Nursing Informatics Best-Practices Policy Document

Nursing Informatics Best-Practices Policy Document
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Nursing Informatics Best-Practices Policy Document
Nursing informatics is a phrase that has gained many definitions over the years. However, all these definitions have a common spirit, technological and nursing sciences. Therefore, nursing informatics in simple words is; integration of nursing and its knowledge with information technology management to promote the health of the people (Kaur & Rawat, 2015). Despite many definitions for this phrase, its significance in achieving high-quality patient care cannot be disputed. Technology is rapidly improving, and nursing is moving towards computerization at the same speed. In this century, technology is no longer an optional factor in any management, healthcare sector included.
Nursing informatics best-practices policy is an essential part of the modern medical care management. One of the reasons why it should be adopted in any healthcare management is to ensure high-quality delivery of services based on current evidence. This will, in turn, ensure that quality assurances are met, or better yet, exceeded. For continuous improvement in the innovation department of any medical care facility, informatics-based evidence care needs to be incorporated into the system. The most critical part of information management of a healthcare system is patient confidentiality. This goes hand in hand with data security, which depends largely on information technology and the medical staff.

Clinicians and physicians should, therefore, take a keen interest in this policy. The management should also consider the same during the new-hire program.
Best practice is a term used to refer to the nursing practices that depend entirely on the ‘best evidence’ found as a result of recent nursing research. It is very significant in ensuring that the relevant nursing research is put into use in real life situations. The most important aspects that make up best practice are; secure practices, data security, and patient confidentiality. What is patient confidentiality? By definition, it refers to the right of patients to have their personal, especially medical, data be kept private unless they consent to its release (Dimond, 2014). This information should, therefore, be availed only to the concerned physicians.
The advanced technology has brought about another system known as Electronic Health Record. It is a database of patients’ health records, or rather, the softcopy version of the normal paperwork. This system has not eliminated paperwork, but it has reduced the cumbersome nature of storing data in hardcopy and improved the security of patients’ information. However, the use of EHR doesn’t guarantee the safety of this data hence the introduction of data security (Standing & Cripps, 2015). Data security, as the name states, is the practice of ensuring the privacy of the medical records and preventing from malicious or accidental access by unauthorized personnel.
Apart from EHR, there are other records in a healthcare facility that require security. This is an obligation that falls on the nurses handling the computers and other storage systems in a health center. Secure practices involve all deeds by a nurse or any other medical practitioner that work towards facilitating the security of both the patients and their medical records (Tietze & McBride, 2016). Any practice that jeopardizes data security or patient’s health is an unethical act and is punishable by law. It is, therefore, in the best interest of everyone involved that confidentiality, privacy, and data security are considered to the latter. It’s for this reason that the Code of Ethics for nurses was developed.
Ethical standard is a term that lacks a comprehensive definition, but it is one of the many common aspects required of any professional worker. In nursing, the ethical standards work to ensure that nurses act in an honest, trustworthy and responsible manner. Just like any other profession, ethical standards require that a person understands and makes choices based on what is right and what is wrong (Dimond, 2014). Code of Ethics developed for nurses’ act as guidance to all nurses during their decision making. However, one’s decision making depends on his or her wisdom to know which of the guidelines should be applied in certain situations. This is a very important factor when dealing with sensitive information like a patient’s records which not only includes the medical data, but also other private information like bank records. Ethical standards also enhance nurse-to-patient and nurse-to-nurse communication. A trustworthy and honest nurse is likely to receive the correct information from their patients or colleagues. Showing a sense of responsibility while handling patients’ records removes any doubts that the clients may be having in their minds regarding the safety of their records.
In as much as we embrace technology, human’s health is still a priority. To minimize the dangers that come with the technical glitches of machines, there are a few regulations that have been put down. HIPAA is one of the legislation that aim at regulating healthcare technology systems (Tietze & McBride, 2016). These regulations are applied with respect to the amount of risk involved in a given scenario. They include installation of local oversight software which can monitor the clinical computer systems remotely. The rules also demand that any healthcare information system developer should adopt a code of good business practices. The advantage of this requirement is that it ensures that the medical records are not accessed by unauthorized means hence enhancing data security. The patients benefit from these regulations since it gives them control over their information. One can change their medical records anytime and choose who the information can be shared with. However, hospitals and other medical organizations holding patient records are overburdened with the additional personnel. They are required to employ data privacy experts to oversee training processes and other related programs. Failure to adhere to this rule, companies can suffer severe repercussions.
Regulatory requirements entail, among others, security risk assessment, which involves establishing hazards that may have negative impacts on the organization. To ensure that the patients’ medical records remain confidential, it is required that the data is encrypted. Computers with access to these records should be password protected to prevent any unauthorized access. However, medical data security may be quite difficult to implement because access is not limited to medical practitioners. For instance, patient’s medical records are accessed by about thirty authorized personnel, both within and outside the hospital (Dimond, 2014). It is always hard to monitor data that is continuously being sent from one place to another and this is the case with medical data.
The success of this policy relies majorly on the leadership of the organization. The behaviors of the nurse leaders should be a strategic view. They should be able to address and respond to issues both at the project and organizational levels with utmost urgency. It is their responsibility to understand that the success of this policy is in their hands and, therefore, they should act in a way that facilitates it rather than hinder its development (Standing & Cripps, 2015). Like any other organization, the relationship between the leaders and other members of staff is a very crucial recipe for their success. The leaders should continuously encourage and motivate the subordinates to ensure a constant flow of high-quality work.
Nurse leaders should also involve themselves in real-time activities involving this policy in an organization. For instance, to understand the level of data security in the healthcare technology, the leaders will have to have real-time access to the system. That way, they will not only be gaining the needed information but also ensure that the rest of the workers are on toes. They should also be ready to educate the subordinates about the importance of the policy and be a role model to them (Standing & Cripps, 2015). Innovation is dependent on how knowledgeable the nurse leaders are in research. They should be aware of the completed and ongoing research projects in the world of medicine to give directions to the clinicians who are interested in learning new interventions to improve patient care. All these factors are essential in ensuring that the policy is successful because it all depends on the implementers.
With everything in place, it now comes down to individual skills which will ensure that the whole system moves smoothly. This is a technology-based policy. Therefore, its implementation will demand that the nursing staff arm themselves with Information Technology skills. IT is a very important part of nursing informatics; it is no surprise that it comes as the first skill required. In recent years, most professions have included technological skills in their job requirements and nursing is no exception (Tietze & McBride, 2016). It, therefore, calls for the hiring department to include these skills in the requirements so that the next lot of workers can easily conform to the proposed policy.
Knowledge and skills in informatics is another mandatory subject that the targeted professionals need to cover. The knowledge in informatics is part of the basics that a nursing student learns. For instance, differentiating what can be done by a computer and what a human being needs to do on his own is not a complicated thing, but all nurses will need some enlightening on the issue to avoid ignorance. With this knowledge, they will also understand their importance in the implementation of the policy. Informatics skills, on the other hand, entail the creation, understanding, and interpretation of flow of information in an organization (Tietze & McBride, 2016). This is the most crucial part of informatics, and all clinicians are expected to use these skills to navigate any problems that may arise.
In conclusion, after going through this policy, it is evident that technology, and more specifically IT, plays a major role in its success. Information Technology and nursing informatics have a lot in common; therefore, in learning the latter, nurses will be automatically integrated into the world of IT. So they are expected to take on the problems at hand and deal with them competently to improve the quality of healthcare. The incorporation of this policy to the organization’s system will not only improve the quality of care outcome but also reduce the time of delivery.

References
Dimond, B. (2014). Legal Aspects of Patient Confidentiality. London: Andrews UK.
Kaur, S., & Rawat, H. L. (2015). Importance of Nursing Informatics in Nursing Curriculum for Utilization of Information Technology in Nursing Profession. Baba Farid University Nursing Journal, 9(2), 1-5
Standing, C., & Cripps, H. (2015). Critical Success Factors in the Implementation of Electronic Health Records: A Two-Case Comparison. Systems Research & Behavioral Science, 32(1), 75-85.
Tietze, M., & McBride, S. (2016). Nursing Informatics for the Advanced Practice Nurse : Patient Safety, Quality, Outcomes, and Interprofessionalism. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company