In the media introduction to this module, it was suggested that you, as a nurse, have an important role in the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). With a focus on patient care and outcomes, nurses may not always see themselves as contributors to the development of new systems. However, as you may have observed in your own experience, the exclusion of nurse contributions when implementing systems can have dire consequences. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle In this Discussion, you will consider the role you might play in systems development and the ramifications of not being an active participant. To Prepare: Review the steps of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as presented in the Resources. Reflect on your healthcare organization and consider any steps your healthcare organization goes through when purchasing and implementing a new health information technology system. When plannin

The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle

One of the consequences of a healthcare organization not involving nurses in each stage of the SDLC when purchasing and implementing a new health system is resistance to the application of the software in healthcare practice. This mainly occurs due to issues such as communication challenges. When nurses are not involved in the SDLC coding stage, a software developer may not get the necessary guidance on the use of medical terminology or patient care data, hence failing to use a standardized patient care system that is able to accurately communicate patient care information among healthcare providers and nurses (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Another consequence is medical errors, which may occur because the terminology used by healthcare providers and nurses may be different in terms of the expected outcome and patient care, hence creating uncertainty in healthcare instructions.

One of the potential issues at the first stage of the SDLC, which is understanding the problem, is ignoring the users’ needs, hence limiting the applicability of the software. The inclusion of nurses can address this issue by explaining and putting the requirements of the software coherently to reduce the redundancy of the final product. The potential issue in the coding planned solution stage is using the wrong program language (Verma & Gupta, 2017). Nurses can address this issue by guiding the software developer on the right medical terminology to use, hence enhancing appropriate communication of patient care information. A potential issue that may arise in the third stage, which includes testing the actual program, is failing to identify challenges that may hinder the functioning of the software. Nurses can address this issue by accessing the credibility of software (Verma & Gupta, 2017). In the deployment and maintenance of the product stage, the main potential issue is adopting software that does not produce the desired results. Nurses can address this issue by identifying issues that may hinder the effective use of the software and proposing practical solutions to address the issues.

I had my first encounter participating in selecting and planning a new healthcare information technology system in my nursing practice after the onset of COVID-19. Our healthcare organization began developing software that would schedule patient visits and remotely monitor patients’ healthcare progress to reduce patient visits to reduce the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus. The main impact of being included in the decision-making process was suggesting some important features to include in the software to make it user-friendly. For instance, I suggested medical terminology that all nurses could understand, including interns who may not have medical experience, to understand some complex language in the nursing practice.

References

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Verma, M. P., & Gupta, S. (2017). Software development for nursing: Role of nursing informatics. International Journal of Nursing Education and Research, 5(2), 203. https://doi.org/10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00044.8