Differentiate the impact of various communication technologies on safety and quality improvement. Analyze ethical and nursing informatics practice standards within the context of healthcare delivery. Evaluate the role and scope of practice for nursing informatics.

Competence Utilizing Technology and Innovation in Healthcare

Innovative technology has been used to address modern health challenges and deliver various aspects of health, such as deterrence and intensive medical care; however, this has only been accomplished through a transformation in the habits, beliefs, and behavior of the people. On the other hand, clinical decision-making is a complex process that incorporates a wide-ranging set of procedures involving data collection, analysis, and interpretation and integrating the analyzed data with clinical experience, patient expectation, and empirical research to provide effective patient care (Mechanic et al., 2017). Currently, healthcare settings are adopting new standards of practice, reimbursement models, and scientific findings to improve the quality of service delivery to their clients. As these changes in technological advancement and healthcare continue, there have been growing opportunities to usher in scientific support in clinical reasoning and decision-making. For instance, it has been established that digital technology can be used to deliver treatment for depression as a stand-alone intervention.

In nursing, evidence-based practice is the integration of research evidence with clinical expertise/experience and patient expectations.  This approach to treatment is a problem-solving method to clinical practice that inspires nurses to provide patient-centered interventions. It helps in the determination of an effective course of action during care delivery as it involves the identification of a clinical problem, formulation of a clinical question, gathering of best research evidence, analysis of the evidence, application of the research evidence, and assessment of the results (Portney, 2020). The delivery of healthcare has been influenced by EBP through enabling nurses to stay updated about the new medical protocol for patient care, increasing the likelihood of patient recovery, promotion of understanding of the risk, and effectiveness of diagnostic tests and treatment. It also enables nurses to involve their patients in decision-making so that they can have a proactive role in their healthcare.

The impacts of different technologies used in the practice of medicine include a reduction in medication error rates, as seen in computerized physician order entry (COPE). Clinical decision support promotes adherence to vaccination, medication, lab orders, and clinical outcomes. The patient portals have demonstrated improvement in patient adherence to medication, disease awareness, patient satisfaction, and self-management of diseases. Telemedicine has been established to be as effective as face-to-face patient care, with enhanced clinical outcomes for patients suffering from chronic diseases such as COPD, hypertension, and CHF.  A significant increase in patient reporting of adverse events has been established from the use of electronic incident reporting. Other technological innovations in healthcare that are effective in the delivery of healthcare are automated medication dispensing, smart pumps, electronic signs, and overall electronic medical records (Mechanic et al., 2017).

The role of nursing informatics is to help nurses identify, outline, manage, and link data, facts, and information in nursing practice through the integration of nursing practice with nursing discipline, multiple information management, and scientific analysis. This process supports nurses, patients, multidisciplinary teams, customers, and patient caregivers. Nursing information can be accomplished through the use of information structures, information technology, and information processes. This scope usually addresses what, who, when, where, how, and why while assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating the treatment outcomes.

References

Mechanic, O. J., Persaud, Y., & Kimball, A. B. (2017). Telehealth systems. https://europepmc.org/books/nbk459384