I know some of your are new nurses on here, but I'm sure you have heard this term before. In my hospital I work as a Nursing Informatics Specialist, where I work on clinical software that helps the nurses and physicians take care of their patients.
What I want to asked is, what do you think Nursing Informatics entails?
Would you ever want to be in that profession of nursing?
Are any of you currently in that aspect of nursing, such as I am?
Where do you think Nursing Informatics could be in the next 30-50 years? How pivotal will it be to you?
Can you ever imagine a time where robots could replace nursing staff in the care of patients?
What is something you would like explained that pertains to Nursing Informatics?
I'll come back and reply to any of your posts just to see what you think about Nursing Informatics and where it might be headed in the future.
Jason
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January 15th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I am currently working in informatics – although I say that loosely. My job is a combination of many different “creative” things, but coordinating between nursing and ISS has become one of my newest roles.
I am thoroughly enjoying it, and I do think it will become much more prevalent in the coming years. Particularly with the emphasis on Health Information Technology that our new president has.
I feel that I am in a unique position to help nurses care for their patients by streamlining as much as possible the documentation requirements of their job and permitting them more bedside time. I also like to help nurses critically think whenever possible – and if we can use technology to assist that process, even better! However, I do NOT ever see nurses being replaced by robots. There will never be a true substitute for that nursing gut feeling, and the critical thinking that comes only from the human compiling all senses and tangible data into assessing the person they are caring for. Could some tasks be taken over – sure, but you cannot replace that critical thinking part of the brain with any amount of technology:). I only see technology as assisting and enhancing a nurses ability to care safely for their patients!
January 15th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Very good point about the robots Kim! Might have to leave that one to the realm of Star Trek. Even in that time frame, they still have nurses. I think technology as an adjunct is crucial and beneficial. But you’re right, they can’t replace that emotional connection a nurse makes with a patient, the human touch. However, the pros of such a possibility would be less sick time, vacation time, sick leave, call-ins. If a machine could ever be programmed, properly, could it still be possible, in the more distant future, to see a mechanized nurse as technology advances more and more? Perhaps even a cyborg nurse?
I liked that you brought up streamlining. In my nursing informatics department, we have accomplished this quite well. However, getting staff buy in takes time, as is always the case with changes. Lately we have been having to train physicians on electronic medication reconciliation software and another department has trained them on electronic order entry, all in the effort to continue to streamline the patients medical record more fully.
This seems to be going fairly well, with most of the issues arising from user specific errors and software glitches. I was surprised that some didn’t test the boundaries of our deadline for using the systems, but so far so good. It will still remain to be seen how things turn out in this year.
But I’ll propose this question, who have been your greatest assets to technology, your supporters on the level of patient care?
What age bracket do they fall into?
What type of feedback do they give to some of the technology being implemented, positive/negative?
I imagine most presidents of hospitals have the primary goal of having the patient’s medical record wholly electronic and ultimately eliminate paper altogether.
What ramifications do you see from that?
What systems would you need in place to safeguard confidentiality in an electronic world?
January 15th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I completely agree with the above comment. I do not think human touch could ever be replaced. Yes, we need technological assistance but it has to be put into use by human. I can never imagine any one being given a bed bath by a Robot. Can you. Well this is a different kind of nursing as described above. I really would like to know more about it. May be, it might interest me in future.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I am a new grad nurse, working in Informatics…but not as a nurse. I’m a system integration/support person working with EMR and billing software, and also a paramedic in a system that is making the transition to paperless reports. Kind of a strange position to be sure, but it does give me an overview (underview?).
As far as your question about robotic nurses, no, I don’t think you could ever replace the essential human function of the nurse. Now your question about cyborg nurses, that’s another matter. Take away my PDA, IV pump, and trifocals, and I’ll still get your drip run, but I’ll feel like I’m working with one foot in a bucket. Personally, I’ll take any techno-enhancement I can get so I can spend more time WITH my patients rather than charting ABOUT them.
One of my gripes in nursing school was that I found myself mostly humping meds, changing dressings, charting, and doing assessments I felt were too brief and too superficial. The bulk of what I thought of as ‘nursing care’ was actually being done by the UAPs, because they were spending the most time with the pts. (And, they did a fantastic job of it, too. Props to them.)
This is not to say that the functions the nurses perform aren’t absolutely necessary, but anything that can extend/enhance your face-time with the pts is a good thing.
The down-side, of course, is that if you have more time, you’ll get more pts.
The other issue I like/dislike (depending on the implementation) is the cognitive backstop that a proper EMR can give. In a properly done system it keeps the details from falling through the cracks (such as on nursing units I’ve interned on). Improperly done (most of the EMS software I’ve seen) you wind up taking longer to chart because you have all sorts of irrelevant information that you are required to fill out, and the important stuff has to go into the narrative. Fortunately, most nursing EMR-wares tend to show nursing input, the EMS wares, not so much.
When I was younger, people worried about being replaced by machines. Now, machines are having to worry about being replaced by people (check out Amazon’s Mechanical Turk).
just my $0.02