Reference no: EM133337991
Case: Within healthcare organizations, whether they are public or private, inpatient or outpatient, nurses practice in a number of roles. RNs may also work in non-traditional positions for pharmaceutical firms, insurance firms, medical equipment companies, or businesses that sell software for medical settings. In the role of an informatics nurse, there are several responsibilities that this nurse upholds.
An informatics nurse educates, consults, analyzes, and translates data, as well as implements processes for the designated facility. With these responsibilities, interactions among different departments are vital for the success of the organization. As analysts, they must analyze the data provided to determine areas of efficiency, deficiency, or general observations. As educators, you must provide education on IT systems, and explain how to navigate through new systems or how to have the nurse understand the data in your findings. Consultants must give insight on how and what to improve to allow increased efficiency throughout the facility. As a person who implements processes, they must ensure the required systems are in place for the facility. This can be a new charting system, call light systems, and training of the facility's new devices. Basically, anything that merges IT and nursing is a responsibility of an informatics nurse.
With these collaborations across varying departments, communication improvement is always possible. I can imagine an informatics department structured along the lines of a case management department. Each hospital unit is assigned a specific person that will cover the needs as they arise. Doing so will allow continuity of care between the two departments. Then, the two persons have the ability to pick up where they left off instead of the floor nurse having to call a designated line, get in cue to be assigned a ticket number and express their problem from the beginning every time. This would more efficient and saves time.
IT is a rapid, ever-evolving division. Couple this with the ever-evolving field of healthcare. Nursing informatics is the profession that bridges the two. It takes informaticists to comprehend and convert technological functions into therapeutic needs, and vice versa. We all can agree that as clinical nurses, there were tons of responsibilities we carried on a daily basis. Having a specific department, informatics, that does these jobs removes a layer of responsibility from the clinical nurses. Thus allowing more time to focus on the care of their assigned patients. Increased time to care for patients projects better patient outcomes, which is the ultimate goal.
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