Students will be able to learn about the field of nursing informatics, roles and skills.
Nursing informatics and information and communication technologies (ICT) have revolutionized the provision of healthcare, such as communication, patient safety and evidence-based practice. Nurses use technology to provide better patient care and improve the quality of care, such as electronic health records (EHRs), telehealth and barcode medication administration systems (BMARS). Nurses will still have to communicate and collaborate with patients and other health care providers, actively listen to patients and apply clinical judgements and critical thinking skills to provide safe effective health care to patients, although use of health care technology will be much easier. Also, there is a need for nurses to play a role in the development and implementation of health technologies to ensure technology is clinically useful and to the patient.
Opportunity to use ICT
Nurses Using electronic health records (EHRs) is one of the important opportunities for nurse leveraging ICT. With EHR, nurses can enter patient data electronically, access patient records, track laboratory results, and real-time access and share data with other health care providers. Medication errors are reduced, healthcare data is accurate, and patient information is easily accessible for all healthcare professionals, all of which increase patient safety with the use of EHRs. Moreover, EHRs can enhance patient care by allowing healthcare providers to access patients’ latest data in seconds, and to share information with other healthcare professionals to facilitate better care coordination. For example, when a patient is brought to a health care facility, a nurse can compare the patient’s medication list with the EHR before administering the medicine to the patient to minimize medication mistakes and help provide safe health care for patients. Furthermore, the EHRs can assist the nurses in the early detection of a patient’s condition, thereby ensuring timely intervention and patient outcomes (Upadhyay & Hu, 2022). There is a lack of pupils who have experience using ICTs in nurse/patient relationship.
Pupils learning about the use of ICT for nurse/patient relationship.
ICTs can be a positive and negative aspect of the nurse–patient relationship. One positive example of using telehealth technology is patients can connect with healthcare providers remotely. Telehealth allows for health care services to be delivered to those in rural or underserved communities, and offers nurses the chance to deliver education, follow up and monitoring to the patient without long-distance travel. But without the “real” nurse–patient communication, technology can have a detrimental impact on the nurse–patient relationship. Having too much time spent by the nurse on the patient collecting data for an e information system may lead to neglecting the patient. When there is a technology element to patient care, “compassionate communication,” “active listening,” and “eye contact” are crucial. Thus, a nurse needs to ensure that the patient is involved in the documentation process, that information is documented and communicated to the patient, and that a patient-centered approach is used when communicating with patients during delivery of care and use of technology in documentation.
Describe the importance of communication, cooperation, active listening, clinical judgment and critical thinking.
ICT is not a replacement or alternative to professional nursing judgement or human interaction/communication, collaboration, active listening, clinical judgement or critical thinking, but rather it is alongside these skills. Communication enables nurses to pass on information to other health care professionals accurately (with no mistakes) and therefore reduce the likelihood of harming the patient. There is also a need to collaborate, for instance, the nurse needs to be able to communicate with other disciplines that embrace a team working approach and have an electronic system. Timely and appropriate information sharing between health professionals (doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others) can ensure efficient care and good quality health care for patients. Technology is a listening process, and though the nurse is not accountable for the patients’ concerns, symptoms and emotional needs, there must be some understanding. Electronic systems are wonderful sources of data, but it’s important that nurses approach the subject in a holistic manner and not just rely on computerized data. Requires clinical judgement and critical thinking skills; needs to obtain accurate information to make decisions based upon patient’s condition which will be safe. For example, if a person’s vital signs come back from the clinical decision support system and it is abnormal, it will be the responsibility of the nurse to decide what to do. The nurse’s decision making and reasoning about patient care is not replaced by technology, but rather, it is one tool that can be used to provide nursing care.
The Nurses’ role in decisions related to health care technologies, planning and selection.
The nursing aspect of planning and selection of healthcare technologies. Nurses as primary end-users of the health care system have an extensive knowledge of the health care system process, so they are one of the key stakeholders to engage in the selection and adoption of health care technologies. Nurses are a part of the implementation of technology which allows for the selection of technology systems that can be efficient, improve patient safety and support clinical practice (Altmiller & Pepe, 2022). Additionally, the nurse’s involvement can help to identify potential implementation problems early on. For instance, a nurse may be able to offer feedback regarding simplicity of use of the EHRs, documentation system and patient needs. This conversation is used to help spread the fun amongst staff and helps to implement new technologies. When a health system denies nurses the opportunity to be involved in planning and selection, it can be difficult for them to navigate and may make it difficult to provide care to patients. Much paperwork, inefficiency and risk of error may be possible if the systems are poorly designed and inefficient. Thus, success can be evaluated only by successful implementation of the healthcare technology in the support of nursing. Involves in the topic of new ICTs uptake in health care.
Participate in the challenge of new ICTs health care.
One of the critical issues that has to be addressed in making the implementation of new ICT in health care environment a reality is resistance to change. It is suggested that the adoption of new technologies in the healthcare may be met with resistance from practitioners, either because they are uncomfortable with the new technology, lack training or fear that this will increase their workload. Pessimists about change can cause delays in implementing health care technologies and make them less effective. In real world situations, the nurse might not be knowledgeable about the new EHR or might not have been trained on the use of the EHR, and how it will be utilized in the workflow. When switching from paper charts to electronic medical records, some nurses may become frustrated in the process of learning a new charting system and consequently be less productive. This can have a temporary impact on the effectiveness of the flow and/or treatment of the patient. Training, technical assistance and opportunities to engage in planning implementation in health care institutions can be provided as recommended by Van Houwelingen et al. (2024). Further training and support may help to build staff confidence and aid in the successful introduction of technology.
Conclusion
The role of ICTs in enhancing patient safety, quality of the care and evidence-based nursing practice is important. EHRs and telehealth facilitation facilitate communication and coordination and access to care. Although nurses need to communicate and collaborate, listen actively, use clinical judgment and critical thinking skills to care for their patient in a safe and caring way, their role is still the same. Moreover, the participation of the nursing profession in the planning process of the health technologies is not only required but also the involvement in the implementation of the technology to make the technology useful in clinical practice and for the patient.
References
Upadhyay, S., & Hu, H. (2022). A Qualitative Analysis of the Impact of Electronic Health Records (EHR) on Healthcare Quality and Safety: Clinicians’ Lived Experiences. Health Services Insights, 15. https://doi.org/10.1177/11786329211070722
van Houwelingen, T., Meeuse, A. C. M., & Kort, H. S. M. (2024). Enabling nurses’ engagement in the design of healthcare technology – Core competencies and requirements: A qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, 6, 100170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnsa.2023.100170
Altmiller, G., & Pepe, L. H. (2022). Influence of Technology in Supporting Quality and Safety in Nursing Education. Nursing Clinics of North America, 57(4), 551–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2022.06.005
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Unit 1 Discussion: Nursing Informatics, Roles, and Skills
Due on May 19, 2026 11:59 PM
Ends May 19
Must post first.
Overview
In this discussion forum, you will gain basic introductory knowledge on nursing informatics and apply to real-world examples from clinical nursing practice. Please review all learning resources for this unit before starting this discussion forum. See the grading rubric for the discussion forum.
Prompts
- Describe one opportunity for nurses to utilize information and communication technology (ICT) tools and applications to improve the safety, and quality of patient care delivery.
- Share an example of information or communication technologies (ICT) impact on the nurse-patient relationship.
- Discuss how communication, collaboration, active listening, clinical judgment and critical thinking skills are essential in the presence of information and communication technologies (ICT).
- Explain the importance of nursing engagement in the planning and selection of healthcare technologies.
- Identify one challenge in the adoption of a new information or communication technology in healthcare from a scholarly article using the UMGC Library. Share an example from your clinical nursing practice. If you need help identifying a scholarly article, please see this UMGC Resource on Scholarly Articles.
Submission
Be sure to use evidence from the unit learning resources and cite your scholarly article in APA format.