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I see nursing informatics as a specialty title to health care informatics. Informatics is dealing with information, computerized information and telecommunications. Nursing informatics deals with these also but how they impact patient care. Nurses in to days world are almost all familiar with some sort of nursing informatics such as a computerized medication system or charting systems as well as discharge instructions or patient education. Every nurse at my facility uses the computer, internet, and intranet daily to conduct patient care.
We punch in on a computer, get our assignment off a computer generated sheet, use Kardexes, again from the computer. I thing you get the hint. There are definitely different levels the variety of nurses are able to use the computer systems for these purposes. Someone who is well versed in nursing informatics would be able to change a printer location for instance, find a wealth of patient education, or even know how to change the colors of the screen you look at every day.
Nursing informatics is going to be forever changing and those changes will be able to be made because of individuals who study informatics and know the ins and outs of a particular program. I think the computer system is imperative for patient care. It benefits both the patients stay and the work flow of the nurse. From the patients perspective they can expect fewer errors, shorter stays, better communication, and even more high tech rooms with vital sign equipment that enters its data into a computer automatically.
Patients can also expect better education and information about a certain disease, even the rarest of them all. The benefits to nurses are tremendous. Medications are already cross referenced for interactions; computers calculate intake and output; all orders are entered and electronically delivered anywhere you want; you can look up a specific doctor in California in less than five minuets; the uses are endless. Any amount of knowledge is at our fingertips.
Unfortunately there are some barriers to all healthcare agencies adopting all this technology. I think the biggest barrier alone is cost. Not only does the equipment cost money but you have to pay people to learn this technology and then teach it to each and every employee. And technology changes continuously and in the computer world you can not just write out a new form to use, you have to re-program and alien language to get it to do what you want it to. Continuing to keep equipment and people updated alone is a tremendous cost to any agency.
The benefits definitely outweigh the barriers, however smaller agencies may have trouble affording these practices and healthcare may become more corporate. Obtaining patient education from the computer is one of my specialties. Nurses always come to me too look up some odd material. The internet has opened us up to a huge amount of information. You have to keep an eye out for bad material but there are plenty of sights that are very medical related. I first will do a search from google or yahoo. There alone you usually can find at least one good material to give to your patient.
If I can’t find anything there you can also go into a specific medical sight such as mayohealth. org or webmd. com. Our computer system also has a link to a variety of health care sights and specialty topics to search. If I really need some specific information I put in a request with the librarian who does a wonderful job with complex journal article searches. With in a few minutes you can have virtually some specific information about any kind of topic you can dream up. I also find the internet a wonderful resource in itself.
For instance, if a patient has multiple sclerosis, she can type that into a search engine and find thousands of wonderful resources such as discussion groups and even equipment to make your life easier. Maybe because I grew up with computers but I find great interest in this topic. It is unbelievable how much information is out there and the things we can do with this information. You can do research on any topic right from your living room. In health care, nursing informatics will do lots to improve a nurses every day job and the care she is able to provide to her patients.