The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate the various information and communication technology tools that can be used when caring for patients, communities, and populations.

For this assignment, use two to three scholarly sources to write a 1,000-1,250-word essay. Based on your current practice, clinical experience, course materials, and review of outside resources, include the following:

• Discuss the history of health information technologies and the evolution of nursing informatics.
• Based on the various areas of practice discussed on the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) website, describe the one that is most relevant to day-to-day nursing practices.
• Explain two to three information and communication technologies and the components used on a daily basis to provide care to patients, communities, and populations.
• Describe the appropriate use of multimedia applications in health care.
• Evaluate how technology impacts the way you modify the plan of care to meet the needs of your patients. Provide two examples.
• Explain the importance of nursing engagement in the planning and selection of health care technologies.

Cite a minimum of two sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the past 5 years, appropriate for the assignment criteria, and relevant to nursing practice.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

RN-BSN

8.1: Describe the various information and communication technology tools used in the care of patients, communities, and populations.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education

This assignment aligns to AACN Core Competencies 8.1

Sample Paper

Information and Communication Technologies in Nursing

Student Name

Grand Canyon University

NRS 450: Nursing Informatics

instructor’s Name

Date

 

 

Information and Communication Technologies in Nursing

Introduction

Novel developments in information and communication technologies have revolutionized the healthcare sector in care delivery through improved precision, speed, and access to critical information. Electronic health records and health information exchange systems have advanced beyond mere administrative applications to tools that can assist the clinician and manage the patient’s care. Nursing informatics, a nursing specialty that combines and integrates nursing practice and technology, is vital in optimally implementing these systems. The Foundation of Knowledge Model, which includes data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, is a framework that provides insight into how these technologies enhance nursing practice (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2024). This paper outlines the development of health ITs and how they daily relate clinical informatics to practical nursing practice. It also analyzes the usefulness of EHRs and telehealth in patient care. Moreover, the paper explores multimedia applications in health care and focuses on the involvement of nursing in planning and implementing multimedia applications in health care.

Health Information Technologies (HIT) and the Development of Nursing Informatics

HIT has become critical to receiving, transferring, and organizing patients’ health details with enhanced care delivery. The use of health information technologies has a relatively long history that can be traced back to the 1960s, spearheaded by computer-based patient record systems. These early systems were elemental and mainly applied for administrative purposes such as billing and scheduling (Moore et al., 2020). Over time, technological advancements have led to more complex HIT systems that combine several interconnected clinical activities such as records, diagnostic instruments, and communication channels.

Nursing informatics, a subdomain of HIT, also developed concurrently with them. It integrates nursing, computer, and information science to process and disseminate data, information, and knowledge content for nursing practice. In the early 1990s, the use of EHRs began to increase, and nursing informatics was instrumental in the process. Nursing informatics was accredited as a nursing specialty by the ANA in 1992; special attention was paid to the active participation of nurses in choosing, purchasing, and assessing HIT (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2024). Since its beginning, informatics has evolved also to comprise data analysis, decision support systems, and telehealth, which assists the nurse in delivering high-quality patient-centered care.

Important Area of Practice in Nursing Informatics

As stated by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), clinical informatics is one of the contemporary practices most relevant to day-to-day nursing. Thus, clinical informatics is a part of the larger field of informatics that emphasizes the application of information systems to deliver clinical services. It covered general EHR management, CDS, and implementation of research-based practices in clinical environments (Bichel-Findlay et al., 2023). Clinically, it is essential in managing day-to-day documentation, effective communication among the caregivers, and availability of pertinent patient information.

For instance, through EHR systems, the nurses’ vital reports, physical assessments, medication administration, and intervention records are all captured in real time. Alerts and reminders that CPOE systems use deliver clinician-directed care following protocols and guidelines. Clinical informatics in nursing helps advance nursing practice by allowing registered nurses to concentrate more on patient care while increasing the effectiveness of such care and reducing the risks associated with such care.

ICT Applications and Usage in Daily Care

ICT has become a crucial tool used in daily nursing practice, aiming to improve patients’ health and efficiency in practice. The most popular type of ICT is Electronic Health Record (EHR), which centralizes the patient’s data and offers single-point access to the current information on the patient’s history, medications, tests, and treatment plan. Apart from extending the good relations of the interdisciplinary teams, it also helps eradicate numerous avoidable errors, including medicine administration and patient handover. Another crucial ICT that has emerged in the recent past is telehealth, through which nurses can monitor patients’ health and conduct consultations through technology with timely assistance (Schlomann et al., 2020). Telehealth solutions interacting with EHR allow nurses to be consistent with patient care delivery even when the patient is far away.

In addition to EHR and telehealth, other technologies, such as secure messaging and patient portals, have improved patient engagement and communication. Electronic patient engagement tools refer to solutions that allow patients to access their health records, book appointments, and communicate with their physicians. These tools promote patient-centeredness in personal health care, improving overall outcomes. Also, there is secure messaging within the healthcare facilities where the nurses can pass information regarding their patients to other nurses, doctors, and healthcare practitioners whenever necessary (Groom et al., 2021). In that regard, integrating these ICT tools will make care delivery more effective and efficient among nursing professionals through efficient, integrated, personalized care.

Multimedia Applications as an Effective Tool in Healthcare

Using multimedia applications is essential in improving communication, learning, and interaction in the healthcare system. Such applications include videos, interactive tutorials, and patient portal applications with attached educational content. Through multimedia, patients can also be educated on the diseases, their medications, and self-administration techniques. For instance, nursing staff can advise a patient being discharged from the hospital on how to manage care at home by using an interactive video showing the correct procedure for wound management (Abdulrahaman et al., 2020). Multimedia applications are also valuable for continuing education, as one can attend webinars, e-learning sections, and virtual simulations to learn about recent advancements and approaches in healthcare and focus on personal and educational needs.

However, it is crucial to understand that multimedia tools should be used in healthcare only when they are adjusted to the patient’s knowledge, cultural background, and preferred language. Additional features like subtitles or translations may also be required to ensure that patients can get the most out of educational content.

Technology Effects on Changing Care Plan

There is clear evidence of how technology influences care plan changes to fit the patients. A representative example of such intervention is clinical decision support systems (CDSS) with evidence-based suggestions and warnings. For example, suppose a nurse is attending to a patient with an increased risk of pressure ulcers. In that case, the CDSS might trigger an alert to evaluate the patient’s need to reposition or use pressure-reducing mattresses (Leonardsen et al., 2020). By using this technology, the nurses can predict the patients’ needs and implement changes to the plan of care based on the potential risks involved.

Another example is remote healthcare monitoring equipment that records the patient’s pulse rate, oxygen level, and blood pressure. These devices enable nurses to follow up on patients with chronic diseases even when they are at home. For example, suppose a patient’s blood pressure rises. In that case, the information goes to the nurse, who can alter the patient’s treatment plan by adding or decreasing medications or scheduling the next appointment. This steady stream of information also makes care plans as flexible and adaptive to the patient’s health as possible.

Nursing Engagement in Health Care Technology Planning: Importance

Nursing affiliation is significant in the planning and purchasing healthcare technologies since nurses are the end users of these systems. This involvement means that both the care providers and patients can easily use the technologies selected as they meet the requirements of the delivery of patient care and improve or avoid complicating the process. It may remain beyond the scope of executives, IT personnel, and doctors to notice specific details of new technologies best suited for patient implementation that can hinder rather than enhance patient safety (Boothe et al., 2020). This is because when developed without the input of nurses, the technological advancements in health care could create more obstacles to, for instance, documenting more information or having unwieldy interfaces.

Involving nurses in the project planning phase also creates commitment and makes them less likely to resist change initiatives. When nurses believe their input is considered in implementing an innovation, they are more likely to accept and implement the technology effectively (Patrício et al., 2020). Further, engaging the nurses in technology acquisition enables the systems to meet the complexity of the nursing practice, thereby enhancing patient care.

Conclusion

Health information technologies and nursing informatics have been credited with enhancing patient care, information sharing, and the availability of patient data in the delivery of healthcare services. Applying clinical informatics, EHR systems, and telehealth in daily nursing has improved nursing processes and patients’ access to healthcare services. With the advancement of technologies in care provision, nurses must be involved in planning and decision-making when choosing these technologies. This way, nurses ensure that such systems enrich patient care and are safe, efficient, and patient-centered.

 

References

Abdulrahaman, M. D., Faruk, N., Oloyede, A. A., Surajudeen-Bakinde, N. T., Olawoyin, L. A., Mejabi, O. V., … & Azeez, A. L. (2020). Multimedia tools in the teaching and learning processes: A systematic review. Heliyon, 6(11).

Boothe, C., Bhullar, J., Chahal, N., Chai, A., Hayre, K., Park, M., … & Suh, D. (2020). The history of technology in nursing: implementing electronic health records in Canadian healthcare settings. Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 15(2), 1-12.

Bichel-Findlay, J., Koch, S., Mantas, J., Abdul, S. S., Al-Shorbaji, N., Ammenwerth, E., … & Wright, G. (2023). Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on education in biomedical and health informatics: second revision. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 170, 104908.

Groom, L. L., McCarthy, M. M., Stimpfel, A. W., & Brody, A. A. (2021). Telemedicine and telehealth in nursing homes: an integrative review. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 22(9), 1784-1801.

Leonardsen, A. C. L., Hardeland, C., Helgesen, A. K., & Grøndahl, V. A. (2020). Patient experiences with technology-enabled care across healthcare settings systematic review. BMC health services research, 20, 1-17.

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2024). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Moore, E. C., Tolley, C. L., Bates, D. W., & Slight, S. P. (2020). A systematic review of the impact of health information technology on nurses’ time. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 27(5), 798-807.

Patrício, L., Sangiorgi, D., Mahr, D., Čaić, M., Kalantari, S., & Sundar, S. (2020). Leveraging service design for healthcare transformation: Toward people-centered, integrated, and technology-enabled healthcare systems. Journal of Service Management, 31(5), 889-909.

Schlomann, A., Seifert, A., Zank, S., & Rietz, C. (2020). Assistive technology and mobile ICT usage among oldest-old cohorts: comparison of the oldest-old in private homes and long-term care facilities. Research on aging, 42(5-6), 163-173.