Problems With Nursing Informatics

Informatics is the process of advancing in a discipline with a combination of data, information and knowledge. Nursing informatics encompasses the devices, machines, resources, and methods of utilizing information, computers, and nursing science in nursing. It's a recognized specialty for registered nurses, but does present challenges that academics and medical practitioners are working to improve or eliminate.

Significance

• In 2007, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Nursing Informatics Awareness Task Force estimated that 50 percent of a nurse's time is spent on documentation. Because of explosive strides in information technology and the huge body of medical knowledge amassed, controlling medical errors and health care costs are paramount in the health care professions, including nursing. According to RN Journal, handwriting on a piece of paper has been largely replaced by reports from medical devices at the point of care, and nurses have to master electronic documentation.

Function

• Nursing documentation is complex and situation-dependent. With different technology and medical charting methods in use, consistent education and training on documentation is difficult to achieve, especially electronically.

Research

• Concerns and controversies over privacy issues have challenged the health care industry regarding electronic medical records. In President Obama's first weekly address in January 2009, the U.S. government plans to "computerize the nation's health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives," but the National League for Nurses found in 2008 that new nurses need programs to support their work in information-intensive environments. The informatics nurse specialist role was first credentialed in 1995 to ensure nurses will be qualified to work with computerized medical data.

Considerations

• There is no single device that generates a comprehensive patient record, stores it and makes it accessible to care providers in different locations. Bar codes on medicines, computerized physician order-entry, automated scheduling systems for nurse administrators, nursing student preparation for IT tools and HIPAA concerns are just a few of the problems in nursing informatics.

Potential

• Mobile devices, communication technologies, efficient applications, and enhanced workflow and documentation will be the norm going forward and in the future. Ideally, every nurse would learn a universal IT platform for all patient care, but that is an almost unobtainable goal with the rapid advances in research, medicine and information technology. One thing is certain---nursing and information technology are integrally intertwined and will remain so in the future.