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Why Is Nursing Informatics Important

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Why is informatics significant to nursing and health care? What impact will it have on your duties as a nurse?
“All work in informatics is motivated by the need to create new solutions--often using information technology-- that enhance biomedical science, the health of the populace, and the quality and safety of care that is provided to individuals when they are ill” (American Medical Informatics Association, 2015, p. 1).
Information is critical for effective decision making in the practice of nursing. The major payers of health care are demanding the care nurses give be evidence-based. While anecdotally we may say they are effective, without informatics we cannot prove that our activities are effective. Additionally, health care facilities …show more content…
Using informatics require I be familiar with more standardized language, as well as ways of documenting patient information. This creates both a positive and negative for nursing. The electronic medical record provides immediate access to a patient status to anyone who has sufficient rights to access the information. At the same time, entering the information takes additional time out of the traditional nursing duties. Additionally the information must be accurate. As the saying in information technology goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” All nurses will need to have core informatics competencies to practice effectively in the next millennium.
Core computing skills include the ability to use word processing, e-mail, spreadsheets, databases, bibliographic retrieval, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and presentation graphics software. In addition, all nurses must be able to collect and record data using information technologies, analyze and interpret information needed to provide care, and implement policies related to privacy, confidentiality, and security of information (American Nurses Association, 2008, p. …show more content…
While family, friends and coworkers may be very interested and concerned about an individual, the nurse cannot give out any information regarding a patient unless they have permission granted to them by the patient. There are exceptions, which then creates the dilemma of who makes the decision. For an example, “When you are not there or when you are injured and cannot give your permission, a provider may share information with these persons when it decides that doing so would be in your best interest” (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2015, para. 6). As a representative of the facility when communicating to the family, how does one determine who makes the decision in the patients’ best interest. While the facility may have guidelines, the family member may not take you refusal to provide information so

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