Nursing informatics can be thought of as the healthcare technology that brings together different fields and operations involved in nursing practices to create a structure of management and communication of information and data that is involved in carrying out nursing operations. Nursing informatics entails collecting, processing, storing, and sharing information that promotes the patients’ health (Kaihlanen et al., 2021).
The major role of nurse informaticists is to connect nursing operations to technology in a multidisciplinary healthcare setting through the development of systems such as healthcare technologies. The informaticists may work with technologists to achieve this (Strudwick et al., 2019). Also, nurse informaticists ensure that health data is secure, accurate, and in the right form for nursing decisions. They also ensure that it is available and usable by other practitioners, such as physicians (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021).
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
Other healthcare organizations report that they have benefitted from the implementation of nursing informatics in their operations. Among the benefits that these organizations have mentioned include the realization of improvements in the delivery of patient care and a reduction in the healthcare risk associated with errors in the use of patient data (Billings, 2019). Effective nursing informaticists work with multiple healthcare staff, including other nursing staff members, to acquire information about the healthcare needs that require the design and development of data technology. They also train and offer support to other professionals on how to use informatics (Longhini et al., 2022).
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
The full engagement of nurses in healthcare technology may have a positive impact on patient care. The implementation of healthcare technology that deals with the collection, storage, analysis, and retrieval of patient data in service delivery leads to improvement in the accuracy of information used for treatment purposes. There is also timeliness in the delivery of data, and this leads to improvements in patient care results (Al et al., 2022). Also, the full engagement of nurses in health care technology improves the security, confidentiality, and privacy of patient information since nurses comply with the regulations and policies that have been put forth to ensure that patients’ data is kept secure, confidential, and private.
For there to be an improvement in the management of the healthcare information that is under protection, there is a need to undertake risk assessment from time to time, control accessibility, engage in multi-factor authentication, and perform security training. The assessment of risk should be done on a regular basis with the intention of identifying the security threats and working on mitigating them. Evidence shows that undertaking risk assessment through qualitative and semi-quantitative methods has worked well in enhancing the knowledge of risk for the Italian National Anticorruption Authority, and therefore, it was able to work on mitigating it (Pascarella et al., 2021).
The control of access to data and information by different members of healthcare staff requires being implemented to determine who should access information and who should not have access to it based on their roles and responsibilities. According to Chinnasamy et al. (2020), the use of access control instruments that have undergone proper security analysis proves to be effective in comparing and managing who needs to have access to information, therefore ensuring that such details are kept secure, private, and confidential.
Also, the implementation of multi-factor authentication for individuals seeking access to data has been proven to be successful in the protection of online and telehealth information. Among the authentication methods applied include biometrics (Suleski et al., 2023). The security training, on the other hand, is aimed at creating an organizational cultural change that seeks to enhance the behaviour of practitioners toward data security and safety. This training can be aimed at inputting the members of staff with knowledge of common threats in cybersecurity, the common ways of occurrence of security breaches, and the best practices in the prevention of data security breaches (Cascella, 2022).
The full engagement of nurses in healthcare technology improves workflow since it integrates them into the matrix of other healthcare practitioners who have already embraced and are making use of healthcare technology. The seamless workflow in the healthcare sector is also contributed to by improvements in interdisciplinary collaboration. When it comes to the cost-benefit analysis, the nurses’ engagement with technology can be thought of as offering the benefits of improved care delivery in a timely manner. However, there is the financial cost of setting up the technological systems in the healthcare facility, which might be costly. All in all, the cost of installing technology may not outweigh the cost of failure in the protection of health data.
Opportunities and Challenges
Upon the inclusion of the role of nursing informaticist, the healthcare organization will have the opportunity to enjoy the enhancement of the care delivery for patients and improvement in the security of patients’ data. The enhancement of patient care delivery will be motivated by the fact that data patient data is available in the right form for use by all the practitioners for their needs. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the technology implementation in the healthcare organization will be made possible as a result of the availability of tools for enhancing the protection and security of patient data (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). However, challenges may be encountered due to the financial expenses and constraints that will be incurred in ensuring data security and putting measures for effective interdisciplinary collaboration. All in all, interdisciplinary team collaboration will improve the quality of patient care outcomes through technology by engaging in continuous training of healthcare practitioners (Iwaya et al., 2020).
Summary of Recommendations
Among the takeaways that one may acquire from this exercise is that the security of patient and healthcare data, patient care, and the efficiency of healthcare workflow are crucial elements in the healthcare sector, and these can be managed through having nurse informaticists in a healthcare organization. Also, one may acquire the insight that the implementation of technology and informatics in healthcare organizations should always be based on evidence; as such, it ensures that there will be higher chances of success.
Further, it is notable that the placement of nurse informaticists in a healthcare facility has a positive return on the investment that the management places towards the enhancement of healthcare technology, and it is therefore highly recommended for different organizations. In conclusion, every healthcare organization seeks to be effective in care delivery, data security, and improved workflow among different practitioners, and this can be achieved through the involvement of nurse informatics in addition to other healthcare technologies. Evidence has shown that the implementation of technology, including informatics, can be achieved if there are efforts made to ensure the safety and security of healthcare data in a healthcare organization/.
References
Al Najjar, R. I., & Shafie, Z. M. (2022). Impact of Nursing Informatics on the Quality of Patient Care. International Journal Of Medical Science And Clinical Research Studies, 2(5), 418-421. https://doi.org/10.47191/ijmscrs/v2-i5-19
Billings, D. M. (2019). Teaching nurses to make clinical judgments that ensure patient safety. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 50(7), 300-302. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20190612-04
Cascella L. M., (2022). Strengthening the Frontline: Cybersecurity Training for Healthcare Workers. MedPro Group. Retrieved from www.medpro.com/cybersecurity-training-for-healthcare-workers#:~:text=Developing%20a%20Robust%20Training%20Program&text=Implementing%20technical%20safeguards%20such%20as,via%20approved%2C%20secure%20communication%20channels
Chinnasamy, P., Deepalakshmi, P., & Shankar, K. (2020). An analysis of security access control on healthcare records in the cloud. In Intelligent Data Security Solutions for e-Health Applications (pp. 113-130). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819511-6.00006-6
Iwaya, L. H., Ahmad, A., & Babar, M. A. (2020). Security and privacy for mHealth and uHealth systems: a systematic mapping study. IEEE Access, 8, 150081-150112. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3015962
Kaihlanen, A. M., Gluschkoff, K., Kinnunen, U. M., Saranto, K., Ahonen, O., & Heponiemi, T. (2021). Nursing informatics competencies of Finnish registered nurses after national educational initiatives: A cross-sectional study. Nurse Education Today, 106, 105060. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105060
Longhini, J., Rossettini, G., & Palese, A. (2022). Digital health competencies among health care professionals: systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(8), e36414. https://doi.org/10.2196/36414
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Pascarella, G., Rossi, M., Montella, E., Capasso, A., De Feo, G., Botti, G., … & Morabito, A. (2021). Risk analysis in healthcare organizations: Methodological framework and critical variables. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 2897-2911. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S309098
Strudwick, G., Nagle, L., Kassam, I., Pahwa, M., & Sequeira, L. (2019). Informatics competencies for nurse leaders: a scoping review. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(6), 323-330. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000760
Suleski, T., Ahmed, M., Yang, W., & Wang, E. (2023). A review of multi-factor authentication in the Internet of Healthcare Things. Digital Health, p. 9, 20552076231177144. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F20552076231177144
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