Technology use in healthcare has gained momentum in the modern world due to the promotion of safety, quality, and efficiency. Health organizations have the responsibility of abiding by the policies that have been developed to promote effective use of health informatics. Therefore, this paper examines the implications of the 21st Century Act on healthcare.
Nursing is a calling. This has always been my believe. For you to be a nurse and care for someone in their lowest point of their lives means you have been called to be the peace of the patient. It takes compassion, determination, perseverance, and the spirit of endurance to nurse someone. Looking at the story of Moses, he was called by God to lead the people of Israel when they were enslaved in Egypt. This role didn’t come easy as he was to face Pharoah to advocate for the release of the Israelites. As nurses we have the responsibility to advocate for the good of our patients in our care. We speak to the physicians and other healthcare professionals who are on the care team of the patients. If we as nurses are prompt and persistent to ensure the patient gets good care, there is a positive outcome in the health of the patients. There are times we will be faced with difficult situations in our nursing profession, but it does not mean we must give up. these experiences shape us for greater task ahead. In the case where other care team members are making our work difficult and failing to listen to us, we have the option of reporting to the higher authority in our field to ensure patient safety. When Moses met a resistance from Pharoah, he did not give up but rather went back to speak with God for guidance.
The selected healthcare policy that has an effect on the healthcare and nursing informatics is the 21st Century Act or the Cures Act. President Obama signed into use the 21st Century Act in December 13 2016. The act was adopted with the aim of accelerating the development of medical products alongside introducing innovations and medical advances to improve the quality and efficiency of care given to the patients. The act was also adopted to improve the experiences of the patients with the healthcare system by incorporating their perspectives into healthcare processes that include the development of devices, biological products, drugs, and the decision-making processes in the FDA (Gabay, 2017). The 21st Century Act also has some implications on the use of informatics in health. Accordingly, the act requires medical professionals to work together in the discovery of innovative solutions in health. It requires medical professionals such as EHR vendors, physician leaders, pharmacists, and information technology employees to work together towards improving the performance of healthcare systems and patient outcomes. Healthcare organizations are also expected to adopt systems that increase exchange of information to ensure that patients and healthcare providers can easily access the health-related data that they need for them to come up with informed decisions.
The US’s healthcare system is expected to achieve these outcomes related to the use of electronic health records because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the act made provisions for support to the Food and Drug Administration agency to ensure that the processes of data sharing between health organizations and providers are enhanced. The law seeks to eliminate barriers to inter-professional and organizational transfer of information by championing the use of efficient technologies for health (Lye et al., 2018). The second way in which the act seeks to achieve the goals is through leveraging on the existing resources in health organizations such as skilled providers to enhance the adoption of laws and practices that enhance information exchange in health (Medicine et al., 2016).
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