Post a description of what you believe to be the consequences of a healthcare organization not involving nurses in each stage of the SDLC when purchasing and implementing a new health information technology system

The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in healthcare settings, like any other field, is a rigorous process that requires all stakeholders’ input at different development life cycle levels. The SDLC process includes phases focused on data collection and analysis, system design and prototyping, coding, testing, deployment, and system operations and maintenance (Lalband & Kavitha, 2019). Different stakeholders have varied needs and roles throughout the development process.

As end-users and stakeholders in the SDLC, nurses provide a real-life check on the efficacy, efficiency, and appropriateness of the systems being developed. Eliminating the input from nurses during the SDLC risks the development of a system that does not meet the needs it was designed for and is hard to adapt due to usability issues. Lack of including nurses in the data collection phase will fail to identify the absolute need for the system. The exclusion of nurses at the system design stages will lead to issues with the system’s overall design and future usability. During the testing phase, the lack of the nurses’ input eliminates the nurses’ experience with the plan. It adds more costs to developing a different training program and ignorance of software flaws. Inputting nurses at the deployment and maintenance stages improves system acceptance and helps identify system improvement opportunities (Taipale, 2019).

As a nurse, I participated in the entire SDLC process in our organization and provided input data on why the system was required. I was also involved in the testing period and identified and provided details of the software’s ease of use. I was the first adopter of the system and have also been engaged in providing details that could further improve the functionalities and usability of the system.

 References

Lalband, N., & Kavitha, D. (2019). Software engineering for intelligent healthcare applications. Int J Innov Technol Explor Eng, 8(6S4), 325-331.

Taipale, A. (2019). Technology acceptance among public sector nurses in cancer care: affecting factors and the role of the software provider.