NURS 6431 Week 5 Journal Entries

Journal Entries Due Week 7 (References immediately follow the content)

From Week 5:

Journal Assignment—Part 1

After reviewing the Practicum Weekly Resources, record a response to the following in your Journal:

In each of the articles, four areas are highlighted as relevant and needing action for the effective growth of the field of informatics—leadership, education, practice, and policy. For each of these areas, identify specific ways that you personally can make an impact.

Journal Assignment—Part 2

Note: Each week, you are responsible for locating a scholarly journal article in the Walden Library related to your area(s) of interest. Include in your Journal the reference in proper APA format and provide a brief summary of the article. The article from each week will serve as the genesis of the bibliography in your final Practicum course (NURS 6600), so time spent locating pertinent articles now will be beneficial.

Journal Assignment—Part 3

Practicum Onsite Visits

Summarize the key activities of your visits to your Practicum site (as appropriate), including with whom you met, what you did, and what you gained from the experience.

Week 5 Journal Assignment—Part 1:

Nurse Informaticists are an integral part of technology in healthcare today, bridging the gap between clinical and technical. They can be leaders by helping to advance the field of NI, by collaborating with nursing leadership to further the use of beneficial technology, and to help refine the role of the CNIO (HIMSS Position Statement, 2011). One of the ways I can be a leader in NI is to be a voice for the field by always speaking positively about the benefits of my role and looking for ways to promote NI as a profession.

Nurse Informaticists can use education to help transform the profession. I can be a role model to those interested in NI and encourage young nurses to pursue a degree in NI. Specifically, I can volunteer at my organization’s yearly STEM for girls day. We demonstrate interesting things about the field to encourage girls age 7-11 to pursue STEM careers.

I can use my practice by keeping current on technology by participating in professional organizations. I can collaborate with others to help integrate new, benefical technology. Technology that is useful and has a purpose, not just the latest cool thing.

To help transform NI I can get involved in policy making and lobbying on a local level and stay current on news that affects health information technology.

HIMSS (2011). Position statement of transforming nursing practice through technology and informatics. Retrieved from https://www.himss.org/sites/himssorg/files/HIMSSorg/handouts/ HIMSSNIPositionStatementMonographReport.pdf

Week 5 Journal Assignment—Part 2 (Practicum Journal Article Summary):

The article I chose for this week speaks about HIT evaluations and some of the challenges that arise. In the article three common problem areas are defined “the complexity of the evaluation object, the complexity of an evaluation project, and the motivation for evaluation (Ammenwerth, Graber, Herrmann, Burkle, & Konig, 2003, p. 125). By complexity of the evaluation object, they are referring to not only is there a piece of technology, but there are complexities involved with those who interact with it and extract data from it. The second problem, complexity of the evaluation project refers to the complexity of the interdisciplinary nature of HIT evaluations. The third major issue is the motivation for the evaluation itself, which refers to the stakeholders motivation in spending time and money on the project. Once a project is implemented, it is difficult to pull it back even though it is not measuring up to its intended use. Ammenwerth and colleagues (2003). In the end, the authors recommend a structured framework to be used to help guide the evaluation, to allow for the appropriate questions to be asked, and to recommend the proper tools and methods to use (Ammenwerth et al., 2003).

Ammenwerth, E., Gräber, S., Herrmann, G., Bürkle, T., & König, J. (2003). Evaluation of health information systems—problems and challenges. International journal of medical informatics, 71(2-3), 125-135.

Week 5 Journal Assignment—Part 3 (Practicum Onsite Visits):

This week was a particularly interesting one as I got to meet with the CNIO to discuss her role and to get a better understanding of nursing informatics. She talked a lot about collaboration and team building. Nurse Informaticists no matter what level their position holds is always collaborating with stakeholders, other teams in IS, and clinical teams. I also got to witness some of this collaboration first hand in a workflow meeting with the nursing Clinical Champions and the NI on a barcode lab specimen project. The was the first of this type of meeting for this project so the NI also spoke about her role in the project.