NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

Technology Specialists in the VNA

In homecare, we use the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) form, which is required for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for patient care is now affected by the improvement or lack of improvement in OASIS scores from admission to discharge. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists. Clinicians can obtain Oasis certification and become experts with this form, but many do not. This leaves qualifying clinicians (clinicians who are expected to use this tool) such as RN’s, PT’s, and OT’s without the required knowledge and resources for accurately answering the questions on the OASIS for data collection purposes and reimbursement. The VNA use to have a quality team internally that reviewed OASIS forms for accuracy.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM -FREE PAPER NOW

Technologies Impact on Homecare

As technology changes, the VNA has contracted with a company called Corridor. Corridor states that by using their contract management software, they can “closely monitor workflow and approval processes with ability to track key events and escalate bottlenecks, as appropriate, and ensure compliance with contract obligations and adherence to key contract terms and conditions” (Corridor, 2020). NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists. The VNA chose to contract with a company externally instead of trying to “assess and understand current competencies/skills, then address gaps in education” and provide continuing education or develop training for the staff (Sipes, 2016) (p. 255).

Interactions

Since Corridor is an external company that the VNA is contracting with, there are some issues with the interactions between Corridor and VNA staff. For example, Corridor staff reviews a chart to ensure compliance with CMS for certain aspects of the OASIS. Once they complete their review, they generate a workflow through the system on the field clinicians’ tablet, and once the clinician syncs next, the workflow for corrections or review will appear. What I have found is that when our internal quality department reviewed admission charts, they were often OASIS certified clinicians who would look at the entire chart, my entire documentation and obtain some critical information regarding reasons I had answered certain questions of the OASIS as I did. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists. The Corridor company uses certified coders, not OASIS certified clinicians, and they do not seem to look at everything in the chart, such as my narrative. Thus they make changes or recommendations that I need to reject. One strategy to improve this interaction would be for the VNA to hire a Nurse Informaticist who has chosen to make a change in nursing by becoming a quality analyst (Laureate, 2018). I used to have a face to the name of the person reviewing my chart. We could call or email one another for clarifications for the accuracy of the documentation. Now everything is completed through a system where there are interactions between professionals through workflow systems. To improve this issue within the VNA I would suggest going back to using internal certified staff and offer staff education to improve the use and understanding of the OASIS for clinicians who are expected to use the form. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

New technologies Impact

Professional interactions are becoming more and more impersonal by the increasing use of technology and advancements in technology. In McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018, chapter 25 discusses how technology can have a negative impact on direct patient care due to the distractions of the equipment for medication administration or documentation, making patients feel like the nurse is “detached” from their interaction (p. 529). This detachment feeling is felt through various departments within the VNA organization due to the high level of technology and data usage vs. personal interactions face-to-face. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

References

Corridor Company, I. (2020). Best Healthcare Contract Management Software. https://www.corridorcompany.com/industry/healthcare/.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). The Nurse Informaticist [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Sipes, C. (2016). Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 225, 252–256. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

Nature offers many examples of specialization and collaboration. Ant colonies and bee hives are but two examples of nature’s sophisticated organizations. Each thrives because their members specialize by tasks, divide labor, and collaborate to ensure food, safety, and general well-being of the colony or hive. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

Of course, humans don’t fare too badly in this regard either. And healthcare is a great example. As specialists in the collection, access, and application of data, nurse informaticists collaborate with specialists on a regular basis to ensure that appropriate data is available to make decisions and take actions to ensure the general well-being of patients.

In this Discussion, you will reflect on your own observations of and/or experiences with informaticist collaboration. You will also propose strategies for how these collaborative experiences might be improved.

To Prepare:

• Review the Resources and reflect on the evolution of nursing informatics from a science to a nursing specialty.
• Consider your experiences with nurse Informaticists or technology specialists within your healthcare organization. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

By Day 3 of Week 3

Post a description of experiences or observations about how nurse informaticists and/or data or technology specialists interact with other professionals within your healthcare organization. Suggest at least one strategy on how these interactions might be improved. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain the impact you believe the continued evolution of nursing informatics as a specialty and/or the continued emergence of new technologies might have on professional interactions.

By Day 6 of Week 3

Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days, offering one or more additional interaction strategies in support of the examples/observations shared or by offering further insight to the thoughts shared about the future of these interactions. NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

Nursing Informatics is an integral part of our healthcare system and even though they tend to work behind the scenes they impact almost every aspect of our work life. Nursing Informaticists (NI) work to collect and then analyze healthcare data and information to track health interventions and outcomes. (Murphy, 2010) One way that I interact with NI frequently at my job is through incident report tracking. This is a system that tracks the number of falls, infections, patient-to-staff and patient-to-patient violence among other things. They track the amounts of these incidents to assess what interventions are successful and what interventions don’t have an impact.

Another way that NI work to improve the healthcare system is through decreasing medical errors like improper medication administration. NI were on the frontlines of creating a safer more efficient medication administration system in our hospital. We are now required to scan a patient’s wristband, confirm their information and then scan the medication label and if all 3 do not match then we can not administer that medication.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM -FREE PAPER NOW

One way in which our interactions with NI might be improved is to have easier access to voice our concerns with bugs and errors in the Electronic Health Record (EHR). We use Point Click Care for our EHR and while it is very good there is a good number of bugs and errors in the program, most of which are easily fixed. This is a serious point of frustration with me and many of my co-workers NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists. If we had easier access to the team that was responsible for our EHR we could communicate our findings (and frustrations) and work together as a team to improve the experience.

I believe the impact of NI specialty in the future is only going to grow. With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), remote monitoring technologies such as fall detection devices, and remote blood sugar monitors, there is tremendous room for growth in the NI specialty. This makes it even more important that we as frontline healthcare workers have open, easy communications with those designing and building our EHR and the NI department.

References

McGonigle, D. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Murphy, J. (2010). Back to results (previous record) Document 9 of 12,074 (next record) Nursing Informatics: The Intersection of Nursing, Computer, And Information Sciences. Nursing Economics, 28(3). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/nahs/docview/577364695/A2D3067966DD411DPQ/9?accountid=14872

Simpson, R. L. (2005). Patient and Nurse Safety. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 29(1), 97–101. doi: 10.1097/00006216-200501000-00015 NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists

Threw, J. (2016, April 19). Big Data Means Big Potential, Challenges for Nurse Execs. Health Leaders. Retrieved from https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/nursing/big-data-means-big-potential-challenges-nurse-execs NURS 6051 week 3 Discussion: Interaction Between Nurse Informaticists and Other Specialists