Health Information Technology Example Paper
Discussion: Using Health Information Technology as a Source of Evidence-Based Practice
Before the digital revolution, health information technology supplied very limited support for evidence-based practice. If nurses wanted to be informed about cutting-edge research, their best bet was to either subscribe to leading journals or make periodic trips to the library. With the establishment of research databases, however, nurses became empowered to learn about and facilitate interdisciplinary and translational research. Databases are just one example of how health information technology supports evidence-based practice.
To prepare:
• Read the following scenario from the text (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018, p. 506):
Twelve-hour shifts are problematic for patient and nurse safety, and yet hospitals continue to keep the 12-hour shift schedule. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (Board on Health Care Services & Institute of Medicine, 2004) published a report that referred to studies as early as 1988 that discussed the negative effects of rotating shifts on intervention accuracy. Workers with 12-hour shifts realized more fatigue than workers on 8-hour shifts. In another study done in Turkey by Ilhan, Durukan, Aras, Turkcuoglu, and Aygun (2006), factors relating to increased risk for injury were age of 24 or less, less than 4 years of nursing experience, working in the surgical intensive care units, and working for more than 8 hours.
• Consider how the resources identified in the scenario above could influence an organization’s practice.
• Select an issue in your practice that is of concern to you. Using health information technology, locate at least three evidence-based practice resources that address your concern and that could possibly inform further action.
By Day 3
Post a description of your practice concern. Outline how you used health information technology to locate evidence-based practices that address this concern. Cite and include insights from the resources. Analyze how health information technology supports evidence-based practice. Health Information Technology Example Paper
Please use the following 3 and 2 more within 2 years thanks.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Health information technology
Health information technology (HIT) is an important resource for health care delivery. It makes use of computerized systems and secure channels to transmit information between stakeholders (Ellis & Bach, 2015). While HIT might appear as a simple information management tool, that is not the case, especially when it is used to locate evidence to improve health care practice and outcomes. An example of this can be seen in the correlation between intensity of changing catheters and the incidence of hospital acquired infection. Reviewing hospital care records stored in the facility’s information repository that acts as a HIT can determine whether there is a correlation between how often catheters are changed and the incidences of facility acquired infection among inpatients. Through the records, it would be possible to determine the quantitative aspects of the relationship with these aspects acting as the foundation for recommending practice changes thus supporting evidence-based practice. Should the outcomes from the HIT determine that more frequent catheter changes results in higher incidence of facility acquired infection, then the results would be considered as evidence to support practice changes and implementation of policies that reduce how often catheters are changed for inpatients (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018).
It is not hard to accept that HIT significantly improves health care provisions through increased focus on care systems thus acting as the basis for evidence-based practice. In this case, HIT can be considered as a data-driven and multidisciplinary tool that translates care data into discernible trends that can drive health care innovations and discoveries to improve patient care and systems (Ellis & Bach, 2015). For that matter, HIT is a data resources that facilitates the quality improvement process through six steps as explained using the practice problem initially discussed. The first step is to peruse the data contained in the HIT with a view to explain the existing problem from a quantitative perspective, denote the need for new and extant data, and ascertain the completeness, sensitivity and reliability of the collected data. This involves identifying data on facility acquired infection and catheter use, and whether the collected data is complete or if new data is required. The second step entails identifying best practices in terms of whether or not frequently changing the catheter increased infection rate. The third step is to define the existing practice patterns and outcomes as well as their variations through comparing current practice to best practices. The fourth step is to identify and implement an intervention that improves practice and can be assessed for performance. The fifth step is to document the outcomes of the change and whether it has the desired effect in terms of reducing the incidence of facility acquired infection. This step presents a feedback mechanism that includes satisfaction levels. The final step is to document that the reported improvements are linked to improved care quality. The data presented at this step is supplemented with survey data to generate outcomes reports for all stakeholders at multiple levels such as the facility, clinical units and providers (Hynes et al., 2010). Overall, the six steps support evidence-based practice through presenting data to guide practice change while also informing on the impact of the change. Besides that, dependence on HIT to guide practice change is consistent with the concept of evidence-based practice (Umscheid, Williams & Brennan, 2010).
References
Ellis, P. & Bach, S. (2015). Leadership, management and team working in nursing (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Hynes, D. M., Weddle, T., Smith, N., Whittier, E., Atkins, D., & Francis, J. (2010). Use of health information technology to advance evidence-based care: Lessons from the VA QUERI program. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(Suppl. 1), S44–S49.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Umscheid, C. A., Williams, K., & Brennan, P. (2010). Hospital-based comparative effectiveness centers: Translating research into practice to improve the quality, safety and value of patient care. JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(12), 1,352–1,355. Health Information Technology Example Paper