Read a selection of your colleagues’ blog posts and respond by expanding upon their responses or sharing additional or alternative perspectives.

Ashley

Initial Post

Informatics Competency

Technology in healthcare is beginning to create efficient procedures to promote the continuation of care. According to Alotaibi & Federico (2019), “health information technology presents numerous opportunities for improving and transforming healthcare, which includes; reducing human errors, improving clinical outcomes, facilitating care coordination, improving practice efficiencies, and tracking data over time.” Ensuring staff knowledge and competency is essential for the adjustment to be successful. For example, if you knew he would fall, you wouldn’t put a child on a bicycle without training wheels. Similarly, we would not initiate a change without providing support and education to staff regarding the proposed changes.

Enhancing Quality of Care

Quality of care is compromised when we fail to practice with best practice that aligns with the changes in healthcare. Safety becomes compromised when there is a deficit in our quality of care. According to the World Health Organization (2024), “quality of care is the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes. It is based on evidence-based professional knowledge.”

Safety in Nursing Practice

Our inpatient psychiatry unit maintains the quality of care by utilizing groups for our patients through technology. Many of our patients are geriatric or have knowledge deficits, and implementing teaching in our groups about technology places them at a knowledge advantage. Our charting system is Epic, which has an application called MyChart, which we encourage and assist with creating an account before discharge. Since many geriatric patients have no means of safe transportation, attending follow-up appointments is challenging and could cause a deterioration in status if they remain untreated. Most sessions are conducted via telehealth for our outpatient psychiatry follow-ups to provide convenience and safety to our patients. With the assistance of technology and nursing informatics, we can provide safe, quality care to our patients that they expect and deserve.

References

Alotaibi, Y., & Federico, F. (2019). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi Medical Journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. ncbi. https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

World Health Organization. (2024). Quality of care. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/health-topics/quality-of-care#tab=tab_1

Learning Resources

• Sipes, C. (2024). Project management for the advanced practice nurse (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing.
  • Chapter 4, “Planning: Project Management—Phase 2” (pp. 85–130)
• American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informaticsLinks to an external site.: Scope and standards of practice (2nd ed.).
  • “Evolution of Nursing Informatics Competencies” (pp. 37–41)
  • “The Future of Nursing Informatics” (pp. 52–62)
  • “Standard 3: Outcomes Identification” (p. 71)
  • “Standard 4: Planning” (p. 72)
• American Hospital Association. (n.d.). Innovative models of care delivery: Addressing transitions across the care continuumLinks to an external site.. https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2019/05/Innovative-Models-of-Care.pdf
• Guest in VSee. (2020). 7 ways technology is transforming the nursing fieldLinks to an external site.. VSee.com. https://vsee.com/blog/technology-transforming-nursing-field
• The Medical Futurist. (2020). 10 ways technology is changing healthcareLinks to an external site.. https://medicalfuturist.com/ten-ways-technology-changing-healthcare/

Required media

• Schade, M. (2016, January 11). How to do a GAP AnalysisLinks to an external site.. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xXReyiFtBY
• Project Manager. (2014, June 2). What is a work breakdown structureLinks to an external site.? [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEWhnodF6ig
• Project Manager. (2016, March 11). Gantt Charts, Simplified – The Project Management TrainingLinks to an external site.. [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGkHjby1xKM