Use of Electronic Health Record EHR System in Health Care (Essay Sample)

Nursing Informatics
Author Name
Institution
Author Note
Abstract
The widespread use of electronic health record (EHR) system in health care changes the overview of nursing practice in many ways. The paper argues that the use of EHR impacts overall health care systems positively in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and safety. There is vast evidence that supports the integration of EHR into practice, but a significant proportion of health care professionals (HCPs) resist this change. Factors related to the potential drawbacks of using EHR and the reluctance of nurses to adopt change have been instrumental in the continued use of paper-work in management of patient data. The essay argued that implementing the Kurt Lewin’s model of change can play a key role in the integration of EHR in health care systems. Lewin provided a three-step framework to guide organizational change in which the administrators and nurse leaders should adopt different strategies in the three stages to facilitate the transition from one phase to the next one. Ultimately, health care systems can use Lewin’s model in planning, implementation, and the evaluation of change from a manual system to HER.
Nursing Informatics
Introduction
Modern nursing practice demands that nurses maintain constant awareness and understanding of new medication and knowledge of emerging health care technologies. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"rh1HGvyy","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Achampong, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Achampong, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":5824,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/4283279/items/UMTLSFNQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/4283279/items/UMTLSFNQ"],"itemData":{"id":5824,"type":"article-journal","title":"Assessing the Current Curriculum of the Nursing and Midwifery Informatics Course at All Nursing and Midwifery Institutions in Ghana","container-title":"Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development","page":"2382120517706890","volume":"4","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"The use of computers in the delivery of health care has significantly improved the way health service is delivered to clients and patients in the world. Despite the importance of computing to the delivery of health service, developing countries have not greatly benefited from it. Nursing informatics has been in existence and part of academic curriculum for the past 2 decades in some advanced countries. The Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced the nursing and midwifery informatics course during the 2015/2016 academic year. This seeks to train student nurses on the relevance of computers to health care. Two separate workshops were organised to ascertain the preparedness of tutors (teachers at the nursing and midwifery training institutions) for teaching the new nursing and midwifery informatics course as well as to compare the curriculum with other international recommendations. The nursing and midwifery informatics course is taught at the first year where students have not been introduced to the nursing processes for them to appreciate the use of nursing informatics skills. It would be better if the nursing and midwifery informatics course is rather introduced during the second year second semester when students are about going for the hands-on training at the various health care institutions. Examining the course content reveals that the practical aspect within the course is very small. It is expected that more practical contents will be introduced. Tutors are not adequately prepared to teach this new course. More training is therefore needed to make tutors fully prepared to teach both the theory and practical aspects of the nursing and midwifery informatics course. It is expected that the nursing and midwifery informatics course would prepare student nurses on all nursing informatics competencies. It is essential that nurse educators incorporate the entire concept of informatics into the education of nurses.","DOI":"10.1177/2382120517706890","ISSN":"2382-1205","journalAbbreviation":"Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Achampong","given":"Emmanuel Kusi"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} Achampong (2017) highlighted that it is important for nurses to be conversant with current empirical evidence on novel technologies that are significant and relevant to enhance nursing practice. Noteworthy, nurses meet frequently with patients and technology can be instrumental in enhancing these interactions. Therefore, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and information technology (IT) can advance the value/wellbeing of patient care and the productivity of nurses respectively ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"aYVMA1e0","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Achampong, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Achampong, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":5824,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/4283279/items/UMTLSFNQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/4283279/items/UMTLSFNQ"],"itemData":{"id":5824,"type":"article-journal","title":"Assessing the Current Curriculum of the Nursing and Midwifery Informatics Course at All Nursing and Midwifery Institutions in Ghana","container-title":"Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development","page":"2382120517706890","volume":"4","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"The use of computers in the delivery of health care has significantly improved the way health service is delivered to clients and patients in the world. Despite the importance of computing to the delivery of health service, developing countries have not greatly benefited from it. Nursing informatics has been in existence and part of academic curriculum for the past 2 decades in some advanced countries. The Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced the nursing and midwifery informatics course during the 2015/2016 academic year. This seeks to train student nurses on the relevance of computers to health care. Two separate workshops were organised to ascertain the preparedness of tutors (teachers at the nursing and midwifery training institutions) for teaching the new nursing and midwifery informatics course as well as to compare the curriculum with other international recommendations. The nursing and midwifery informatics course is taught at the first year where students have not been introduced to the nursing processes for them to appreciate the use of nursing informatics skills. It would be better if the nursing and midwifery informatics course is rather introduced during the second year second semester when students are about going for the hands-on training at the various health care institutions. Examining the course content reveals that the practical aspect within the course is very small. It is expected that more practical contents will be introduced. Tutors are not adequately prepared to teach this new course. More training is therefore needed to make tutors fully prepared to teach both the theory and practical aspects of the nursing and midwifery informatics course. It is expected that the nursing and midwifery informatics course would prepare student nurses on all nursing informatics competencies. It is essential that nurse educators incorporate the entire concept of informatics into the education of nurses.","DOI":"10.1177/2382120517706890","ISSN":"2382-1205","journalAbbreviation":"Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Achampong","given":"Emmanuel Kusi"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Achampong, 2017). Thus, nursing is a critical health care process that should change in the course of radical transformations in IT.
Nursing informatics define the collection, analysis, storage, and dissemination of data and information by integrating information, computer, and nursing science to communicate and manage wisdom, knowledge, and information in nursing practice. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"LYeBo1Lq","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Darvish, Bahramnezhad, Keyhanian, & Navidhamidi, 2014)","plainCitation":"(Darvish, Bahramnezhad, Keyhanian, & Navidhamidi, 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":5827,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/4283279/items/2G8MAU66"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/4283279/items/2G8MAU66"],"itemData":{"id":5827,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Role of Nursing Informatics on Promoting Quality of Health Care and the Need for Appropriate Education","container-title":"Global Journal of Health Science","page":"11-18","volume":"6","issue":"6","source":"PubMed Central","abstract":"In today’s dynamic health systems, technology plays an important role in education and nursing work. So it seems necessary to study the role of nurses and highlight the need for appropriate information technology educational programs to integrate with the ever-increasing pace of technology. A review accompanied by an extensive literature search in databases and a library search focused on the keywords were used. The criteria used for selecting studies primarily focused on nursing informatics and the importance of expertise in the effective use of information technology in all aspects of the nursing profession. In a critical assessment of emerging technologies, the key elements of nursing informatics implementation were considered as healthcare promotion, advanced systems, internet and network. In view of the nature and the development of the information age, it is required to receive necessary IT training for all categories of nurses. Due to the fast development of technology, in order to effectively take advantage of info...