discussion on nursing informatics and other profession

Nursing informaticians, technology specialists, clinical nurses, nurse managers, educators, and other professionals within healthcare interact indirectly on any given day when accessing and inputting data into patient medical records. Nurses in patient interaction areas serve as the face. They are examples of the caring theory providing assistance utilizing tools such as the workflows that nurse informaticians, project managers, and technical specialists develop behind the scenes to create (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Though sparse, direct interaction between each healthcare group typically occurs during new program rollouts, the target group interview sessions, and a call to a technical specialist to fix a glitch; minimal direct interaction occurs despite each department’s shared goal of improving healthcare outcomes, experiences, and workflows. Much like the floor nurse vs. emergency room or ICU nurse wars, the situation between each healthcare genre stands to achieve exponential leap and bounds with quality collaboration, respect, and recognition that each genre is a specialty and is necessary for the progression of patient care.

Example of Observation:

A recurring experience with technology specialists in the clinic area is during the rolling out of new software, updates, or adaptations of clinical applications. The medical center underwent a recent rollout of the Patient Dashboard. The Patient Dashboard consists of large television Monitors hung on the walls of waiting rooms that list the patient’s name, designated module number, and estimated wait time. The rollout of this system created a huge culture shock, seemingly going against a professional healthcare culture that holds patient health information (PHI) covering every aspect of the patient. In the past, information, including the patient’s name, was treated with extreme secrecy, and healthcare providers signed contracts and employment agreements upholding proper handling of PHI under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In the rollout of the patient dashboard, management now says publicly posting a patient’s name is no longer a PHI violation and is the thing to do to help improve patient satisfaction scores. 

Technology Specialists were assigned to each medical suite to assist in training and troubleshooting the system during patient care hours. The Dashboard system, a virtual patient waiting room, was designed as a one-size-fits-all program for all departments, regardless of workflows, which typically vary for specialty clinics. The Dashboard operates as a separate program that is designed to run simultaneously with other programs, allowing the health care provider to toggle between the Dashboard to operate the system, placing the virtual patient in the cue, adjusting projected wait times, assigning the patient a virtual room or nursing station, placing the patient in virtual observation or discharge home, all in real-time on the computer and matching it up with actual patient handling. One barrier found was that the clinic’s currently programmed flowsheet locked the nurse in. They could not toggle between programs in real-time, as accessing the Dashboard once in the immunotherapy program would mean exiting the treatment forum, losing everything necessary to carry out the appointment, and then starting over once the patient was there instead of being prepared for the patient. This action delayed appointment times and increased the risk of missing pertinent steps, leading to mistakes when jumping in and out of the program.

One strategy to improve interaction among healthcare genres is to promote consideration and respect for each team member; adopting reflection as part of the workflows may enhance interactions (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). 

Promoting reflection by all stakeholders allows for intuitiveness and collaboration (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). In the observation above the rolling out of the patient dashboard, there are several moments for self-reflection from all healthcare providers involved. Reflection by the clinical nurse may reduce the stress associated with unexpected workflow changes and a realization that the new system is likely to place patients at ease when they are seen within time frame expectations. Reflection may also assist with the realization that the nurse informatician’s role is to aid the healthcare system by translating data into workable solutions that improve how care is delivered (Walden University, LLC. 2018). Self-reflection by the informatician and technologist may allow for additional exploration of the individual clinic programming needs and collaboration for workarounds with the technology specialist and clinical nurse, making a smoother transition. 

Future interactions of informatics as a specialty and emerging technologies continue to propel healthcare and how it is provided by the informatician’s answer to the call during COVID-19. Informaticians were instrumental in not only adapting and quickly aiding the transformation of healthcare delivery to maintain a safe connection to loved ones in the hospital, extending the reach of doctor visits through telehealth, adapting clinical networks to alert and track COVID exposures through electronic medical records and personal cell phone apps (Garcia-Dia, 2021). Informaticians also returned to the bedside along with their colleagues, reigniting comradery and promoting each other grace to perform and carry out optimal care on all levels (Garcia-Dia, 2021).