The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
Nurses are medical health scientists who understand the complex flow of care delivery, including the connections required by medical professionals in the provision of nursing care. Nurses need to be familiar with emerging technologies. Involving nurses at the point of treatment in all stages of introducing new health information technology (HIT) facilitates a smooth change to the current technology.
Systems development life cycle (SDLC) provides reliable and productive information paired with matching an organization’s strategic business plans. Ern HIT system architecture to support nursing operations should take a creative approach to encourage end patients to take advantage of technical opportunities. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
Stages of system development include
The automation infrastructure in health care institutions simplifies the workload performed manually, resulting in good end outcomes. The phases of the device implementation life cycle (SDLC) are highlighted below.
1. Strategic preparation for HIT technologies’ effectiveness and applicability for facilitating knowledge delivery systems and processes.
2. Evaluation of the HIT solutions in terms of reliability and end-user capability to use the systems.
3. Improving the system’s performance to promote healthcare coverage.
4. Implementation of the HIT method, taking into account the resulting attainable performance.
5. Machine maintenance as a whole.
The buying and introduction of a new HIT device remain the responsibility of the chief executive and the finance company of medical institutions. During the research stage, a company can decide to create its HIT device or buy one from a third party. It is critical to understand and decide about the functionality that the new framework would have. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
A fruitful planning process is complicated without a well-understood and documented target for end-user specifications. During the design point, determine whether or not the HIT device to be installed would meet the required medical needs technology and hardware that will support this new framework are included in this design stage. Following the conclusion of the design process, the next step is implementing the latest HIT scheme. Implementing a newly acquired device entails configuring the program, training users, translating data, and performing other physical tasks.
The repair stage, which is the final stage of SDLC, becomes the operations of the system. This final stage involves post-implementation evaluations, which are included in the project assessment. This stage is critical because the benefits and drawbacks of projects have guidelines for potential projects.
Nursing intervention.
Nurses may contribute ideas such as places where more focus can be paid in the first step of the process, help in the research procedure, and initiate and maintain initiatives based on their skills and experiences. The likelihood of failure increases dramatically when users are not involved.
Nurses can adopt innovative technologies if they have had the opportunity to guide the preparation and deployment stages, such as performing evaluations with different types of equipment in various clinical sites, as well as the assessment phase, which allows nurses to check if changes intended to improve the work experience have been effective.
Before applying the BCMA, informatics nursing collaborated with the nursing team to complete a Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. A highly productive method for avoiding adverse patient effects in BCMA introduction and subsequent improvement was reported in hospitals. The team has created the BCMA Contingency Plan, which is taught to new employees and checked annually on all units at peak drug therapy hours to ensure nurse familiarity with the procedure. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
Implications of involving nursing.
An implication of not including nurses can include a lack of good ideas for beginner research and execution and end-user’s failure to use the new HIT device. The project may fail because nurses, as end-users, may overlook a simple necessity for running the machine.
Failure to include nurses can result in equipment design defects, resulting in expensive circumstances that demonstrate the lack of early nurse participation. Institutions could designate nurses as “super consumers” or “champions” on units to inspire other nurses who could be hesitant to adopt the HIT scheme.
Likewise, allowing nurses to test equipment before buying it can increase confidence and willingness to use the equipment properly. End users can not grasp the technologies well enough to use the HIT mechanism at the first attempt. Nurses’ role in equipment construction promotes the simplicity and safety of such equipment’s use.
Any early equipment issues with BCMA can be avoided if organizations have nurses in the development process. Workarounds become less common as nurses have insight into actual drug procedures and supplies. Engaging nurses at an early stage tends to prevent negative experiences as well as technology-related tension. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
The creation of preparation schedules with confirmation of vendor engagement is a critical phase in preparing. Both instructional materials and user manuals for new installations should be posted on the nursing web page for easier access, with equipment shipping points and times negotiated.
Organizations should work with nurse practitioners to plan training sessions and promote complete stall engagement. As organizations struggle to meet patient care needs, the project can fail or require a lengthy implementation period. Nurses should prepare for extensive patient orders, addresses, and barcoded drug labels to train other team members on the new procedure.
Nurses have appropriate guidance on drug administration modifications during the testing period and the formal implementation of new technologies at the transition point. Implementing the BCMA method, which includes scanning the wristband, can be complicated. Smearing, positioning, barcode position or orientation, durability when wet, and patient satisfaction can all cause scanning failures. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
Nurses can resort to a variety of workarounds as a result of these concerns. Nurses investigated the discrepancies between the details written on the wristband and the bar code printed next to it systematically, preventing further mistakes.
Reference
Yusof, M. M., Kuljis, J., Papazafeiropoulou, A., & Stergioulas, L. K. (2008). An evaluation framework for Health Information Systems: human, organization and technology-fit factors (HOT-fit). International journal of medical informatics, 77(6), 386-398.
Yen, P. Y., & Bakken, S. (2012). Review of health information technology usability study methodologies. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 19(3), 413-422.
Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons.
In the media introduction to this module, it was suggested that you as a nurse have an important role in the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). With a focus on patient care and outcomes, nurses may not always see themselves as contributors to the development of new systems. However, as you may have observed in your own experience, exclusion of nurse contributions when implementing systems can have dire consequences. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
In this Discussion, you will consider the role you might play in systems development and the ramifications of not being an active participant in systems development.
To Prepare:
Post a description of what you believe to be the consequences of a healthcare organization not involving nurses in each stage of the SDLC when purchasing and implementing a new health information technology system. Provide specific examples of potential issues at each stage of the SDLC and explain how the inclusion of nurses may help address these issues. Then, explain whether you had any input in the selection and planning of new health information technology systems in your nursing practice or healthcare organization and explain potential impacts of being included or not in the decision-making process. Be specific and provide examples. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days, by offering additional thoughts regarding the examples shared, SDLC-related issues, and ideas on how the inclusion of nurses might have impacted the example described by your colleagues.
You provided a lot of good examples of why HIT projects can fail when nurses are not included from the beginning of the SDLC. Due to the high costs associated with implementing new HIT, it is imperative that management takes every step possible from the beginning of a project to ensure there will not be user resistance at the end. User resistance can lead to inappropriate usage of the HIT or refusal to use HIT (Cho et al., 2021).
Another reason to include end-users in the SDLC is to prevent the common occurrence of “fixing something that isn’t broken.” Too often, HIT is implemented with the intention of simplifying a process or improving an outcome only to make the process more time-consuming or difficult. Nurses and other healthcare providers can identify from the beginning if a management concern in productivity or outcome can be achieved in a less expensive way without the need for new HIT. EHRs enable health systems to manage large amounts of data but overtime job satisfaction has decreased, and perceived workload have increased for providers and nurses (Lopez et al., 2021). If end-users were included in every step of the SDLC I would imagine job satisfaction and perceived workload could be improved. The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle
References
Cho, Y., Kim., M., & Choi, M. (2021). Factors associated with nurses’ user resistance to change of electronic health record systems. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, 21(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-021-01581-z
Lopez, K. D., Chin, C., Ferreira, R., Azevedo, L., Kaushik, V., Roy, B., Schuh, W., Banks, K., Sousa, V., & Morrow, D. (2021). Electronic health record usability and workload changes over time for provider and nursing staff following transition to new EHR. Applied Ergonomics, 93, 103359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103359 The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle