NURS 6051 The Inclusion Of Nurses In The Systems Development Life Cycle

nurs 6051 the inclusion of nurses in the systems development life cycle

NURS 6051 The Inclusion Of Nurses In The Systems Development Life Cycle

THE INCLUSION OF NURSES IN THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE NURS 6051

Nursing data, when properly collected and interpreted, can be used to improve the productivity, efficiency, performance, efficacy, cost, and value of nursing care (Mosier et al., 2018). With the surge in health technologies over the past decades, the creation of knowledge through digital data collection and information processing has become an important focus within the field of nursing informatics (NI). This discussion post will describe technology and informatics-related interactions at this author’s current place of employment and in a past circumstance. A suggestion of how nursing informatics roles could be improved and expanded on is included.

Reflections

The author of this post works in a large urban women’s health clinic where both obstetric and gynecological services are provided. There are 11 registered nurses (RNs) on the staff roster, with six nurses on staff at the clinic each day. The clinic and the umbrella medical group to which this clinic belongs do not have a NI team or individual. However, the lead clinic RN at the women’s clinic is an Epic superuser and has expressed her interest in someday pursuing a specialized certification in NI. As an Epic superuser, this nurse fulfills some of the roles of a NI, but lacks the formal training and education a certified nurse informaticist possesses (Nagle et al., 2017). Staff nurses and other medical personnel can ask this Epic superuser for help navigating and accessing data within the charting system. This superuser can even tackle smaller data management projects like creating patient tracking lists within the electronic health record. Minor issues can be addressed by the superuser during the day, while large systems concerns are generally addressed at nursing staff meetings. To be clear, there is not a formal process or policy in place for these interactions.

During a clinical rotation at the Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado, the author of this post vividly remembers a positive encounter with the hospital’s nurse informaticist. There was a patient with a gastrostomy-jejunostomy, where continuous tube feedings (TFs) ran through the jejunum portion; the gastric hub was not in use and scheduled for regular water flushes. The charting system had a simple tube feeding section, but it did not break the TFs into different sections for appropriate documentation of the various interventions being administered through each portion. Luckily for the floor nurse, the nurse informaticist was doing rounds on the unit that day, so the nurse was able to discuss her concerns with the informaticist directly. The informaticist listened to the floor nurse’s concerns, and then the two nurses together investigated the charting system to see what potential changes could be made. The nurse manager was also briefly pulled over to be updated on the situation and offer input. While this author does not know the final outcome, it was inspiring to see a team of clinical experts, nurse leaders, and technology experts come together to help improve nursing workflow and patient safety.

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Suggestions for the Future

The NI role is important because it combines nursing and technology science to improve patient care, safety, and workflow (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). With only 11 RNs on staff at the clinic, creating a full-time NI position specifically for the women’s clinic may not be reasonable. However, the medical group, which embodies half a dozen outpatient clinics, could create a NI position to severe all the clinics collectively. This way, nursing technology processes that prove successful in one clinic could be adopted and amended to serve the other clinics as needed.

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In addition to adding a nurse informaticist to the medical group roster, another suggestion to improve staff interactions with nursing informaticists or technology experts is through nurse leadership. According to Mosier et al. (2018), nurse leaders can positively impact the integration of clinical experts, technology experts, informaticists when tackling nursing informatics projects within hospital systems. Executive nurse leadership helps to organize, design, and influence nursing informatics solutions. This study highlights the importance of upper-level nurse leadership to oversee and improve NI interactions. Leadership is crucial; staff with their own workloads cannot always be expected to coordinate NI projects. For example, in the women’s clinic, the nursing manager or supervisor could help create a defined platform for which informaticists and nursing staff can interact. Perhaps a nurse informaticist could make rounds at the clinic on pre-scheduled days, or nurses from the various clinics can be invited to spend time at the informatics office to facilitate collaboration.

Impact of Continued Nursing Informatics and Technology Development

The continued emergence of new technologies within healthcare will have an immense impact on professional interactions. For the purpose of this discussion, professional interactions are interactions between colleagues or interactions between health staff and their patients. In the future, electronic health systems will become more data intensive, but also more user-friendly. Some experts hypothesize that eventually, clinicians will be able to plug patient data into health technology systems, then those systems will produce the most likely diagnoses and patient interventions (Laurate Education, 2018).

While these systems will not replace the role of doctors and nurses, they will cause the clinician to spend more time using technology. As a result, this author foresees two important outcomes. First, clinicians will need to become more tech-savvy, and nursing informatics will play a more prominent role in health facilities. Staff interactions with NI specialists will become more commonplace, and nurse informaticists will need to develop and hone project management skills to successfully guide this transition (Sipes, 2016). At hospitals, a nurse informaticist might be on-call around the clock for support and problem-solving. A second impact that the emergence of new technologies may have on professional interactions is related to the art of caring. The art of caring refers to a caregiver’s intentional promotion of recovery and wellness and recognition of inherent personal value and feelings of connectedness (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018, Chapter 25). Nursing’s core values are rooted in caring for the health and wellbeing of others. Nursing care must not become dehumanized; it is essential personal interactions such as touch, intentional listening, therapeutic communication, and mindfulness are not removed from this profession. More training may be needed to help caregivers balance the ever-evolving use of technology at the bedside without losing the personal touches and expressions of connectedness that are the building blocks of this profession.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Health informatics and population health: Trends in population health [Video file]. Walden University Blackboard Nurs6051. https://class.content.laureate.net/f5055760e0020de1c3cc4b123b669695.html#section_container_20

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Mosier, S., Roberts, W. D., & Englebright, J. (2019). A systems-level method for developing nursing informatics solutions: The role of executive leadership. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(11), 543-548. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000815.

Nagle, L., Sermeus, W., & Junger, A. (2017). Evolving role of the nursing informatics specialist. Forecasting Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health, 232, 212–221. https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-738-2-212

Sipes, C. (2016). Project management: Essential skill of nurse informaticists. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 225, 252-256. https://doi.org/0.3233/978-1-61499-658-3-252

Thank you for your post. I find it interesting that the clinic or umbrella medical group that you for work does not have a nurse informatics position. I can’t help but to think that smaller clinics and medical groups think it’s not essential to have a NI position. Informatics has become a large part of patient care over the last couple of years and will continue to grow and an essential part of providing quality patient care. To help with the knowledge barrier of informatics within your place of work, the nurse leader could get certified in nursing informatics or continue their education by taking nursing informatics classes. Nurse leadership allows there to be understanding of informatics because of their broad understanding and oversight of nursing care (Mosier, Roberts, & Englebright, 2019). The staff nurses can look up to the nurse leader for questions and concerns related to informatics. The nurse is a knowledge worker because they generate information and knowledge into a product (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Even though there isn’t a nurse informaticists specifically there to work in informatics, everyone works together as knowledge workers to help improve patient care.

References

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Mosier, S., Roberts, W. D., & Englebright, J. (2019). A Systems-Level Method for Developing Nursing Informatics Solutions: The Role of Executive Leadership. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(11), 543-548.

The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle

Modern work settings are increasingly witnessing the adoption of varied policies and procedures to realign the work processes for easier service and product delivery. The introduction of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) in the healthcare setting is an effort to align the modern workplace to better and safe practices while incorporating learned processes over the years (Kushniruk & Borycki, 2022; McMurtrey, 2013). SLDC is a conceptual framework characterized by policies and procedures that alter systems directly used in service delivery (Dixon et al., 2013). As Kushniruk & Borycki (2022) observe, the objective of the SDLC lies in incorporating new insights to guarantee a safer working environment while eliminating redundant practices that could hamper service delivery. Although the SDLC is highly stakeholder dependent, the participation of the nurses has a profound effect on its advancement owing to their valuable knowledge, experience, and a patient-centered perspective on the development process, ensuring user-friendliness to address healthcare providers and patient’s needs, ultimately this leads to greater satisfaction among the nursing staff and improved patient outcomes.

Experience in undertaking one’s role often has a huge influence on determining the success of a project. In the healthcare setting, nurses are uniquely positioned to participate directly in the delivery of services by interacting with the patients much more than any other stakeholders (Nilsen et al., 2020). Often, their day-to-day interactions are characterized by addressing the service delivery challenges and complementing their role by engaging with the providers on the best way such services can be delivered (Cui et al., 2020; McMurtrey, 2013). This constant strike of balance is instrumental to the knowledge accumulated in the entire healthcare fraternity. It builds insights on redesigning existing systems to make work easier and more fruitful for all the stakeholders involved.

The process of SDLC involves anticipating the essential steps instrumental in guaranteeing the successful adoption of the implemented systems. While the management may have a huge influence in determining the perception of whether the project will be successful, the foot soldiers, such as nurses directly engaged in the service delivery process, are integral to this process since they are the conduit to providing feedback and input, which can be tailored to make a system more effective. For instance, their understanding of the ER room is unparalleled and could be instrumental to achieving higher satisfaction. In literature, as Nilsen et al. (2020) and Kushniruk & Borycki (2022) noted, the participation of nurses has been attributed to influence the acceptance of the projects since the experiences therein are tailored to the needs of the circumstance to making the experience much more fulfilling. Ultimately, such engagement guarantees SLDLC’s success.

Nurses also have a huge influence in shaping the dynamics of the SDLC, guided by their deep understanding of the care process. Beyond the standard set practice, nurses have to interact with intercultural experiences, which constantly shift depending on the patients they attend (Kaihlanen et al., 2019; Nilsen et al., 2020). For instance, engaging the patients presents different ideas instrumental to building a system that demonstrates the humanity of the medical profession. as Mitchell (2008) illustrates, nurses are poised to identify potential safety hazards and suggest ways to eliminate them by providing feedback on how the system can be used to improve patient care. In addition, being frontline workers, nurses are the best bet for implementing such a system, highlighting the need for their participation.

SDLC is an important part of healthcare owing to its ability to document and guide the profession on areas of improvement needing the stakeholder’s attention. Though guided by professional narratives, its development increasingly demands nurses’ attention owing to their accumulated experience and insights into care-driven perspectives and ensuring user-friendliness to address healthcare providers and patients’ needs. The success of the SDLC is also hinged on engaging these nurses since they have to implement a majority of the stated ideologies.

References

Cui, F., Ma, L., Hou, G., Pang, Z., Hou, Y., & Li, L. (2020). Development of smart nursing homes using systems engineering methodologies in industry 4.0. Enterprise Information Systems14(4), 463–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2018.1536929

Dixon, B. E., Simonaitis, L., Goldberg, H. S., Paterno, M. D., Schaeffer, M., Hongsermeier, T., Wright, A., & Middleton, B. (2013). A pilot study of distributed knowledge management and clinical decision support in the cloud. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine59(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2013.03.004

Kaihlanen, A.-M., Hietapakka, L., & Heponiemi, T. (2019). Increasing cultural awareness: qualitative study of nurses’ perceptions about cultural competence training. BMC Nursing18(1), 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0363-x

Kushniruk, A., & Borycki, E. (2022). Human factors in healthcare IT: Management considerations and trends. Healthcare Management Forum, 084047042211392. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704221139219

McMurtrey, M. (2013). A case study of the application of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) in 21st century health care: Something old, something new? Journal of the Southern Association for Information Systems1(1). https://doi.org/10.3998/jsais.11880084.0001.103

Mitchell, P. H. (2008). Defining patient safety and quality care. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurseshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2681/

Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: An interview study with physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research20(1), 147. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-4999-8

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), according to McGonigle and Mastrian (2018), is a way to deliver an effective, efficient information system. That can fit an organization’s business plan. The cycle is a continuous revolving process that spans the software’s life. For example, planning software production to update, renew, or a new system is developed (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2019). The SDLC process has five stages, namely, Planning, Design, Implementation, Maintenance, and Evaluation (Laureate, 2018).

Burns (2012) purports that nurses are not always included in decision-making as it relates to technology implementation. He continued, “if an organization considers what is best for the patient, they will see that nurse plays a decisive role in Information Technology (IT) system implementation, and should be involved at all stages in the process.

The planning stage incorporates the needs of a particular system and technical requirement and should answer the question” what is best for the patient (Laureate Education, 2018). Nurses represent the largest professional group, and they spend the most time interacting with patients through direct patient care. Thus, they would be the majority end users of information systems in an organization and would know what is best to meet the patients’ needs (McGonigle &Mastrian, 2018).

During analysis, the requirement for the system is identified from the organization’s data. The needs and current practices are examined to determine possible changes (McGonigle &Mastrian (2019). According to Burns (2012), organizations should ensure their data is correct, and this can be done by utilizing nurses. Because nurses are responsible for recording a large amount of data. Notably, Burns (2012) states, “nurses believe they need to play a more active role when their organization is implementing new technology.”

Analysis and design are essential in the cycle. The design focuses on what programs are needed and established how they are connected. It involves deciding on a specific function of the hardware, software, and networking possibilities. Analysis and design are crucial in the cycle; nurses can analyze the design to determine shortcomings, thus preventing costly revision dow the road (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2019).

Implementation/ Evaluation in the phase where to software is put to work, in other words, “Go Live.” Burns (2012) states implementation is an important stage where workflows occur. Nurse leaders, Nurse informaticists, and Chief Nursing Officers can ensure a smooth transition of the software for the end-users.

I was not a part of the planning of the IT systems in my organization; however, I believe I have an impact on decision-making. I have a role to play in learning about the system, and it helps me as an individual and impacts the decision made. It is my responsibility to learn the system. I would be able to identify the software’s strengths and weaknesses and seek to become involved in the evaluation process. According to Burns (2012), if more nurses are involved in technology implementation, that could help hospitals embrace new models of care.

In conclusion, nurses are essential to quality healthcare delivery and should be involved in the life of the cycle of System Development. Nurses touch every aspect of care. This means they need to manage change and lead, particularly when it comes to IT (Burns, 2012).

References

Burns, E., (2012). Nurses have an important role to play during technology implementation

https://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/news/2240166948/Nurses-have-an-important-role-to-play-during-technology-implementation

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of

knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Laureate Education (2018). Interoperability, Standards, and Security [Video file]. Retrieved

from. https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/202070_27/MS_NURS/NURS_5051_WC/USW1_NURS_5051_module05.html?course_uid=USW1.26538.202070&service_url=https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/bbgs-deep-links-BBLEARN/app/wslinks&b2Uri=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.waldenu.edu%2Fwebapps%2Fbbgs-deep-links-BBLEARN

 Reply

I agree with you that the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process has five stages namely; Planning, Design, Implementation, Maintenance, and Evaluation. Every stage is important in determining the success of the SDLC process. The cycle is a continuous revolving process that spans the software’s life (Lou et al., 2020). However, when the cycle is followed well, SDLC process helps in delivering reliable and efficient information system. Nurses are involved in decision-making process. Therefore, these healthcare workers are expected to be competent when using SDLC process. Nurse plays a decisive role in Information Technology (IT) system implementation, and should be involved at all stages in the process (Amann et al., 2020). Unfortunately, incompetent health professionals are unable to facilitate IT system implementation due to limited knowledge.  Alternatively, nurses can work together with IT specialists in order to improve their contributions toward IT system implementation. Nursing leadership has also a role to play in implementing IT system.  Poor leadership will hinder teamwork that will enable healthcare workers to work as a team throughout the SDLC process.

References

Amann, J., Blasimme, A., Vayena, E., Frey, D., Madai, V. I., & Precise4Q Consortium. (2020). Explainability for artificial intelligence in healthcare: a multidisciplinary perspective. BMC medical informatics and decision making20, 1-9.

Lou, Z., Wang, L., Jiang, K., Wei, Z., & Shen, G. (2020). Reviews of wearable healthcare systems: Materials, devices and system integration. Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports140, 100523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mser.2019.100523

For Health Information Technology to be effectively implemented, the Systems Development Life Cycle must be adhered to. The essential phases of SDLC include planning, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. To get the desired result, it is crucial to carry out each of these stages (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). Nurses’ contributions are crucial to the success of new health information systems, which should be developed with a focus on patient care and outcomes (Stanley, 2017). Therefore, it may be very detrimental to not include nurses in the process or to ignore their input when introducing new technologies.  This means that the nurses will be uninformed of any facts regarding the new system prior to its introduction and will only have a little time to get familiar with its functioning.  In addition, some nurses will be unable to attend training on how to use the new system, which will reduce their capacity and slow down the workflow. Some of them will almost certainly make errors. Therefore, the system’s advantages would be lost, and the system would be considered a failure. Management should include nurses in all aspects of the system development life cycle (SDLC), from planning to maintenance, for a successful implementation (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022).  For instance, the nurse would have additional contributions that may help efficient planning if involved in the planning phase of a project.

During the development and deployment of the Epic system in my healthcare organization, the leadership of the organization included all nurses at each step of the SDLC. Inclusivity proven to be a worthwhile approach since the developers were able to catch communication and design faults that might reduce the system’s efficiency and performance from nurses’ input. Based on the input, they investigated redesigning procedures in some of the Units to be more equivalent to the charting requirements. It is unarguable that the company would have suffered higher operating expenditures if such deficiencies had not been identified immediately and promptly.

Nurses are major stakeholders in system implementation in healthcare and must therefore be engaged for effective system deployment (Stanley, 2017). Creating a successful health information system that focuses on patient care and results requires extensive participation from nurses, since they provide critical contributions to the creation of the new system (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). As a result, a lack of nurse engagement in the process, as well as the exclusion of nurse contributions while establishing systems, might have serious effects.

References

Alotaibi, Y. K., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of Health Information Technology on patient safety. Saudi Medical Journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). In Nursing Informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed., pp. 191–204). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Stanley, D. (2017). Leadership and management. Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare, 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119253785.ch5

It is true that the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process has five phases: planning, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. Every phase of the cycle is important. Therefore, the SDLC process is mandated to adhere to all the five stages. Health information technology is transforming nursing and patient experiences (Schmidt et al., 2019). Therefore, health professionals such as nurses are expected to be IT literates to understand and implement technology in healthcare organizations. Nurses’ contributions are crucial to the success of new health information systems. Unfortunately, incompetent nurses may not have significant impact on new health information systems.  Training nurses on new health information systems is the best strategy that organizations can deploy to boast nurses’ contributions (Tanwar et al., 2020). Still, some healthcare workers may have limited time to attend training sessions. The partnership between IT specialists and healthcare providers and workers is important in helping the implementation process of new health information systems.  Besides, the success of SDLC process highly depends on reliable IT knowhow.

References

Schmidt, M., Schmidt, S. A. J., Adelborg, K., Sundbøll, J., Laugesen, K., Ehrenstein, V., & Sørensen, H. T. (2019). The Danish health care system and epidemiological research: from health care contacts to database records. Clinical epidemiology, 563-591.

Tanwar, S., Parekh, K., & Evans, R. (2020). Blockchain-based electronic healthcare record system for healthcare 4.0 applications. Journal of Information Security and Applications50, 102407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jisa.2019.102407

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), according to McGonigle and Mastrian (2018), is a way to deliver an effective, efficient information system. That can fit an organization’s business plan. The cycle is a continuous revolving process that spans the software’s life. For example, planning software production to update, renew, or a new system is developed (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2019). The SDLC process has five stages, namely, Planning, Design, Implementation, Maintenance, and Evaluation (Laureate, 2018).

Burns (2012) purports that nurses are not always included in decision-making as it relates to technology implementation. He continued, “if an organization considers what is best for the patient, they will see that nurse plays a decisive role in Information Technology (IT) system implementation, and should be involved at all stages in the process.

The planning stage incorporates the needs of a particular system and technical requirement and should answer the question” what is best for the patient (Laureate Education, 2018). Nurses represent the largest professional group, and they spend the most time interacting with patients through direct patient care. Thus, they would be the majority end users of information systems in an organization and would know what is best to meet the patients’ needs (McGonigle &Mastrian, 2018).

During analysis, the requirement for the system is identified from the organization’s data. The needs and current practices are examined to determine possible changes (McGonigle &Mastrian (2019). According to Burns (2012), organizations should ensure their data is correct, and this can be done by utilizing nurses. Because nurses are responsible for recording a large amount of data. Notably, Burns (2012) states, “nurses believe they need to play a more active role when their organization is implementing new technology.”

Analysis and design are essential in the cycle. The design focuses on what programs are needed and established how they are connected. It involves deciding on a specific function of the hardware, software, and networking possibilities. Analysis and design are crucial in the cycle; nurses can analyze the design to determine shortcomings, thus preventing costly revision dow the road (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2019).

Implementation/ Evaluation in the phase where to software is put to work, in other words, “Go Live.” Burns (2012) states implementation is an important stage where workflows occur. Nurse leaders, Nurse informaticists, and Chief Nursing Officers can ensure a smooth transition of the software for the end-users.

I was not a part of the planning of the IT systems in my organization; however, I believe I have an impact on decision-making. I have a role to play in learning about the system, and it helps me as an individual and impacts the decision made. It is my responsibility to learn the system. I would be able to identify the software’s strengths and weaknesses and seek to become involved in the evaluation process. According to Burns (2012), if more nurses are involved in technology implementation, that could help hospitals embrace new models of care.

In conclusion, nurses are essential to quality healthcare delivery and should be involved in the life of the cycle of System Development. Nurses touch every aspect of care. This means they need to manage change and lead, particularly when it comes to IT (Burns, 2012).

I appreciate your comments here.  Nurses need to be involved in the development phase of healthcare technology.  Collaboration with stakeholders and system administrators are necessary during the decision process. Collaboration ensures that the right system is being initiated that has the most value to the nurse.  Nurses can exchange and share their personal knowledge of what is necessary from a variety of departments. Knowledge exchange results when there is the clear understanding of the process that promotes learning and contributes to the future success of a project (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). Partnering with other disciplines contributes to knowledge sharing.  Would you want to be a part of a team for new technology? What aspects do you think would be most enjoyable? Worrisome? Thanks, Dr. Howe

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Integrating nursing knowledge or participation in each stage of the SDLC when purchasing and implementing a new health information technology system will negate resistance and poor attitudes concerning technology in the workplace and ultimately negatively affect high-quality patient care (Barrlett, 2018). Nursing involvement creates a harmonious working relationship for improvement in workflow and collaboration, helping the success of design being more personalized and accepting of different needs centered around patient care. Since nurses are advocates by nature, their contribution is vital. According to McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022, “human factors engineering application improves ease of use, systems performance and reliability, and user satisfaction, while reducing operational errors, operator stress, training requirements, user fatigue, and product liability” (p.327). Collaboration with nurses can be opportunistic, as Dr. Howe mentions in knowledge exchange, in minimizing the need for constant modification after implementation. This can be minimized if nursing involvement is in all steps of the SDLC stages. The idea of HIT resilience looks at a culture of using technology in healthcare. The research was done by Barrett 2021 insightful in understanding how to diligently create a collaborative HIT design culture. Just as this discussion argues how influential the nursing perspective is and how catastrophic the fallout can be if it is not, information technology scholars reevaluate the theoretical meaningfulness.

The ultimate fallout fuels the culture of technological resistance, burnout, and quality of patient care. The potential of investment will facilitate mutual respect and resilience, and leadership within the field of nursing since nursing has unique attributes and knowledge for a not one size fits all system. Continual communication and evaluation from the beginning ensure the most ensured success. “Most large IT projects – some say as many as 90% – culminate in failures in that they fail to meet user expectations, interrupt user workflow, are not user-friendly and are over-budget, delayed or ill-planned” (Barrlett, 2021, p. 781). The uniqueness of healthcare needs to have nurses be more involved than just at the bedside and have a less oppressive mindset in their abilities to do so regarding technology or other patient relationships. Leadership and empowerment are essential to building the confidence needed to place nurses in that role. I, unfortunately, do not have any personal experiences to add besides my enthusiasm to support the efforts and increase my knowledge base. Perhaps employers’ influence and policymakers can work alongside nurses in adopting strategies for improved use and participation. I think the curriculum we are collectively experiencing through this course has heightened my reality and understanding of the value of informatics, technology, and modern trends (Mendez et al., 2020). I believe advocacy in any realm of nursing gives us a voice and is imperative to outcomes for our profession, our futures as APRNs, and our patients.

References

Barrett, A. K. (2018). Technological appropriations as workarounds. Information Technology & People31(2), 368–387. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp-01-2016-0023

Barrett, A. K. (2021). Healthcare Workers’ Communicative Constitution of Health Information Technology (HIT) resilience. Information Technology & People35(2), 781–801. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp-07-2019-0329

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). In Nursing Informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed., pp. 191–204). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Mendez, K. J. W., Piasecki, R. J., Hudson, K., Renda, S., Mollenkopf, N., Nettles, B. S., & Han, H. R. (2020). Virtual and augmented reality: Implications for the future of nursing education. Nurse education today93, 104531. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104531

I enjoyed going through the case study describing the use of the system and software in Chapter 9 of Nursing Informatics. In the scenario, discussions between the IT analyst and the nursing staff are described. It appears the nurses had “blank faces” and “puzzled glances,” and this interchange suggests the IT analyst did not adequately explain the system, his position, and the options available throughout the planning process. (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). It is the leader’s responsibility to adjust their instruction style if all of the participants are having trouble following the instructions. The wellness coordinator was incorporated into the design of the new system after this program hired a new IT analyst, who evaluated the hospital information system (HIS) for deficiencies. The following step was analysis, followed by any adjustments before implementation that were judged essential. Finally, they had a meeting to share their thoughts and viewpoints on the entire process; a key topic of discussion was how to increase communication between specialties.

To add on the impacts you have put across, i think if nurses are not included in the decision-making process, they may not be aware of the potential implications of the new system on patient care (Qin et al., 2017). For example, a new medication administration system may require nurses to enter data in a different way than they are accustomed to. If this is not taken into consideration during system testing, it could lead to user frustration and decreased adoption rates. Including nurses in the decision-making process can help ensure that the system is tested for usability and functionality and meets the needs of those who will be using it.

References 

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Qin, Y., Zhou, R., Wu, Q., Huang, X., Chen, X., Wang, W., … & Yu, P. (2017). The effect of nursing participation in the design of a critical care information system: a case study in a Chinese hospital. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making17(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-017-0569-3Links to an external site.

References

Burns, E., (2012). Nurses have an important role to play during technology implementation

https://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/news/2240166948/Nurses-have-an-important-role-to-play-during-technology-implementation

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of

knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Laureate Education (2018). Interoperability, Standards, and Security [Video file]. Retrieved

from. https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/202070_27/MS_NURS/NURS_5051_WC/USW1_NURS_5051_module05.html?course_uid=USW1.26538.202070&service_url=https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/bbgs-deep-links-BBLEARN/app/wslinks&b2Uri=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.waldenu.edu%2Fwebapps%2Fbbgs-deep-links-BBLEARN

Nurse’s Role in the Systems Development Life Cycle

A nurse’s role is to provide nursing care in a dynamic manner, including interacting with medical providers when providing care. Keeping up with current technology is essential for nurses. Developing efficient and effective information systems is the goal of the systems development life cycle (SDLC).

A Systems Development Life Cycle consists of the following stages:

As a result of the technology system, health-care organizations are able to minimize the amount of manual work required to do their jobs, which results in better patient outcomes. A life cycle diagram of the system development lifecycle (SDLC) is shown below.

  • Information delivery processes and procedures that incorporate HIT systems for their viability and usability

  • Conducts an evaluation of the efficiency and usability of HIT systems.

  • In order to promote health care services, the system needs to be made more efficient.

  • The HIT system is implemented, taking into consideration the output that will result.

  • Overall system maintenance

HIT systems are still purchased and installed by the finance department and managing director of healthcare organizations. An organization can opt to build its own HIT system or purchase one from a third party during the analysis phase. Identifying what characteristics should be included in the new system is critical. The lack of an understanding that is well-documented and well-understood.

  • On the basis of their own knowledge and experiences, nurses could suggest areas in which more attention should be paid in the first stage of the process, assist in the analytical method, and manage initiatives.

  • Lack of nurses’ involvement may lead to an inability for beginners to analyze and implement new health information technology systems, and end users’ inability to manage them. A critical requirement for implementing the technology may be overlooked by nurses, as end-users. Nurses should be included in equipment design to avoid costly equipment defects. In the planning process, it is important to develop training programs that clearly define vendor participation. A web page for the nursing department should be set up to provide training materials and user manuals for new systems, along with delivery times and locations for equipment. In order to encourage full stall participation, nurse managers should coordinate training sessions with organizations.

Nurses provide invaluable feedback during the implementation of new technologies, during the trial phase as well as following the official implementation. Especially when scanning the wristband, the BCMA method can be challenging. All of these factors can result in a scanning failure, including smearing, spacing, barcode placement or direction, durability when wet, and patient comfort.  These concerns may be addressed by nurses through a variety of solutions. An evaluation was conducted by nurses to determine whether the wristband information matched the bar code next to it.

Evaluation of projects by nurses. To identify whether concerns are stem-wide or unit-specific, focus groups with direct care nurses are essential. The BCMA PROCESS is often bypassed by nurses, or the patient identification number is entered rather than scanned as a result of system failure. It is useful to conduct short surveys.

Yen, P. Y., & Bakken, S. (2012). Review of health information technology usability study methodologies. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association19(3), 413-422.

Sengstack, P. P. (2016). Information System Lifecycles in Health Care. In Clinical Informatics Study Guide (pp. 255-286). Springer, Cham.

SDLC or systems development life cycle is a process of developing systems that has been proven to be an ongoing process that has a life cycle. The first step involved recognizing problems to then understand them or what needs of business there may be. The second stage is to realize the solution and then understand it to make sure it is appropriate to solve the problems or needs. This also includes creating a plan, then putting that plan into motion, grooming the plan, making any changes that need to be made along the way, reviewing it and then finally the destruction of the system. If the need or problem in the first stage is too great, whether that be too costly or needs more advancement in technology for example, then the system would not even go through SDLC and a whole new separate project or system would then be initiated (Mcgonigle & Mastrian, 2022).  

All members of the healthcare team should be involved in any type of system change or implementation of a new project because they are the ones who would know what kind of problems or needs there would be in the first place, like in the stages of SDLC. As far as troubleshooting, creating a solution and maintaining the plan or system would also be helpful for nurses especially to be involved because they are usually front line to patient care and tend to be very involved in clinical scenarios. This stage usually includes a look into particular workflows and the ones physically involved with such things should have influence on any changes. When it came to the resolution or destruction of a program, their input would also be very important because they would have a great opinion on why it would need to be deconstructed or a new project created completely (Mcgonigle & Mastrian, 2022). 

According to Flaubert et al. (2021) nursing professionals can thrive when given the chance to be in leadership roles or have active roles in change and implementation in certain care models. This is because they have been patient advocates, thrive in patient clinical settings and build trusting rapport with patients, so as long as they have the support, confidence and leadership skills in place, the benefit can be astronomical when it comes to the healthcare model as a whole.  

Recently the hospital I work in has transitioned from paper charting to EHR. EHR is a form of nursing informatics that really can benefit care and treatment by improving communication, improving patient wait times, reduction of error, improves communication to other doctors and facilities and also paves a way for better care and treatment options in some cases (Hoover, 2017). The benefit of doing such a transition has been a huge asset but the implementation and preparation of the system was not as supported as it should have been, therefore there have been issues when problems with workflow arise that we didn’t know what to do as a facility, which is troublesome in the moment. The company sent support staff from the system to support the transition but after a few weeks they were gone, and when asked questions that were specific to our facility, they did not know how to help us in a way that really made sense. So, although the EHR has been in place for almost a year, it is still very much a work in progress and therefore the prep for it may have been better if the workflow of the staff was taken into consideration a little more.  

References 

Flaubert, J. L., Menestrel, S. L., Williams, D. R., & Wakefield, M. K. (2021). Nurses Leading Change. In www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Links to an external site.. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK573918/

Links to an external site. 

Hoover, R. (2017). Benefits of using an electronic health record. Nursing Critical Care, 12(1), 9–10. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ccn.0000508631.93151.8d

Links to an external site. 

Mcgonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2022). Nursing Informatics And The Foundation Of Knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Learning. 

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