Assessment 1 Instructions: Nursing Informatics in Health Care

Write a 4-5 page evidence-based proposal to support the need for a nurse informaticist in an organization who would focus on improving health care outcomes.

Introduction

As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are encouraged to complete the Team Perspectives of the Nurse Informaticist activity. Completion of this will help you succeed with the assessment as you explore the nurse informaticist's role from the different perspectives of the health care team. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.

Nurses at the baccalaureate level in all practice areas are involved in nursing informatics through interaction with information management and patient care technologies. Nurses must not only demonstrate knowledge of and skills in health information and patient care technologies, but also how to use these tools at the bedside and organizational levels. Moreover, nurses need to recognize how information gathered from various health information sources can impact decision making at the national and state regulatory levels.

Scenario

For this assessment, assume you are a nurse attending a meeting of your state’s nurses association. A nurse informaticist conducted a presentation on her role and its impact on positive patient and organizational outcomes in her workplace. You realize that your organization is undergoing many technological changes. You believe this type of role could provide many benefits to your organization.

You decide to pursue proposing a nurse informaticist role in your organization. You speak to your chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager, who ask you to prepare a 4–5 page evidence-based proposal to support the new role. In this way, they can make an informed decision as to whether the addition of such a role could justify the return on investment (ROI). They need your proposal before an upcoming fiscal meeting.​ This is not an essay, but instead, it is a proposal to create a new Nurse Informaticist position.

One important part of this assessment is the justification of the need for a nurse informaticist in a health care organization and references from relevant and timely scholarly or professional resources to support the justification for creating this nurse informaticist position. The term justify means to show or prove that the nurse informaticist position brings value to the organization. This justification must include evidence from the literature to support that this position will provide a return on investment for the organization.

Preparation

To successfully prepare for this assessment, you will need to complete these preparatory activities:

Review assessment resources and activities. 

Conduct independent research on the nursing knowledge and skills necessary to interact with health information and patient care technology.

Focus your research on current resources available through peer-reviewed articles, professional websites, government websites, professional blogs, wikis, job boards, and so on.

Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and authoritative sources.

Interview peers in your network who are considered information technology experts. 

Ask them about how information technology advances are impacting patient care at the bedside, at the organizational level, and beyond.

Proposal Format

The chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager have asked you to include the following headings in your proposal and to be sure to address the bullets following each heading:

Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist

What is nursing informatics?

What is the role of the nurse informaticist?

Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations

What is the experience of other health care organizations with nurse informaticists?

How do these nurse informaticists interact with the rest of the nursing staff and the interdisciplinary team?

IMPACT OF FULL NURSE ENGAGEMENT IN HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGY

How does fully engaging nurses in health care technology impact: 

Patient care?

Protected health information (security, privacy, and confidentiality)? 

In this section, you will explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse informaticist and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients' protected health information, particularly privacy, security, and confidentiality. Evidence-based means that they are supported by evidence from scholarly sources.

Workflow?

Costs and return on investment?

Opportunities and Challenges

What are the opportunities and challenges for nurses and the interdisciplinary team with the addition of a nurse informaticist role? 

How can the interdisciplinary team collaborate to improve quality care outcomes through technology?

Summary of Recommendations

What are 3–4 key takeaways from your proposal about the recommended nurse informaticist role that you want the CNO and the HR manager to remember? 

This is the section where the justification for the implementation of the nursing informaticist role is addressed. Remember to include evidence from the literature to support your recommendation.

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.

Submission length: 4–5 double-spaced pages, in addition to title and references pages.

Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Citations and References: Cite a minimum of three current scholarly and/or authoritative sources to support your ideas. In addition, cite a minimum of one current professional blog or website to support your central ideas. Current means no more than five years old.

APA formatting: Be sure to follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references. For an APA refresher, consult the Evidence and APA page on Campus.

Assessment 2: Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practice

Prepare a 2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.

Introduction

As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI) activity. The activity will support your success with the assessment by creating the opportunity for you to test your knowledge of potential privacy, security, and confidentiality violations of protected health information. The activity is not graded and counts towards course engagement.

Health professionals today are increasingly accountable for the use of protected health information (PHI). Various government and regulatory agencies promote and support privacy and security through a variety of activities. Examples include:

Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).

Provision of EHR incentive programs through Medicare and Medicaid.

Enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.

Release of educational resources and tools to help providers and hospitals address privacy, security, and confidentiality risks in their practices.

Technological advances, such as the use of social media platforms and applications for patient progress tracking and communication, have provided more access to health information and improved communication between care providers and patients.

At the same time, advances such as these have resulted in more risk for protecting PHI. Nurses typically receive annual training on protecting patient information in their everyday practice. This training usually emphasizes privacy, security, and confidentiality best practices such as:

Keeping passwords secure.

Logging out of public computers.

Sharing patient information only with those directly providing care or who have been granted permission to receive this information.

Today, one of the major risks associated with privacy and confidentiality of patient identity and data relates to social media. Many nurses and other health care providers place themselves at risk when they use social media or other electronic communication systems inappropriately. For example, a Texas nurse was recently terminated for posting patient vaccination information on Facebook. In another case, a New York nurse was terminated for posting an insensitive emergency department photo on her Instagram account.

Health care providers today must develop their skills in mitigating risks to their patients and themselves related to patient information. At the same time, they need to be able distinguish between effective and ineffective uses of social media in health care.

This assessment will require you to develop a staff update for the interprofessional team to encourage team members to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information.

Preparation

To successfully prepare to complete this assessment, complete the following:

Review the infographics on protecting PHI provided in the resources for this assessment, or find other infographics to review. These infographics serve as examples of how to succinctly summarize evidence-based information. 

Analyze these infographics and distill them into five or six principles of what makes them effective. As you design your interprofessional staff update, apply these principles. Note: In a staff update, you will not have all the images and graphics that an infographic might contain. Instead, focus your analysis on what makes the messaging effective.

Select from any of the following options, or a combination of options, the focus of your interprofessional staff update: 

Social media best practices.

What not to do: social media.

Social media risks to patient information.

Steps to take if a breach occurs.

Conduct independent research on the topic you have selected in addition to reviewing the suggested resources for this assessment. This information will serve as the source(s) of the information contained in your interprofessional staff update. Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and/or authoritative sources.

Instructions

In this assessment, assume you are a nurse in an acute care, community, school, nursing home, or other health care setting. Before your shift begins, you scroll through Facebook and notice that a coworker has posted a photo of herself and a patient on Facebook. The post states, "I am so happy Jane is feeling better. She is just the best patient I’ve ever had, and I am excited that she is on the road to recovery."

You have recently completed your annual continuing education requirements at work and realize this is a breach of your organization's social media policy. Your organization requires employees to immediately report such breaches to the privacy officer to ensure the post is removed immediately and that the nurse responsible receives appropriate corrective action.

You follow appropriate organizational protocols and report the breach to the privacy officer. The privacy officer takes swift action to remove the post. Due to the severity of the breach, the organization terminates the nurse.

Based on this incident's severity, your organization has established a task force with two main goals:

Educate staff on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.

Prevent confidentiality, security, and privacy breaches.

The task force has been charged with creating a series of interprofessional staff updates on the following topics:

Social media best practices.

What not to do: Social media.

Social media risks to patient information.

Steps to take if a breach occurs.

You are asked to select one or more of the topics and create the content for a staff update containing a maximum of two content pages. This assessment is not a traditional essay. It is a staff educational update about PHI. Consider creating a flyer, pamphlet, or one PowerPoint slide (not an entire presentation). Remember it should not be more than two pages (excluding a title and a reference page).

The task force has asked team members assigned to the topics to include the following content in their updates in addition to content on their selected topics:

What is protected health information (PHI)? 

Be sure to include essential HIPAA information.

What are privacy, security, and confidentiality? 

Define and provide examples of privacy, security, and confidentiality concerns related to the use of technology in health care.

Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information.

What evidence relating to social media usage and PHI do interprofessional team members need to be aware of? For example: 

How many nurses have been terminated for inappropriate social media use in the United States?

What types of sanctions have health care organizations imposed on interdisciplinary team members who have violated social media policies?

What have been the financial penalties assessed against health care organizations for inappropriate social media use?

What evidence-based strategies have health care organizations employed to prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and security breaches, particularly related to social media usage?

Notes

Your staff update is limited to two double-spaced content pages. Be selective about the content you choose to include in your update so you can meet the page length requirement. Include need-to-knowinformation. Omit nice-to-know information.

Many times people do not read staff updates, do not read them carefully, or do not read them to the end. Ensure your staff update piques staff members' interest, highlights key points, and is easy to read. Avoid overcrowding the update with too much content.

Also, supply a separate reference page that includes two or three peer-reviewed and one or two non-peer-reviewed resources (for a total of 3–5 resources) to support the staff update content.

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Ensure the staff update is free from errors that detract from the overall message.

Submission length: Maximum of two double-spaced content pages.

Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point.

Citations and references: Provide a separate reference page that includes 2–3 current, peer-reviewed and 1–2 current, non-peer-reviewed in-text citations and references (total of 3–5 resources) that support the staff update's content. Current means no older than 5 years.

APA format: Be sure your citations and references adhere to APA format. Consult the Evidence and APA page for an APA refresher.

Assessment 3: Evidence-Based Proposal and Annotated Bibliography on Technology in Nursing

Write a 4-6 page annotated bibliography where you identify peer-reviewed publications that promote the use of a selected technology to enhance quality and safety standards in nursing.

Introduction

Before you begin to develop the assessment you are encouraged to complete the Annotated Bibliography Formative Assessment. Completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment and counts towards course engagement.

Rapid changes in information technology go hand-in-hand with progress in quality health care delivery, nursing practice, and interdisciplinary team collaboration. The following are only a few examples of how the health care field uses technology to provide care to patients across multiple settings:

Patient monitoring devices.

Robotics.

Electronic medical records.

Data management resources.

Ready access to current science.

Technology is essential to the advancement of the nursing profession, maintaining quality care outcomes, patient safety, and research.

This assessment will give you the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of how technology can enhance quality and safety standards in nursing. You will prepare an annotated bibliography on technology in nursing. A well-prepared annotated bibliography is a comprehensive commentary on the content of scholarly publications and other sources of evidence about a selected nursing-related technology. A bibliography of this type provides a vehicle for workplace discussion to address gaps in nursing practice and to improve patient care outcomes. As nurses become more accountable in their practice, they are being called upon to expand their role of caregiver and advocate to include fostering research and scholarship to advance nursing practice. An annotated bibliography stimulates innovative thinking to find solutions and approaches to effectively and efficiently address these issues.

Preparation

To successfully complete this assessment, perform the following preparatory activities:

Select a SINGLE direct or indirect patient care technology that is relevant to your current practice or of interest to you. Direct patient care technologies require an interaction, or direct contact, between the nurse and patient. Nurses use direct patient care technologies every day when delivering care to patients. Electronic thermometers or pulse oximeters are examples of direct patient care technologies. Indirect patient care technologies, on the other hand, are those employed on behalf of the patient. They do not require interaction, or direct contact, between the nurse and patient. A handheld device for patient documentation is an example of an indirect patient care technology. Examples of topics to consider for your annotated bibliography include: 

Delivery robots.

Electronic medication administration with barcoding.

Electronic clinical documentation with clinical decision support.

Patient sensor devices/wireless communication solutions.

Real-time location systems.

Remote patient monitoring.

Artificial intelligence.

Telehealth.

Telestroke.

Tele-icu.

Tele-psychiatry.

Tele-genetics.

Workflow management systems.

Conduct a library search using the various electronic databases available through the Capella University Library. 

Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and/or authoritative sources.

Access the NHS Learner Success Lab, linked in the courseroom navigation menu, for additional resources.

Scan the search results related to your chosen technology.

Select four peer-reviewed publications focused on your selected topic that are the most interesting to you.

Evaluate the impact of patient care technologies on desired outcomes. 

Analyze current evidence on the impact of a selected patient care technology on patient safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team.

Integrate current evidence about the impact of a selected patient care technology on patient safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team into a recommendation.

Notes

Publications may be research studies or review articles from a professional source. Newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not considered professional sources.

Your selections need to be current—within the last five years.

An Evidence-based Recommendation for Selected Technology Implementation

Prepare a 4–6 page paper in which you introduce your selected technology and describe at least four peer-reviewed publications that promote the use of your selected technology to enhance quality and safety standards in nursing. You will conclude your paper by summarizing why you recommend a particular technology by underscoring the evidence-based resources you presented. Be sure that your paper includes all of the following elements:

Introduction to the Selected Technology Topic

What is your rationale for selecting this particular technology topic? Why are you interested in this?

What research process did you employ? 

Which databases did you use?

Which search terms did you use?

Note: In this section of your bibliography, you may use first-person since you are asked to describe your rationale for selecting the topic and the research strategies you employed. Use third person in the rest of the bibliography, however.

Annotation Elements

For each resource, include the full reference followed by the annotation.

Explain the focus of the research or review article you chose.

Provide a summary overview of the publication. 

According to this source, what is the impact of this technology on patient safety and quality of care?

According to this source, what is the relevance of this technology to nursing practice and the work of the interdisciplinary health care team?

Why did you select this publication to write about out of the many possible options? In other words, make the case as to why this resource is important for health care practitioners to read.

Summary of Recommendation

How would you tie together the key learnings from each of the four publications you examined?

What organizational factors influence the selection of a technology in a health care setting? Consider such factors as organizational policies, resources, culture/social norms, commitment, training programs, and/or employee empowerment.

How would you justify the implementation and use of the technology in a health care setting? This is the section where you will justify (prove) that the implementation of the patient care technology is appropriate or not. The evidence should be cited from the literature that was noted in the annotated bibliography. 

Consider the impact of the technology on the health care organization, patientcare/satisfaction, and interdisciplinary team productivity, satisfaction, and retention.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

Assessment 3 Example [PDF].

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.

Length: 4–6-typed, double-spaced pages.

Number of resources: Cite a minimum of four peer-reviewed publications, not websites.

Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12 point.

APA: Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for all bibliographic entries. Refer to Evidence and APA as needed.