"Emerging nursing informatics leadership roles are critical to engage in the necessary transformational activities and bridge the new care delivery models into clinical practice with the right technology solutions"
(HIMSS, 2011)
Transforming Health Care through Nursing Leadership
The Importance of Nursing Leadership
Healthcare
is changing at a rapid pace with the introduction of new technologies and enormous
amounts of data that impact workflows and patient outcomes. Patient care is
also becoming more complex as health systems navigate the challenging demands
of health care reform and new regulatory requirements. Nurse leaders are challenged to understand large
amounts of data and make determinations that will impact workflow, process, and
outcomes leading to improved patient care, staff satisfaction, better outcomes,
and reduced health care costs. Continuing efforts to implement healthcare technology and big data into the patient care environment require nurse leaders to participate in the selection, development, design, and deployment of advanced technologies. As nurse leaders, it will be our responsibility to improve the safety, efficiency, and quality of health care by leveraging IT resources that enable safer patient care and support nursing staff at all levels (Nickitas & Kerfoot, 2010). Competency with nursing informatics will be essential as systems and data continue to become more sophisticated. According to Kennedy & Moen (2017), nurse leaders must demonstrate and develop informatics competencies in order to provide meaningful leadership and support ongoing transformation within the healthcare system (p. 197). It is essential for nurse leaders to have in-depth knowledge regarding technology to promote optimal nursing work processes and effectively manage technological challenges faced by their staff (Hirsch, 2014). The American Organization of Nursing Leadership recommends development of the following information management and technology competency elements:
(Kennedy & Moen, 2017)
Nurse leaders must employ their skills to successfully integrate people, process, and technology using their awareness of nursing informatics metastructure along with defined professional competencies to maintain sustainability and further healthcare IT. As relationships and interactions grow along with the complexity of data, the scope of nursing informatics practice becomes increasingly sophisticated, requiring additional experience if success is to be realized. The ability to show competency is critical to the leadership role.
Nurse leaders need to understand the importance of healthcare technology and how it's use can impact patient outcomes. In addition, they require knowledge of technological systems that can add to their ability to successfully manage and educate their staff. The use of blogs, infographics, recorded video tutorials, and virtual characters, among others is, a valuable resource that should be implemented into daily operational workflow. There is an abundance of technology available to assist nurse leaders in their role.
View this interactive infographic depicting the essentials of leadership related to informatics & healthcare IT.
For even more information visit the links below
Nursing Informatics Learning Center
Final Reflection
This class turned out to be something totally different than I expected! I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed my journey through nursing informatics over the past five weeks. It was challenging, and very rewarding once I was able to master some of the new technologies we were exposed to. I feel that we have just scraped the surface and that there is so much more to learn. I have gained an improved appreciation for the field of informatics and all that it embodies. If we are to further the science of nursing and keep up with the rapidly evolving demands of healthcare, then knowledge and competency around informatics is essential, along with solid leadership skills. However, I also strongly believe that we can not get "caught up" in technology. We must remain true to the human interaction at the core of our profession. The
art of nursing is the human connection, and it must not be lost as we continue
to develop and expand technology within healthcare.
References
Hirsch, A. (2014). Technology management strategies for nurse leaders. Nursing Management, 45(2), 41-43. doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000442645.01325.fe
Kennedy, M.A., & Moen, A. (2017). Nurse leadership and informatics competencies: Shaping transformation of professional practice. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 232, 197-206.
doi: 10.3233/978-1-61499-738-2-197
Nickitas, D.M., & Kerfoot, K. (2010). Nursing informatics: Why nurse leaders need to stay informed. Nursing Economics, 28(3), 141-158.
Nursing Informatics Position Statement. (2017). Australian College of Nursing. Retrieved from https://acn.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/nursing_informatics_position_statement_28092017_-_hisa_acn_nia2.pdf
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