How to Care Using Technology

How to Care Using Technology

How to Care Using Technology

Step 1 Post your response to the discussion board.

With the introduction of huge amounts of technology and electronic documentation, it seems that we are moving further from providing hands-on nursing care to patients. How can we, as nurses, apply nursing informatics standards to personalize care for patients? Give some examples of how you have seen technology used to personalize care.

Step 2 Read other students’ posts and respond to at least two of them by Friday at 11:59pm Mountain Time.

Use your personal experience, if it’s relevant, to support or debate other students’ posts. Consider the methods of applying informatics to patient care that were discussed by other students. Share whether you agree or disagree with the methods they chose and explain why. If differences of opinion occur, debate the issues professionally and provide examples to support your opinions.

Peer Discussion (Leslie)

As healthcare informatics continues to grow and evolve in the medical field, as healthcare professionals it is important to be able to adapt and learn the new technology and electronic ways of providing patient care. Even though electronic health records (EHR) can negatively impact cognitive workload and feelings of exhaustion and burnout in nurses (Yen et al, 2020), EHRs can also positively impact patient care by personalizing their care during their hospital stay. Not only can healthcare informatics play a positive role in healthcare professionals providing patient care but with electronic medical records (EMRs), patients are able to access their medical health information electronically at any given time that they choose. Patients can access medication lists, lab results, immunizations, allergies, as well as discharge information (Dendere et al, 2019). EMRs also contribute to secure patient-provider communication through patient portals to further discuss their care (Dendere et al, 2019). Another positive thing about EMRs is that patient portals help patients become more involved in their care (Dendere et al, 2019). EHRs also offer electronic patient plan of care for nurses and other healthcare professional team members to tailor the patient’s care according to the patient’s health assessment, needs and goals. EMRs offer a variety of positive contributions in providing high quality patient care. Healthcare providers are able to have access and view graphs that depict the patient’s weight, cholesterol levels, blood pressures while tracking any increases or decreases in their health (Manca, 2015). EMRs also have the ability to remind healthcare providers of any alerts such as prevention screening for example PAP smears in women or due vaccinations (Manca, 2015). EMRs aid in drug interaction alerts while providing clear and structured format for medication orders which aid in decreasing medical errors while increasing effective communication between interprofessional team members (Manca, 2015).

References

Burton-James, A., Dendere, R., Janda, M., Slade, C., Staib, A., Sullivan, C. (2019). Patient portals facilitating engagement with inpatient electronic medical records: A systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research. Retrieved from

Chen, L., Cooney, E., Jethro, C., Lopetegui, M., Maddox, T. M., McNeil, B., Pearl, N., Schallom, M., Yen, P. Y. (2020). Nurses’ stress associated with nursing activities and electronic health records: data triangulation from continuous stress monitoring, perceived workload, and a time motion study. AMIA… Annual Symposium Proceedings, 952-961. Retrieved from

Manca, D. P. (2015). Do electronic medical records improve quality of care? Yes. Canadian Family Physician Medicin de Famile Canadien, 61(10), 846-851. Retrieved from

Peer Discussion (Lesley)

Technology and healthcare informatics have made it more efficient for nurses to locate information, increased patient safety, as well as expanded access to patient information and documentation of care (Healthcare Informatics and Technology, n.d.). Nurses can answer patient questions quickly and the reduced time spent on looking up information can be centered toward spending more time with the patients. Nurses are the last line to verify if treatments are appropriate for the patients and advocate for them to ensure that they are not harmed. The EHR allows for me to look up information that may have been missed during report as well as ask the patient questions for clarification. My patients often appreciate it when I ask them specific questions about their care when I’m completing my assessment. A lot of the patients in Montana are from rural areas. By knowing information about where they are from, I can talk with my patients about additional help or resources they may need before they are discharged. Patients may question medications that they are on and I can easily access their chart to look up the medications they are receiving during their hospital stay as well as what we have on their home medication list which helps decrease any concerns they may have.

Healthcare Informatics and Technology. (n.d.). Denver College of Nursing: Week 11 Lesson. Retrieved from .

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