Hcgen 1121: Professional Nursing in Australia

HCGEN 1121:
2010 PROFESSIONAL NURSING IN

AUSTRALIA
Essay – Nursing Informatics
LIBIN PALLUPPETTAYIL
JOSE
ID
NUMBER: 30084198
SCHOOL OF NURSING,
UNIVERSITY OF
BALLARAT
2/26/2010
HCGEN 1121: PROFESSIONAL NURSING IN AUSTRALIA
LIBIN PALLUPPETTAYIL JOSE ID
2 NUMBER:
30084198
Abstract
Information technology is a part of health care now. Health Informatics and
Nursing Informatics are essential to improved patient care. Before 50 years no
health professional had interest to use IT in health care, but now 86.3% nurses are
working with IT. Health informatics is a research filed in Australia. Nursing
Informatics Australia is putting lot efforts in improving patient care with IT. EMR
has its own opportunities and threats. But threats are minimal and avoidable.
Nursing informatics is mainly concentrated into proper documentation of the care
because it is the key of interdisciplinary communication. Main application areas of
NI are clinical practice, administration, education and research. Mobile health care
is a new innovation into the practice. Telemedicine plays vital role in provision of
E – Health. There are many ways to ensure that the nurses are utilizing IT for the
better patient care: eg video monitoring. Health informatics plays a vital role in
programmed decision making frame work utilization. NI gives more time for
patient care at bedside by reducing the documentary works. Whatever may come
nurse can’t be replaced by any machine or ROBO NURSES.
SCHOOL OF NURSING, UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT | BALLARAT HEALTH SERVICES

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TITLE PAGE
CONTENTS OF THE ESSAY
• Information technology in health care
• Movement of nursing informatics
• Current statistics of IT in nursing
• How IT influenced nursing practice
• How to ensure nurses utilize IT for better patient care
• Prove that nursing informatics won’t remove nurses from bedside nursing.
SUBMITTED TO
Mr. Marcus Hovey,
Unit coordinator
HCGEN 1121, Professional Nursing in Australia
PREPARED BY

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Libin Palluppettayil Jose
ID No. 30084198
Re Entry Student, January Intake.
PRESENTED ON
February 26, 2010
Introduction
Information technology (IT) is a field concerned with the use of technology
in managing and processing information. IT provides supports to use electronics,
computers and software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve
information.
This essay will explore about Health Information Technology (HIT) [Health
Informatics (HI)], Nursing Informatics (NI), what are the current trends in HI and
NI, what influence had the IT made into Nursing Practice. In the essay, the author
is trying to ensure that Nurses uses IT for better patient care. The author also
makes a trial to prove that IT and NI won’t remove nurses from bedside nursing.
Health and IT – terms needs to be clarified.

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1. HIT - Health Information Technology
Health Information Technology is the application of information processing
involving both computer hardware and software that deals with storage, retrieval
sharing and use of health care information, data and knowledge for communication
and decision making.
2. NI - Nursing Informatics
Nursing Informatics is the specialty of HI which deals with the support of
nursing by information systems by delivery, documentation, administration, and
evaluation of patient care and prevention of disease.
The American Nurses Association defines nursing informatics as “a
specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information
science to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing
practice. Nursing informatics facilitates the integration of data, information and
knowledge to support patients, nurses and other providers in their decision-making
in all roles and settings. This support is accomplished through the use of
information structures, information processes, and information technology.”
Movement of Nursing Informatics

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IT was well developed before 50 years, but Health care Professionals were slow to
utilize IT. The term nursing informatics was originated by Scholes and Barber in
1970. NI movement began in the early 1970s in different countries in different
health care settings and different areas of health care and IT advanced in both
national and international level. Currently in Australia Health Informatics Society
of Australia and Nursing informatics Australia are functioning towards a better
achievement of informatics into health care and nursing practice.
Current Trends
The recent survey conducted by Eley. R. et al (2007) reveals that 86.3% of
the respondents were using computers for their work related activities. Between 4 –
17% of the nurses received training in generic computer skills and 12 – 30%
gained skills in the continuing nursing education. Health informatics is included in
the research topics under library and information studies (080702 Health
Informatics). Simpson. R.L. (1997) finds that majority of the respondents (56%)
are putting heavy emphasis on improving the quality and access to clinical data.
It must be noted that IT made more efforts in developing an Electronic
Medical Record (EMR), with which there are more good aspects into the patient
care. Major benefits of maintaining an EMR are as follows. It gives improved
access to medical record. It decreases duplication of care, misuse of addictives, and

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potential for data errors. It increases time for patient care by decreasing works on
documentation. EMR are life time records and can be accessed any time. EMR
stays as a tool for education and research for future. On the other hand, it has its
own hazards like there are chances that the privacy of the patient may be breached.
Because while in the hospital, when the health care worker is accessing the
information about a patient and the visitor or an ancillary worker may see that and
there are chances that the information may be passed to others. Relating to this,
usually information in EMR are passed by intranet and if a hacker accessed it, then
it will be in internet or they may misuse or destroy it and no further data will be
there regarding that person, causes serious privacy breaches.
Documentation is a primary emphasis in nursing informatics, because
quality care depends on effective communication among healthcare providers.
Since healthcare providers communicate primarily through the notes they write in a
patient’s chart, nurse informaticists seek to continually improve the speed,
timeliness and accuracy of patient charting. When health workers have access to
more up-to-date, complete patient notes, they can make better decisions about a
patient’s care. Nursing informatics looks for ways to simplify and enhance
documentation using advanced computer and information technologies. Instead of
spending each shift handwriting notes into every patient’s chart, nursing
informatics makes it possible to record notes sooner and faster using computers,

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handheld devices, voice recognition and other tools. The goal of nurse
informaticists is to design and implement systems that improve documentation
accuracy, eliminate unnecessary work, enhance accuracy and enable analysis of
clinical data.
Main application areas of nursing informatics are clinical practice,
administration, education and research. In the clinical practice NI can be used in
allotting work to the nurses, computer generated patient documentation and
handing over sheets, using in EMR, computer monitored physical monitoring
devices and even for the automatic documentation of the signs and findings. This
may be even used in automatic billing and automatic appointment generations for
the future care or follow ups.
In the nursing administration, NI helps in automatically scheduling the duty
list, and this gives a chance for the nurses to make any changes or request for
changes if they needed. E mail is allowing easy and improved communication. To
find out the trends and to make a budget that suits for the health care agency,
analyzing of the cost involved in the provision of the care helps.
NI also plays a role in nursing education. It is helping in computerized
record keeping for the enrolled students and staff. Computer assisted education is
another important aspect of NI. IT helps to do interactive nursing education

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sessions for the students with which patient care is improved. Distance learning
and online educations are the essentials of today’s life.
NI has its own role in nursing research. It includes computerized literature
searching (CINAHL, MEDLINE etc), adoption of a standardized language related
to nursing terms eg. NANDA and the use of excel spread sheet and statistical
software for research and the list goes on.
Another aspect of technology is mobile and PDA devices, which has got an
important role in the health care provision. For instance, MIMS is available in
mobile will help a health care professional to use critical thinking in relation to the
medication for the patient. PDA devices are also doing the same in effect.
There is another area, that is telemedicine, where the patient is benefitted via
internet based health care. To say more on that, a patient in UK need a help of a
specials in Australia, then by video conferencing either the patient or another
doctor who is treating the patient currently can get advice from the doctor. The test
reports can be scanned and sent to the doctor who needs it via email. All these will
enable the doctor Australia to finalize the care needed for the patient in UK.
IT is changing nursing practice at the point of care. IT makes more need
based care at the bedside or the point of care. It helps to avoid duplication of the
care, makes documentation easier and increasing a chance for a discussion of the

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nursing care needed even at the delivery point. The technology is driving through
the safety of the patient care. By the way of illustration bar coding in the patient
wrist band, patients’ documents, medication and on the nurses’ badge ensures that
right patient receives right drug in right dose at right time. A camera - monitor
system at the patient bedside ensures the Dr./NUM that the medicine has given in
the right route and correct documentation is done.
Taylor.P (2006) supports that, health informatics is excellent in working
with in the decision making framework in practice, which actually saves time and
thus the life of the patient. For quoting an example, the AED automatically analyze
the patient’s heart rhythm and acts according to the pre programmed decision
making frame work to decide whether to advice a shock or not. But this doesn’t
remove the nurse from the area, because to activate the system and to follow the
prompts of the machine properly a RN is needed.
For instance, the improved technology in the monitoring of vitals by an
automatic machine is making the nurses duty easier where she need to connect the
adaptors in the correct position and set up the machine to work in the adjusted time
to obtain the information at right intervals, especially in case of post operative
monitoring or where it needs continuous documentation. Even then, the accuracy
of the documentation is not there as the author felt in practice, because, the full

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utilization of the system is not yet done practically. No nurse is taking initiatives to
do the printing work also from the machine for better accurate results.
The use of new technology gives more time for the nurses to work in the
patient bedside and thus they will get more time to attend for the psychological
needs of the patient. This in another way aids in faster gaining of health. Because
health is not only just physical it also includes mental and social well being.
Whatever may come in the health care industry, how much ever the new
technology might had improved also, the need for a registered nurse to assess the
patient, diagnose the needs and plan a care according to the need for the patient
can’t be avoided. Though there are machines to work for getting information, the
nurse must be there to interpret that and to initiate a treatment in time. For
example, the new tympanic thermometer needs a registered nurse to operate it and
to gain the results and to interpret the result. By self it can do nothing.
Sullivan (2006) had a positive attitudes towards E – Health with which, the
patient will actually being in home and the doctors giving explanations about the
condition of the patient with the help of the implanted devices within the patient,
via websites online and prescribe medicines to the pharmacy and the pharmacy
delivers the medicine to the patient. But one thing is sure; nothing can replace the
nursing services. The author don’t rely on the ROBO NURSES expected to come

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in the near future, because nursing is not a programmed service it is a service
which needs lot of changes according to the patient. Individual patient needs
individualized care.
Conclusion = crtl + A +∑
To put everything into a hard disk, IT had played an important role in the
health care. There are both positive and negative impacts for the sharing of
patient’s details by means of EMR. But the positive aspects are covering up the
negative aspects. But threats are minimal and avoidable. NI is a developing branch
of HIT which by all means is becoming the key for the patient care by EMR.
Nursing informatics is concerned about proper documentation because it is the key
of interdisciplinary communication. NI is mainly applied in clinical practice,
administration, education and research. NI gives more time for patient care at
bedside by reducing the documentary works. The introduction of new technology
had not taken the nurses to the desk; instead it had improved the bedside nursing

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care, not only in physical ways but also in the psychological and social aspects of
nursing care.
References
1. American Nurses Association. (2001). Scope and Standards of Nursing
Informatics Practice. Page 17.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). 1297.0 – Australian and New
Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC),2008 Retrieved on
February 20, 2010 from
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/1297.0~2008~Chapter~G
ROUP+0807+LIBRARY+AND+INFORMATION+STUDIES?
OpenDocument#PARALINK63

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3. Courtney.K.L, Demiris.G, Alexander.G.L (2005). Information technology:
changing Nursing Process at the point of care. Nursing Administration
Quartterly, 29(4), 315 -322.
4. Eley.R, Fallon.T, Soar.J, Buikstra.E, Hegney.D. (2008). Nurses’ confidence
and experience in using information technology. Australian Journal of
Advanced Nursing. 25(3), 23 -35.
5. Office of the Privacy Commissioner. (2002). My health my privacy my
choice – a consumer guide to privacy and health information Retrieved on
February 20, 2010 from
http://www.privacy.gov.au/materials/types/brochures/view/6483
6. Perry, P. & King, M. (June, 2009). Course development: Nursing
informatics. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI), 13, (2).
Retrieved on February 20, 2010 from http://ojni.org/13_2/Perry_King,pdf
7. Saba. V.K. (2001). Nursing informatics: yesterday, today and tomorrow.
International Nursing Review, 48, 177- 187.
8. Siau.K, Shen.Z.(2006). Mobile healthcare informatics. Medical informatics
and the internet in medicine. 31(2), 89 – 99.
9. Simpson. R.L. (1997). Technology: Nursing the system. CIOs and Trends in
health care Computing. Nursing Management, 28(9), 20 – 21.

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10. Sullivan. F, Wyatt. J. C, (2006), ABC of Health Informatics. Carlton,
Australia: Blackwell
11. Taylor P, (2006), From Patient Data to Medical Knowledge the Principles
and Practice of Health Informatics. Carlton, Australia: Blackwell
12. The free dictionary.(2010). Nursing Informatics Retrieved on February 20,
2010 from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nursing+Informatics
13. Wikipedia. (2010). Health Information Technology Retrieved on February
20, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_information_technology
14. Wikiversity. (2010). School : information technology Retrieved on February
20, 2010 from http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Information_Technology
15. Wilhoit. K. (2006). How does technology Drive safely? Travel to a patient
culture. IT Solutions October 2006. 8,10,12,30.

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HCGEN 1121:

2010 PROFESSIONAL NURSING IN

Essay – Nursing Informatics

Essay – Nursing Informatics

Information technology is a part of health care now. Health Informatics and

Nursing Informatics are essential to improved patient care. Before 50 years no

working with IT. Health informatics is a research filed in Australia. Nursing

Nursing informatics is mainly concentrated into proper documentation of the care

because it is the key of interdisciplinary communication. Main application areas of

nurse can’t be replaced by any machine or ROBO NURSES.

SCHOOL OF NURSING, UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT | BALLARAT HEALTH SERVICES

Essay – Nursing Informatics

CONTENTS OF THE ESSAY

• Information technology in health care

• Movement of nursing informatics

• Current statistics of IT in nursing

• How IT influenced nursing practice

• How to ensure nurses utilize IT for better patient care

Mr. Marcus Hovey,