, easier accessibility to patients PMH, access to any recent physician orders and medication administration records/orders.
I plan to apply informatics to my future nursing practice by teaching collogues and nursing friends/family about how informatics is applied to nursing, explain the benefits of nursing informatics, and how they can apply it within their own nursing care. Also, I will explore my options to take future informatic classes to dig a little deeper into this fascinating area of nursing! By taking this course, I learned how there is a whole area of nursing education dedicated to advancing nurses careers into an area of informatics. When considering the roles available to nurses with an interest in nursing informatics, explore a publication by the American Nurses Association called Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice (2015). It is a valuable resource that differentiates the informatics nurse specialist (INS) as an RN with formal, graduate-level education in informatics or a related field (a specialist in the field of nursing informatics) from the nurse informaticist (NI), who is an RN with an interest or experience in an informatics field but who is actually a generalist (Hebda et al., 2019).
Week 1, I scored a 25 on my self-assessment which made me feel more nervous about moving forward into this course. Looking back, I realize I was overthinking this course so much and I let it intimidate me just by its name!! Now, scroll ahead to week 8 and I scored a 34 on my self-assessment. I feel confident that I have enough knowledge and capability to use communication systems in healthcare more effectively after this session. Of course, I know I need proper training on using these systems per facility protocol, but now I won’t be blind-sided when that day comes to use this technology and apply informatics to my nursing career.
Thank you, professor! It was a great session and I enjoyed it. Good luck to all my classmates on your future courses and on your nursing journeys!
-Alyssa
Resources:
Chamberlain College of Nursing (2022). NR361 Information Systems in Healthcare: Week 8 lesson. Downers Grove, IL: Online Publication.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. (2017). What is nursing informatics?http://www.himss.