Informatics Training

Overview:
The vast array of devices currently available to healthcare professionals is expanding rapidly, and many question the wisdom of making purchases today when newer and better options seem to be available long before the useful life of the devices has been reached.

How much of this data is worth the expense? Do all patients need all of these devices in their rooms? Fusing data from a wide array of devices into a coherent state of the patient readout is becoming harder and harder to obtain, and when one is confronted with conflicting results, what do you do?

This module explores many of the new medical sensors and scanners and how key readings can be transmitted to a common repository for analysis, fusion, and data mining. More is not always better and the quality of the whole system must be paramount. Life expectancy has doubled over the previous 100 years. The interesting question is: with all of our new technology and improvements, can we do it again?

Read:Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson. ISBN: 978-0134711010. Chapters 12 & 13.

Discussion Question:
Discuss what training programs are needed for the technology required for your final presentation topic. Consider what training to provide to new employees and what ongoing training may be necessary. I listed below possible references for this discussion and hopefully could be implemented
Strahan, B. (2017). Self-assessment of nursing informatics competencies for pre-licensure nursing students. Journal of Informatics Nursing, 2(4), 14-18. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1987348083?accountid=34574
Nursing informatics: A growing specialty across HMC. (2019, Jun 26). The Peninsula Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2246876606?accountid=34574
Foster, M., & Sethares, K. (2017). Current strategies to implement informatics into the nursing curriculum: An integrative review: OJNI OJNI. On-Line Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(3) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1984791063?accountid=34574
Your posting should be at least 400 words in length

SOLUTION

Informatics Training

The infiltration of information technology in healthcare has become a normality in the current delivery system. Technology advancements have resulted in innovations of devices that are currently being used by practitioners for their daily activities during the delivery of healthcare services. Information Technology in healthcare has been attributed to many benefits (Strahan, 2017).  For instance, the use of IT has doubled life expectancy in the past century.

The vital question facing the system is whether the same technology can be used to increase life expectancy, considering that technological change is gradually taking place. The most obvious response to this question is that the future of the healthcare delivery system and other functional institutions lies in IT (Hebda, Hunter & Czar, 2019). This is because it has proved the potential for the past decades.

Time for service delivery has been reduced. Processes have been streamlined with outcomes of high-quality services and life-saving. Information technology is in the form of a system with components that interact to deliver results. Human effort is a critical component because it takes control of the hardware and software of the systems. There has been a lag in bracing the human resources with the competencies that are needed for managing the IT systems for better results.

The introduction of IT in healthcare has been embraced differently among different generations from the baby boomers to the millennials. The baby boomers were caught in the middle of fast-changing technology and had to learn a few things on IT to use the health informatics put in place in healthcare. Previous studies have revealed that the current healthcare system has not prioritized training on information technology.

With the gradual introduction of the new device every day, strategies have not been put in place to educate healthcare professionals on the use of such systems. The most common assumption is that millennials, which form the majority of employees in healthcare have digital literacy passion and can quickly learn the newly introduced healthcare informatics (Hebda et al., 2019). The fact is that the diverse array of devices surrounding the practitioners and which they have to obtain information for decision making, it has become a complicated task without advanced training. This literacy gap has caused errors that could be avoided.

Training regarding information technology is highly needed. Nurses and physicians have to record and analyze data from different electronic devices, interpret Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR) among other computer-generated reports. The practitioners need training programs on the primary computer operation, Microsoft Word, Excel, and data analysis tools.

For instance, clinical information systems produce charts and highly technical reports that have to be decoded for information. The delivery of IT literacy programs cuts across all levels from the practitioners in the workforce to the students training to become nurses and physicians (Strahan, 2017).

The nursing programs, such as the associate nursing program and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), could form a good foundation for IT literacy. These programs currently lack computer courses that are necessarily applicable across all health informatics. There is a need for curriculum revision to incorporate a compulsory IT program. In healthcare settings, organizations need to roll out continuous training programs in computer applications and health informatics.

IT innovations in the form of informatics are fast being introduced in healthcare. These training programs will not only boost proficiency in IT but also prepares the employees of any new informatics. By so doing, healthcare practitioners at all levels will be able to utilize health informatics efficiently for improved quality of care across the system.

References

Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson. ISBN: 978-0134711010. Chapters 12 & 13.

Strahan, B. (2017). Self-assessment of nursing informatics competencies for pre-licensure nursing students. Journal of Informatics Nursing, 2(4), 14-18. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1987348083?accountid=34574

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