Informatics & Technology

Informatics & Technology

The Nurse of the Future will use information and technology to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making [QSEN, 2007].

The way that technology is moving forward, if we as healthcare providers don’t move with it then we will be left standing behind. During this pandemic technology has been such a benefit for people that are in rural areas, that have needed specialty healthcare providers. For an example, the radiologist at my hospital did a fellowship in Boston for breast cancer. We have a program that allows patients that have been diagnosed with breast cancer, to telehealth with some of the best breast cancer specialist without even leaving our community. If they were to have to see them in Boston, this is roughly an 8-hour drive one way. Its an added cost for a travel, additional days off from work for the long travel, hotel stay and many other little costs.

Some of the benefits in health technology is, “Helps in delivering more accurate, actionable, and accessible information related to a patient’s health that can be customized to meet the individual’s needs” (Sreejith, 2020). It allows for patients and healthcare providers to communicate better and faster, helping to make decisions faster. When providers and nurses relied on paper charts to do everything, lab result, and or doctor notes could get misplaced and lost forever. With electronic charting this allows all healthcare providers along with other members of the health care team such as PT, OT, Lab, Radiology the ability to all look at a patient’s data from anywhere they are able to access a patient’s chart. A survey done by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that Nurses who use the “technology are more likely to spot medical errors” (Sreejith, 2020).

Now we all know that technology can also take away from providing direct patient care as we are so worried about checking off all the little boxes that have to be completed. That sometimes we pull medications based on the orders that we have available to us at that time, we administer the medication only to find out that the doctor put orders in to discontinue, but the charge nurse had yet to verify the order. This happens more frequently than it should. This is where we have to do better and remember that our first priority is the patient not the computer.

Sreejith. (2020, November 21). The Application and Impact of Information and Technology in Healthcare . Retrieved from Fingent Shaping the future: https://www.fingent.com/blog/the-application-and-impact-of-information-technology-in-healthcare/