Self Study Question – Informatics Nurse: What does this position mean? Part 1

***This is only my self study reading notes. If you are thinking about the same question, you might take a peek… *** You may find similarities with nursing practice. Don’t forget, nursing informatics is nursing!!!

Resources are based on the Scope and Standards of Practice: Nursing Informatics (2nd ed.)

Standards of Practice for Nursing Informatics

– Standard 1. Assessment (Collects comprehensive data, information, and emerging evidence pertinent to the situation)

• Uses evidence-based assessment techniques, instruments, tools, and effective communication strategies in collecting pertinent data to define the issue or problem

• Use workflow analyses to examine current practice, workflow, and the potential impact of an informatics solution on that workflow

• Conducts a needs analysis to refine the issue or problem when necessary
  • Three criteria: need, funding, and will
    • Do people in the organization/ Stakeholders agree that the project/change needs to be done?
    • Does the organization have the desire and capacity to provide adequate funds to perform the project/ change?
    • Is there a strong will to make the project/change succeed?
  • The three criteria must reevaluate as the project progress to determine if the project should be continued, redefined, or (perhaps) terminated.
    • Organizational goals are set based upon a needs assessment.
      • The first step is for management /stakeholders to agree on the upcoming needs of the organization
        • These needs may be long term, short term, or a combination of both
      • Once the needs have been determined, performance goals for individuals and teams should be set to meet the organization’s needs
        • It is important that the individual goals are specific, measurable, and time based
        • The goals should be distributed across the organization to align efforts in meeting the core needs
        • Regular milestones should also be set to assure that progress is being made.

• Involves the healthcare consumer, family, interprofessional team, and key stakeholders, as appropriate, in relevant data collection
• Prioritizes data collection activities
• Uses analytical models, algorithms, and tools that facilitate assessment (Need further study: PIECES)
  • Performance-throughput or response time
  • Information-outputs, inputs, and / or stored data
  • Economics-costs vs. profits
  • Control-too little security or control or too much control or security
  • Efficiency-people, machines, or computers waste time, and:
  • Service-inaccurate, inconsistent, unreliable, hard to learn, difficult to use, inflexible, incompatible, not coordinated with other systems
• Synthesizes available data, information, evidence, and knowledge relevant to the situation to identify patterns and variances
• Applies ethical, legal, and privacy regulations and policies for the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of data and information
• Documents relevant data in a retrievable format

 

Systems Analysis

• A formal inquiry to identify a better course of action and make an informed decision about the best course of action.
• First step of systems analysis is reviewing workflow
• A combination of interviews, observations, and meetings are techniques that can be utilized to identify organizational needs. To assess what end users expect the system to do, what are the gaps, and any other change?
• Gap analysis:
  • A method used to determine the steps required to move from a current state or actual performance to situation to a new one or potential performance or situation and the “gap” between the two requires action or resources.
  • In other words, it requires comparing the current tools used in the workflow with the new workflow and tools available in the new computer application
  • Gap analysis can be used to answer questions:
    • What is the current situation?
    • What do we want it to become?
    • Therefore, determining the resources and time required to achieve the target goal/state
  • Steps to gap analysis:
    • Assessing the current situation and listing important factors, such as performance levels, costs, staffing, and satisfaction, and all processes
      • Any gaps are identified and documented
      • Performing a thorough and accurate gap analysis can help minimize scope creep later in the project, and help ensure adequate resources are devoted to each issue
      • In many implementations scope creep and delays are a result of poorly documented gaps
    • Identifying the current outcomes of the processes in place
      • In order to perform a meaningful gap analysis, the staff participating must understand the current systems and processes.
    • Identifying the target outcomes for projected processes
    • Outlining the process required to achieve target outcomes
    • Identifying the gaps that are present between the current process and goal
    • Identifying resources and methods to close the gaps
      • Significant of each gap must then be evaluated
      • Gaps may need to be resolved or addressed before the system can be implemented
      • This is an opportunity to improve the workflow or eliminate steps that do not add value, or anything in between
• Risk Analysis: needs to be done at the beginning of a project and continue throughout the process… it is an integral part of system implementation planning because risks are things that threaten the project’s success and include the following: interfaces, computer literacy, technical, training, resources, security, privacy, buy-in, administrative support, budgets, vendor health, and communications.
  • Assess:
    • What are the real and potential risks and problems
    • What is the plan to prevent them?
      • It is imperative that the project team expect and develop contingency plans for issues and problems that may delay or derail the project.

 

TO BE CONT>>>>>>