Essay Sample on Patient-Centered Care: Exploring a New Framework to Improve Quality of Care

Introduction

The concept of patient-centered care continues to receive overwhelming attention since its inception in 2001(Monsen et al., 2019). A landmark study innovated a new framework for improving systems and defining health care quality. The six aims of the study include efficient, effective, timely, patient-centered, equitable, and timely delivery of health care services (Monsen et al., 2019). I recently attended a nurse's conference organized by the Georgia Nursing Union. The keynote speaker was an informaticist at Georgia Regional Hospital. Her speech detailed her role as an informaticist and its impact on positive patient and organizational outcomes. The hospital I work at is experiencing several technological challenges. I firmly believe that employing an informaticist will be of benefit to my hospital. I spoke to the Chief Nursing Officer and the Human Resources manager at the hospital concerning incorporating an informaticist to join the hospital staff. The proposal I wrote is as follows.

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Nursing informatics is a relatively new concept that is promising to revolutionize healthcare delivery (Booth, 2016). A nursing informatics specialist combines his/her nursing skills with technical knowledge to come up with systems that improve the standards of patient care. The adoption of technology in healthcare facilities is necessary. More healthcare givers and hospitals utilize tools such as computer-assisted coding and electronic medical records (EMR). As a result, there is a need for dedicated IT departments (Booth, 2016). The department gets staffed by professional individuals who deeply understand medicine and technology. A nurse informaticist can be a leader or a member of the IT department.

A nursing informaticist works with computer systems and patient data. Nursing informatics focuses on patient care, unlike healthcare informatics, whose focus is on administrative issues (McCormick & Saba 2015). A nursing informaticist in charge of all communications between the IT staff and clinical nurses. Their duties include reporting feedback to the IT department concerning new technologies and systems. They are also responsible for the training of clinical staff, systems development, and quality control. Hospitals are the priority employees of nursing informaticist. The implementation of systems is the most reported job responsibility. It includes the selection and preparation of new technology and training the nursing staff on the use of it. Other typical functions of a nursing informaticist include; writing policies, analyzing clinical statistics, optimizing system performance, tracking the success of quality initiatives, and project management (McCormick & Saba 2015).

As a professional in possession of both nursing and technology skills, a nurse informaticist is a bridge between technical advancement and clinical staff. They possess candid clinical nursing skills (Brazelton, 2019). That way, they ensure that the procedures and tools get implemented are practical and user-friendly for all the members of staff. For instance, a nursing informaticist may organize a training forum for surgical nurses on the use of a newly installed electronic medicine dispensing system. The informaticist then serves as the point of contact for any concerns or questions that arise as the order gets implemented (Brazelton, 2019).

Evidence from neighboring hospitals indicates that nursing informatics improves patient care. Nursing colleagues and acquaintances in these hospitals note that the nursing informaticist enhances patient care in six ways. First, they align clinical care and workflows with nursing best practices. Their focus is the generation of best methods to achieve the best patient outcomes (Booth, 2016). They do so by applying the hospital's processes and best practices to maximize care to patients at all times. Secondly, they improve clinical protocols, procedures, processes, and policies. They analyze and measure how specific departments are performing concerning patient care.

The third way is by providing training and learning to clinical staff based on objective data. They use data to identify underlying shortcomings in the healthcare facility, then, consult on ways to best address the challenges. Next, they participate in the selection and testing of new medical technologies (Booth, 2016). Nursing informaticist gets positioned ideally to comprehend the actual value of data and offer recommendations on approaches to access, record, and use. Involving them in the selection stage ensures that the system can adequately inform treatment plans, diagnostics, and patient outcomes. Lastly, they reduce medical costs and errors. Through rigorous staff training, improvement of processes, and the adoption of best practices, the quality of care gets enhanced, and patient risks are limited (Monsen et al., 2019).

Health information technology is changing how nurses interact with and handle health-related data. It is evident from the increasing rates of adoption of electronic health records (EHR) by healthcare organizations. Nurses play an essential role in the adoption of EHR. Because of their population as well as their deep understanding of workflow. The software must be used if an electronic health record is to be successful. As a result, a thorough feasibility study is, therefore recommended to assess usability before its implementation. Most nurses lack the skills and knowledge to participate in rigorous usability evaluation. Therefore, nursing informaticist plays a critical role in the process.

Electronic Health record systems improve coordination and improvement of patient care resulting in better healthcare results. Legislative regulations are focused on requirements for documentation that support patient care, billing compliance, and the security and privacy of EHRs. The objective is to ensure that each EHR system can communicate electronically through the health information network nationally while enabling every citizen to access his or her EHR. Nurses need to maintain and develop collaborative working relationships with colleagues. In respect to participants, cooperative working conditions exist when every professional operates and interacts in a complementary manner. The show of mutual respect based on knowledge and expertise is encouraged between nurses and other professionals.

According to a blog post on lippincottsolutions, the National advisory council on nurse practice and education have identified the challenges in the nursing practice. Included are patient monitoring systems, electronic health records, bar code medication administration, data capture tools, computerized provider order entry, care planning mechanisms, and telehealth. Additionally, the need to reduce medical errors, address the shortage of nurses, improve monitoring of patient data, alleviating access to care, improve efficiency during the collection of data, and support national surveillance capabilities. The solutions proposed to address the nursing education challenges are simulation to offer education, adopting E-learning to deliver training, development of faculty for health care, and inclusion of health care IT in the curricula. These suggestions could improve the capacity in nursing schools, better health IT abilities among the graduating students, and reduce shortages in faculty (McCormick & Saba 2015).

Several organizations and group projects support the involvement of nurses in the use of IT. Included are The National Coordination for Health Information Technology (ONC), American Health Information Community (AHIC), National League of Nursing (NLN), National Institute of Nursing Research( NINR), National Institute of Health and North American Nursing Diagnosis International(NANDA). It is reported by Moghaddasi (2019) that without proper training for nurses, the integration of nursing practice and healthcare IT will not be successful. Moghaddasi (2019) offers evidence showing that nurses are getting inadequate training. As a result of the fast development and growth in IT, education arrangements to strengthen nurses must get arranged. Training will enable the nurses to take full advantage of IT in quality healthcare and nursing outcomes (Moghaddasi, 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, in the contemporary world of enhanced communication and information, applications in technology are increasing to improve the quality of healthcare. Nurses communicate the most with patients and interact the most with technology. Technological use should result in a positive attitude towards the productivity of nurses. It is of great essence that nurses get involved in the design stage of a system to change their culture and improve the quality of healthcare. Numerous benefits accrue from incorporating nursing informatics. They indirectly and directly influence the health of patients positively. Curricula and courses offered to change the perception of nursing students towards health informatics. A recommendation that they get taught in school patient-centered and evidence-based patient care using informatics tools. Considering the outcome of nurses when they adopt IT, institutional arrangements are encouraged to set long-term and short-term courses that focus on health informatics. Basing on the above illustrations of the advantages of employing and informaticist, I conclude that theCNO and the Human Resources manager should do so immediately.

References

Booth, R. G. (2016). Informatics and nursing in a post-nursing informatics world: Future directions for nurses in an automated, artificially intelligent, social-networked healthcare environment. Nursing Leadership, 28(4), 61-69.

Brazelton, N. C., Knuckles, M. C., & Lyons, A. M. (2017). Clinical documentation improvement and nursing informatics. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 35(6), 271-277.http://lippincottsolutions.lww.com/blog.entry.html/2018/03/27/nursing_informatics-n2VI.html

McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics. McGraw-Hill Education.

Moghaddasi, H. (2017). The Influence of Informatics on Nursing Care and Professional Development. JOJ NHC, 4(3), 555639.

Monsen, K. A., Bush, R. A., Jones, J., Manos, E. L., Skiba, D. J., & Johnson, S. B. (2019). Alignment of American Association of Colleges of Nursing Graduate-Level Nursing Informatics Competencies with American Medical Informatics Association Health Informatics Core