Health Information Technology
Health Information Technology
Practice Concern
An issue of concern in the practice of nursing is staffing. This relates to the inadequate nursing practitioners in health care organizations. The staffing problems compromise the quality of patient outcome in health care organizations. According to AHRQ (2011), most health care organizations find it difficult to increase the number of nursing staff. This is because of the extensive financial costs that result from staffing processes (McGonigle, 2012).
When a health care organization has inadequate nursing practitioners, chances of work overload are very high. In such health care organizations, the nurses must strain in order to attend to all patients. This is one of the worst possible scenarios in health care institutions. For instance, nursing practitioners can easily make mistakes while offering prescriptions. Staffing problems also cause work-related trauma to the nurses. This is a critical aspect of occupational health and safety. Consequently, the levels of motivation among nursing practitioners in such institutions are quite low. Motivation is a crucial element towards the enhancement of performance among all health care practitioners. It is thus essential for nursing leaders as well as other stakeholders to initiate programs that would help in solving staffing problems (Hynes, 2010).
From another perspective, it is evident that understaffing jeopardizes the quality of health care to patients. A nursing practitioner suffering from exhaustion is prone to err while handling patients. Although some mistakes are negligible, most are extremely costly with regard to patients’ safety. Understaffing also compromises the capacity of health care facilities to accommodate a larger number of patients. This serves as a blow to the overall standards of health care in a community or any given society.
Use of Health Information Technology in Locating Evidence-based Practice
In order to establish evidence-based practices that address staffing problems in nursing, I used different types of health information technology. Firstly, using the internet, I had access to numerous types of research articles on staffing in hospitals. Most researchers in this topic have provided their findings on the internet. For instance, nursing and health care journals are excellent sources of information with regard to staffing problems in health care facilities.
Secondly, health information technology was also helpful in communicating with different practitioners concerning the issue of staffing in hospitals. Within a split second, it is possible to communicate with other practitioners using modern technological platforms like the internet. Through these resources, it was clear that staffing a serious issue in nursing practice. It affects the productivity of nursing practitioners and thus undermines the quality of patient outcome (Hynes, 2010).
How Health Information Technology Supports Evidence-based Practice
Evidence-based practice is critical in nursing practice and the entire field of health care. This is because it forms a framework for practitioners to make rational decisions concerning different issues. Prior to the development of health information technology, it was challenging for practitioners to make decisions in accordance with evidence-based practice (Jamal, 2009).
However, this has changed through advancements in health information technology. Through the modern technology frameworks, practitioner can access a wide variety of sources that depict evidence-based practice. Health information technology is also helpful in terms of enhancing the standards of accuracy in nursing practice. This is because the practitioners can countercheck the validity of strategies using health information technology. The information technology systems are thus essential in streamlining the quality of decision making in nursing practice (McGonigle, 2012).
References
Hynes, D. M. & Francis, J. (2010). Use of health information technology, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(Suppl. 1), S44–S49.
Jamal, A. &Clark, M. (2009). The impact of health information technology, Health Information Management Journal, 38(3), 26–37.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2012). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
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