Importance Of Nursing Informatics

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Nursing Informatics: Exploring Benefits & Limitations of EMRs
The nursing practice is ever-changing in the pursuit and application of new knowledge. Nursing informatics, specifically, is a profession meant to process the steady flow of new information seeping into the profession by way of research, education, legislation, culture, and technology. This profession combines technology use, data analysis, ethics, patient care, decision support systems, human-computer interactions, information systems, imaging informatics, computer science, electronic patient records, e-learning, and telenursing to create the field of informatics for the modern nurse (Kelly, Brandon, & Docherty, 2011). The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society defines …show more content…

In an increasingly modernized profession, the integration between computer systems and patient care is becoming more relevant to provide streamlined, quality care. Moreover, the informatics nurse plays an essential role in the relationship between information systems and patient care: “Nursing informatics professionals are the liaisons to successful interactions with technology in healthcare” (Kelly, Brandon, & Docherty, 2011, p. 155). Technology is paramount to providing optimal patient care, and will continue to grow in importance, relevance, and involvement; nursing informatics leaders are essential to guiding the practice with technology (Bates & Wells, 2012). This is apparent in the use of electronic medical records (EMRs), the computer application that electronically stores patients’ health data; EMRs are a vital part of the transition to computerized documentation (Sheridan, 2012). Since 2004, the healthcare industry has been moving toward improved efficiencies and patient satisfaction, in part, by transitioning to electronic patient documentation (Sheridan, 2012). EMRs improve care quality, safety, and efficiency while reducing coordinated-care disparities (Madison & Staggers, 2011).

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