NR 361 Week 1 Discussion, AACN Essentials Informatics Self-Assessment

NR 361 Week 1 Discussion, AACN Essentials Informatics Self-Assessment Professor and Classmate, I took the AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and my score was 28. I would never score myself as excellent in any category because the medical field is everchanging, especially the informatics side. I have worked with a few different EMR companies and so far, I must say that Meditech is my favorite. I am a newer nurse to Meditech but I gain confidence with the system every day. “Informatics provides tools to help process, manage, and analyze data and information collected for the purposes of documenting and improving patient care, as well as to support the knowledge that adds to the scientific foundation for nursing; provides value to nursing knowledge and work; and improves the public image for nursing by building a knowledge-based identity for nurses” (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 2). “When health care providers have access to complete and accurate information, patients receive better medical care. Electronic health records (EHRs) can improve the ability to diagnose diseases and reduce—even prevent—medical errors, improving patient outcomes” (HealthIT.gov, 2014). I believe that EMR companies could make some more user friendly and cut out the duplicate charting. I have a hard time sometimes with looking for information a certain way because I know of another way that may take more time to do. This leads into a question that I have always had, how can we make the electronic medical records more user friendly across the board? I worked in a nursing home when I was a CNA and I remember looking at the chart and seeing all the different notes, not only from the nurses, but the physicians as well. Sometimes it was hard to read what was exactly written and how are you supposed to administer a prescribed order if you cannot understand what is written? I believe that EMRs have vastly improved patient care but have plenty of room to improve. I must say as a frustration for myself is that when updates are implemented, most of the time there is no training given and just an email stating how to go through the new updates. I must say that is not the most user-friendly way to show nurses how to use new processes. I feel that many times this is taking away from dedicated patient care and delaying treatments and/or medications. I do have to say that the education department has listened to the feedback provided by the staff nurses and when we had a new medication reconciliation implementation, they had super-users on hand to help us out when we needed it. I believe that this made the process a lot smoother. References HealthIT.gov. (2014, March 19). Improved Diagnostics & Patient Outcomes. Retrieved from Benefits of EHRs: Hebda, T., & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of Informatics for Nurses & Healthcare Professionals. Boston: Pearson.