As explained by McGonigle & Mastrian (2022), the extensive use of technology at the workplace requires nurses to have technological skills. They need to understand current data and how they can incorporate it to better patients’ outcomes. As patients’ advocates data usage is paramount as they can understand the current trends in the health industry and how they can incorporate it into their workplace to improve the patients’ outcomes.
Additionally, through data, they can understand how to deal with some issues such as falls, readmissions, and infections as they can collect evidence from multiple sources within a short time (Booth et al., 2021). While data application is essential to the workplace, there are only a few nurses who can use it appropriately.
Nurse leaders need to focus more on ensuring that the nurses are given access to data and can use it to suggest changes or adjustments in hospital operations (Kaihlanen et al., 2021). It is also crucial to ensure that there is good interprofessional communication and teamwork as data should be collected from all medical practitioners who have a role to play in patient’s well-being.
A Hypothetical Scenario That Could Benefit From The Collection And Application Of Data
Hypothetically, nurses always deal with many patient’s fall risks. As part of their responsibility for patient safety, they can collect and analyze data on medication. Through the analysis, nurses can identify medications that have side effects such as impaired vision and balance and dizziness. Additionally, through the data, they can observe the number of patients who have been affected by the side effects.
From the data, they will be able to ensure that they avoid the medication, especially for patients who already have a high fall risk as it will only aggravate the situation. It is however crucial for them to be in good coordination with the physician to ensure they raise their concerns and that they are addressed appropriately. As a result of the data, the nurses will understand the importance of a closer observation of the patient, as they already have identified a fall possibility.
This will reduce the number of falls in the hospital. Without the data, the nurses will have to deal with more fall risks blindly as they will not be aware of the catalyst of the falls. This will lead to a waste of resources as there will be more nurses required to observe patients. However, with the data, the patients at risk of falls might receive different medications or can be assigned a nurse dedicated to observing them.
References
Booth, R. G., Strudwick, G., McBride, S., O’Connor, S., & Solano López, A. L. (2021). How the nursing profession should adapt for a digital future. BMJ, 373, n1190. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1190
Kaihlanen, A.-M., Gluschkoff, K., Laukka, E., & Heponiemi, T. (2021). The information system stress, informatics competence and well-being of newly graduated and experienced nurses: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-07132-6
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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