Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
Nursing informatics is one of the many specialties offered in the nursing community that focuses on and refers to the use of technology as the primary mode of delivering care. In the quickly advancing medical field, technology has shown to be essential in providing care that is more efficient, and safe, and focuses more on improving the health of many individuals without the need for in-person patient-physician contact. The nurse informaticist fulfills many roles but to simply put it, they are the bridge between the technological community and the clinical setting. Due to the increased knowledge of the nurse informaticist in both the technological field and the clinical setting, they have the
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Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
Nurse informaticists are essential in all healthcare organizations as they also help identify any areas where problems may arise and use their specialized skills to intervene and promote quality patient care. For example, with the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic which started in the early months of 2020, millions of people in all populations became incredibly sick and the healthcare community was in shambles trying to provide effective care for all the sick people. Telehealth became an increasingly helpful mode of treatment for those patients who were not able to attend in-person clinic visits as a result of external factors such as lack of transportation, physical limitations, or simply having the fear of becoming more sick by exposing themselves in environments where other potentially sicker people are present. Nurse informaticists work closely and interact with the rest of the nursing staff
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It is important that in each facility, there is adequate training and awareness in how electronic health records and data is stored and shared with the appropriate health care department/professional. In an article published in the International Nursing Review, Bani Issa et al., state that “interdisciplinary attention and early infusion of the ethical dimension of EHR data is essential to facilitate public trust”, which means that all members who are involved in any department should play their part in being ethically sound when handling private information (2020). All patients’ health information should only be accessed by those who are in direct care of that specific patient and all data collected in the clinical setting should be the most accurate and input appropriately into the electronic medical record systems. Afterwards, each healthcare professional is responsible for ensuring that they completely log out of any platforms that hold private patient information to avoid any breaches in confidentiality. Workflow is also improved as technology makes it easier to access patient information in situations where it is needed immediately to direct the appropriate treatment route. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology in the healthcare community was beneficial as any pertinent information can be collected prior to any face to face