I should claim that I had substantial experience with communicating and interacting with nursing informaticists and/or data or technology specialists. I’ve been a staff nurse in the surgical department, I had many notifications from and scheduled rearrangements provided by a nurse-informaticist via the hospital’s electronic devices – starting from a phone and ending with an iPad. There was a noticeable situation in which I and the nurse-informaticist were involved. Being among the youngest employees in the department, I had good IT skills if comparing with the rest of my team – both nurses and physicians.
I was asked to assist in explaining the features of the group access to Google Calendar. The idea was to implement a technology that made it possible to monitor the timetable for all at the same time so that there could be no confusion regarding shifts. We divided the responsibilities and instructed my colleagues coherently and successfully.
Strategy for Improving Interactions
From the example above, it seems apparent that sometimes, there are barriers for nurses-informaticists within the scope of communication with other professionals. It may take extra time to explain the idea of a particular technological advancement or interaction with a new electronic system. It is founded on the fact that many healthcare professionals lack basic IT education. According to Collins et al. (2017), “It is clear that nursing informatics and HIT [health information technology] knowledge should no longer be delegated to a specialist, but should be an expected core competency of professional practice” (p. 216).
To that end, a number of extra basic IT courses for non-IT healthcare employees may be provided. These courses may be integrated into a schedule as extra working hours, which will motivate ones involved even more. After this basic knowledge is provided, communication between nurses-informaticists and other healthcare professionals will be smoothed.
Impact of Evolving Nursing Informatics on Professional Interactions
Nursing informatics may be characterized as an integrated element of many academic curricula of both nurses and other healthcare specialists. Such an approach alleviates the interconnection between IT technologies and the healthcare system (Bove, 2019). According to Al-Hawamdih & Ahmad (2017), this leads to better patient outcomes as the mentioned system obtains the benefits of fast, quality, and diversified operations necessary in daily routine and advanced problem-solving. The issue of appropriate nursing informatics education has become acute nowadays, and a plethora of related universities aspire to implement it into their educational programs of various specializations.
References
Al-Hawamdih, S., & Ahmad, M. M. (2017). Examining the relationship between nursing informatics competency and the quality of information processing. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36(3), 154–159.
Bove, L. A. (2019). Integration of informatics content in baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. Nurse Educator, 45(4), 206–209.
Collins, S., Yen, P.-Y., Phillips, A., & Kennedy, M. K. (2017). Nursing informatics competency assessment for the nurse leader. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 47(4), 212–218.
Response
The colleague’s rationale seems to be coherent, convincing, and evidence-based. The claim that nursing informatics tends to evolve, which implies the necessity to educate future nurses on utilizing technologies, reflects the current state of affairs. Such a statement is supported by the study of Bove (2019) that examines the modern extent of nursing informatics integration into the educational system. What is more, the proposed strategy of having clearly defined responsibilities and respecting each other’s expertise might be appropriate as well. It was proved that proper understanding and collaboration among healthcare professionals at all levels result in significant patient outcomes (Ansa et al., 2020).
The suggested strategy may be accompanied by the increased government support of IT education at hospitals. Healthcare professionals could get free courses on how to utilize modern IT at work. Such an undertaking implies investments from the government that may easily supply healthcare providers with new advanced software and technologies, given the increased awareness of the employees. This will increase the level of the healthcare system promptly.
References
Ansa, B.E., Zechariah, S., Gates, A.M., Johnson, S.W., Heboyan, V., & De Leo, G. (2020). Attitudes and behavior towards interprofessional collaboration among healthcare professionals in a large academic medical center. Healthcare, 8(323), 1–14. Web.
Bove, L. A. (2019). Integration of informatics content in baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. Nurse Educator, 45(4), 206–209.