Electronic Health Record: The Impact on Nursing Informatics
Peta-Gay Pinnock
Dr. Gwen Morse
November 26, 2016
NURSING INFORMATICS 2
Abstract
One of the goals of the field of nursing informatics is working to improve the electronic health record system. Electronic Health Record (EHR) is simply just what the name implies. Patient health information that is stored electronically. Instead of a paper filing system, everything is located on an electronic database. This electronic documentation tool allows for quicker retrieval, better access, and safeguards the patient information. To access this information, you would need access to the healthcare organization’s network and be providing direct patient care to …show more content…
According to the HIMSS, Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey, Nurse Informatics assumes an essential part in the improvement, usage, and streamlining of clinical applications, including nursing documentation, computerized provider order entry (CPOE), and electronic health records (Saba & McCormick, 2015).
The impact that electronic health records (EHR) has on nursing informatics is dynamic, making there room for improvement. Nurses can no longer sit back and wait for nurse leaders to improve the quality and standards of nursing. Nurses themselves must take the intuitive and begin to use evidence-base practices to generate measures to prove that their care improves quality, safety, and healthcare outcomes (Saba & McCormick, 2015). In retrospect, Register Nurses should act and practice nursing using the mindset of nursing informatics to improve patient care outcomes. …show more content…
One of the barriers that many nurses face is their lack of knowledge about nursing informatics and understanding why hospitals use EHR. Electronic health record goes beyond just inputting patient data. To better train nurses on EHR, they would need to develop a research and nursing informatics mindset. Nursing informatics understand how to communicate information and manage data, but that understanding should be understood among all nursing staff, not just specialty nurse informatics. With the shift to a more technology standard of the nursing process, it requires a new way of thinking. There is a major lack of nursing programs, teaching nursing informatics in their curriculum and healthcare organizations providing competencies to practicing nurses on the value of nursing