Impacts of Informatics on Nurses in Health Care

Impacts of Informatics on Nurses in Health Care

Introduction

Informatics is the study of the methods and resources for managing the health information. Informatics serves as a supporting science of medical research, medical practice and the health information technology. The health informatics includes systems like the electronic medical records (EMR) and the electronic health records (EHR). It also includes the standards of health information exchange like the Health Level 7. Medical terminologies like Systemized nomenclature of Medicine, portable devices used for collecting and apprehending data and the clinical terms like SNOMED CT, are also involved. The use of health care informatics was first done in 1950s, when the National Bureau of Standards collected dental data.

The usage of health care informatics accelerated in the following decades. This occurred due to the development of (MUMPS), the Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System. The system was a breakthrough in the health care informatics and provided a standard language of programming for the clinical applications. The member organizations of the involved in the health care informatics are overseen by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). This essay will look into the importance of informatics and its impacts on nurses in a healthcare or healthcare related organization.

Discussion

Impacts of Informatics on Nurses

Many health care systems and hospitals are buying, as well as, implementing health care information systems. These systems have been found to positively increase the delivery of care been given to patients. 56% of the hospitals in United States are using electronic medical record application which is installed in their health care support delivery care plans. It is important that the projects are guided by nurses so that work and role of nurses is not compromised but supported by the system. The digital record keeping and the use of informatics can help the nurses in removing the gap between the health care of the patients and the information technology (Brandt 2000).

Nursing informatics is the integration of nursing, the information related to it, and management of this information with the communication technology and the information processing. This supports the health and the health care of people all around the world. The patients in the world of today have become more aware and more demanding. They need for themselves the best possible health care deliver by the nurses. Such a demand cannot be met without the use of information technology by the nurses (ANA, 2001). Nursing informatics has transformed the system and processes of nursing. The system of informatics include the structures, the processes, the people, the manual, as well as, the tools which have used to collect, store, transform, interpret and report management and practice of information. The nursing informatics has influenced all the processes and aspects of the discipline of nursing. Information technology is now used to coordinate and communicate with all the related health care related disciplines. It helps in coordinating planning, education, and training, transition, as well as, the teaching of health ...