NCM1122LEC: NURSING INFORMATIC LECTURE

LESSON 1: Nursing Informatics in Hospital and Community

PRELIMS | 2024 | 2ND SEMESTER
NURS 2-1
MEANING
➢ Informatics comes from the French word “informatique”
which means “computer science”.
➢ Informatics is defined as computer science+ information
science.

DEFINITION

• Hebda (1998), defines nursing informatics as “the use of

computers technology to support nursing, including
clinical practice, administration, education and
research.” • Nurses are able to review all information related to
particular patient, which can lead to more efficient,
• ANA (American Nurses Association) 1994, has defined which can lead to more efficient communication and
nursing informatics as the development and evaluation care.
of applications, tools, processes and structures which
assist nurses with the management of data in taking care IMPORTANCE OF NURSING INFORMATICS
of patients or supporting the practice of nursing. • Enables the appropriate flow of data collected by nurses,
improving access to patient information at the point of
HISTORY OF NURSING INFORMATICS care, and enhancing nursing abilities to benchmark,
• Florence nightingale has been recognized as an early monitor and audit quality measures.
informatics nurse because of her use of data to inform
knowledge and change nursing practices.

• In 1863, she was very clear in her desire to collect, retrieve

and analyze data to be able to recognize trends in illness
and treatments to improve the quality of care.

• In 1950s and 1960s many significant changes were

underwent for the health care and for the nursing
profession in developing countries.

• In 19770s the nursing staff became instrumental in

development of nursing application for hospital
information systems.

• In the 1970s and early 1980s nursing informatics was

broadly defined as the use of computers technology to
support all aspects of nursing practice, and it was
frequently confused with computer literacy skills of the
nurse.

• During 1990s and beyond the internet became the tool

for web based clinical applications for health care
professional.

• In 1996 truly introduced a model that illustrate the

interaction of the sciences that contribute to nursing
informatics, computer science, language processing
and visual attention.

BENEFITS OF COMPUTER AUTOMATION IN HEALTHCARE

1. Decreased redundancy of data entry
2. Decreased time spent in documentation
3. Increased time for client care
• Aids to collect, store, process, display, retrieve and
4. Facilitation of data collection for research
communicate timely data and information in and across
5. Improved communication and decreased potential for
health care facilities designed to
error
6. Creation of a lifetime clinical record facilitated by ➢ Administer nursing services and resource.
information systems
➢ Manage delivery of patient and nursing care including
FUNCTIONS OF NURSING INFORMATICS documentation and planning.
• Nursing informatics allows nurses to access health
information in order to develop, implement, and ➢ Link research resources and finding to nursing practice
evaluate methods of patient care or treatment.
➢ Apply educational resources to nursing education.

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 ➢ Facilitates the integration of data, information and develop your medical facts and requirements without
knowledge to support client, nurses and other provider in any delay.
their decision making in all roles and settings.
Medical Data
➢ Promotes the generation, management and processing
of relevant data in order to use information and develop ➢ Every day hospitals and clinics which are attached to it
knowledge that supports nursing in all practice domains churn out enormous volumes of data regarding patients,
to improve practice and deliver better nursing care. prescriptions, medications, medical billing details, etc.

➢ This knowledge is useful to nurses in decision making at ➢ Such medical records, are now a day‘s recorded into
the operational and strategic planning levels of health medical billing software. Such mammoth databases are
care. known as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and
Electronic Health Records (EHR).
➢ Nursing informatics allows for the evaluation of nursing
practice. Medical Imaging

Medical Examination

➢ Medical monitoring which will help humans to properly

monitor their own health.

➢ Such systems and procedures include, bone scan

NURSING INFORMATICS IN HOSPITAL procedure, prenatal ultrasound imaging, blood glucose
Storage of Patient Data: monitors, advanced endoscopy which is used during
surgery and blood pressure monitors.
➢ Store note of the patient observe during round.
➢ Basically these medical tests and tools provide significant
➢ Access the right medical information at the right time. convenience to medical practitioners.

➢ To access information when you need to be quick, Other uses of computer in hospital
efficient and accurate.
• Assessment:
Computerized Presentations:
• Patient monitoring:
➢ Computerized power point presentations are much
more efficient and has more impact on the receiver • Documentation:
when it comes to presenting data.
• Nursing minimum data sheet:
➢ Even in the field of nursing education, computers help
• Telemedicine:
the nursing tutors/educators to present the large and
complicated detailed form of data, which of course is a • Electronic Medical Records (EMR):
part of the medical study, in a very simplified and
effective form.  Increased efficiency:

Teaching nurses through Simulations:  Improved documentation:

➢ The field of medicine involves the concept of "hands-on  Improved quality of care:
work".
 Improved security:
➢ Nursing education therefore, must involve a lot of
practice programs to make the students efficient to face  Reduced documentation expenses:
the real life scenario.
NURSING INFORMATICS IN COMMUNITY
➢ Computer programs which enable simulate such Computer networks are being used in innovative ways in home
procedures therefore are of great use. setting.

Computerized Self Evaluation The main uses of computers in community are:

➢ Computers also contribute and help the students know • A computer placed in high risk clients home allows them
their strengths and weaknesses. to access information on a variety of health topics.

➢ There are many computerized quiz and medical tests

with immediate feedback that can help you brush and

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 • They can record data about their health status that can ➢ The incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases – such
be transmitted to the health care providers at the central as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and pulmonary
network computer. disease

• Advances telenursing or telehealth. ➢ The shortage of doctors and nurses.

• Gathering of epidemiological and administrative ➢ “A lot of these challenges can be supported by the
statistics. avocation of information and communication
technologies, particularly as hospitals are becoming
• Patient appointments- identification system. more and more interested in reducing their costs and
shifting care from hospital care to home care,”
• Patient assessment and data gathering.
➢ “Information and communication technologies, mobile
• Monitoring.
health devices, wearable technologies are all becoming
• Documentation. very, very important for supporting remote patient
monitoring and home care.”
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)
➢ One of the primary ways that informatics has changed
• The Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)- in each of nursing practice is through documentation.
the 6 lakh villages of the country so that the medical
needs of the people living in remote areas could be ➢ Health informatics is also an important part of care
taken care of. coordination in nursing.

• ASHA would be connected with a telephone as well as a ➢ The ability to track staffing, workflow and communication
computer with the rest of the facilities in the public health can help nurses to identify areas where current processes
care chain. can be improved. This can also help ensure that staffing
levels remain adequate, which is critical for providing
Primary health center patients with the best possible care.

DISADVANTAGES OF TECHNOLOGY IN NURSING

Set Up and Internet Access: An important disadvantage of
• Designed to lessen the paperwork responsibility, get technology in nursing is that some patients may not be savvy with
better data accuracy, and facilitate village health technology. Some patients may not have mobile phones or
worker to provide timely care and information to the rural Internet access, making applications and video visits useless for
and semi urban population. them.
• 2 projects were designed for this: At the Mercy of the Server/Power: If either of these things goes
down due to weather, connectivity problems, or natural disasters,
1. Health Management Research Institute
you’re basically unable to do anything at all. This would be
2. Emergency Management Research Institute
especially problematic in a nursing classroom setting if simulations
Other uses in community and virtual technologies are being used as well as in a hospital
when conducting video calls or procedures that require
• Community information machinery.

• Monthly report (no of birth, immunization, communicable Potential Lack of Attention to Detail: While technology in nursing
disease, deaths, delivery) should lead to fewer medical errors, there is no guarantee that it
will eradicate ALL errors. Human efficiency and thought are still
• Planning for program important, which is why nurses, doctors, and patients must
remember that technology does not always have the final say.
• Planning for mobile clinic with regard to the information
There is still plenty of room for error, and all diagnoses, treatments,
• Vital statistics and care plans should be double and triple checked to ensure
safety an accuracy overall.
• Hospital statistics
Malfunctioning Equipment: One of the biggest headaches of
• Community mapping technology is what happens when technology just doesn’t work.

• Research Epidemic outbreak ROLE OF NURSE IN NURSING INFORMATICS

▪ Nurse Informaticists are often perceived as the “techy”
• Demographic characteristics of population nurse, “super-user”, or the “go-to” person when new
technology is implemented.
• Mass education
▪ They are often referred to as “bi-lingual” nurses who can
IMPACT OF NURSING INFORMATICS IN NURSING speak the nursing process and information technology
PROFESSION language.
The nursing profession is rapidly changing to keep up with
advancements and new challenges in the healthcare field. As ▪ Being an expert in both fields and a liaison between the
direct caregivers, nurses are in the front lines of patient care and two worlds, nurses have assumed different roles and
consequently often feel the impact of changes in best practices positions in the arena of informatics.
more immediately than other healthcare professionals.
▪ A recent survey conducted by Healthcare Information
Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) revealed that
at the University of Illinois at Chicago, reported that there are three 14% of nurses are in nursing informatics role.
specific challenges that healthcare is currently facing:
▪ Nurses comprise the biggest workforce in healthcare. This
➢ The aging population being said, nurses are the largest work-group of end-users

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 of electronic medical record and clinical information January to April, 2014. A library search was also performed. As
systems; therefore, it is imperative that nurses are well- many as 135 articles were retrieved. With a critical point of view,
represented in the selection, design, implementation, 40 articles in English were selected that specifically focused on
and evaluation of clinical information systems. nursing informatics education and its influence on nursing
outcomes and the quality of health care.
▪ Evidence has shown that nurses who were involved in the
clinical information system cycle have more buy-in, user- CONCLUSION
acceptance, and positive perception – all are precursors
to successful implementation. In today’s world the potential for information and communication
technology application is increasing so that it can enhance the
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS AND quality of nursing domains outcome (McNelis et al., 2012). Nurses
NURSING INFORMATICS have the most communication with patients, and interact with
technology more frequently. Using technology should create a
positive attitude in nursing productivity. It is essential for nurses to
be involved in the initial design of systems to improve the quality of
health care and change their culture in this regard (Darvish &
Salsali, 2010), (Jenkins et al., 2007).

SUMMARY

Today we have seen definition of nursing informatics, history of

nursing informatics, importance, benefits, functions of nursing
informatics, nursing informatics in hospital and community and
impact of nursing informatics in nursing profession.

CONCLUSION

Informatics is changing the face of healthcare. As technology

advances, healthcare organizations and providers are able to
collect, analyze data more effectively, influencing the way care is
delivered, resources are managed and teams operate each
day. One specific area that health informatics is having a
significant impact on is the practice of nursing. Though the mission
of nursing remains unchanged, the daily work of these
professionals is being strongly influenced by informatics, with
particular attention to the accuracy and communication of
patient data and care.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN NURSING INFORMATICS

Nursing informatics can be a highly paid field compared to other
healthcare careers.

➢ Nurse informatics

➢ Nursing informatics specialist

➢ Nursing informatics clinician

➢ Clinical informatics coordinator

➢ Clinical analyst

➢ Clinical nurse informatics specialist

➢ IT clinical nurse
RESEARCH
The Role of Nursing Informatics on Promoting Quality of Health ➢ Preoperative informatics nurse
Care and the Need for Appropriate Education

Asieh Darvish,1 Fatemeh Bahramnezhad,1 Sara

Keyhanian,2 and Mojdeh Navidhamidi1,3

Glob J Health Sci. 2014 Nov; 6(6): 11–18.

In today’s dynamic health systems, technology plays an important

role in education and nursing work. So it seems necessary to study
the role of nurses and highlight the need for appropriate
information technology educational programs to integrate with
the ever-increasing pace of technology.

METHOD

An extensive literature search was performed by using databases

Pubmed, Google Scholar, Ovid, Science Direct and SID. Search
terms were “education, nursing”; “quality of health care”; “nursing
informatics” and technology. The study was carried out from

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