Week 5: Healthcare Technology & Nursing Leadership

Healthcare Technology & Nursing Leadership

The success in meeting the demands of an increasingly complex healthcare delivery system in the future of nursing will depend on the use of technology to capture nursing outcomes data. The value of being able to evaluate the success of nursing care is essential for nursing leaders. It is no surprise that nursing leaders are turning to technology in order to overcome some of the biggest demands of nursing documentation. Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) and Nursing Management Minimum Data Set (NMMDS) were explored in week 1 of this Blog (Rutherford, 2008).
The value of nurse leaders capturing outcomes information for the purpose of describing outcomes is not only good for the patients, it's essential to the future of nursing care delivery.

Transforming HealthCARE

Through LEADership

Changing the Landscape of Healthcare

There have been a number of challenges that have presented within the last decade in regard to conforming to incentivized methods of healthcare reimbursement. The Pay-for-Performance initiatives of the Medicare Program have been geared toward driving quality of through the Value-Based Purchasing initiatives (nih.gov).
For more information on VBP and P4P please visit: 
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Turning Discovery into Health

The continued value of recognizing the changing landscape from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with provision for the HITECH Act in 2009 leading to Meaningful Use (MU) initiatives (cdc.gov). The Progress of technology initiatives requires nurse leaders to provide extensive support and contact with nursing informatics within respective organizations. There are particular concerns surrounding the effectiveness of interoperability and EHR platforms. There have been a number of challenges presented with attesting Meaningful Use in it's stages shown in the image above. The Nurse Leader has to be engaged with the challenges of technology uptake in the clinical setting. Nurse Leaders are uniquely positioned to advance initiatives for organizational goals as well as promoting the value of nursing within the organization, while driving better outcomes for patients (Houston, 2013).

Leveraging Technology

The Nurse Leader absolutely has to be at the forefront of identifying the needs of the front-line staff in order to better understand the demands that are mounting in care-delivery. The focus needs to be in the order of satisfy the EHR aspects of Meaningful Use while recognizing that nursing professionals need to constantly be allowed platforms for feedback, dialogue, and improving documentation systems rather than having to use workarounds and dismiss Clinical Decision Support technology. The technology needs to be utilized in the interest of empowering nurses to be more efficient and effective in the everyday work of improving patient outcomes. The Nurse Leader needs to leverage resources in order to bridge the gap between financial leaders and technology that can be utilized to make technology more efficient and effective. Please watch the video below to better visualize ways in which technology is transforming healthcare.

Technology: Transforming Care

Capturing Care: Databases

The NDNQI serves to deliver evidence to uphold the importance of investments in nursing strategy. Nurse Leaders have the role of looking into the vast and growing power of nursing databases such as the National Database for Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) to be able to contribute and benefit their organizations with the power of a repository information which serves to benchmark care in comparison to like-institutions and provide insight into various ways to improve the delivery of care (pressganey.com). The power of being able to express the importance of nursing interventions on the quality outcomes places the Nurse Leader in a position of appropriate empowerment to support nursing practice.
 

Nurse Leaders & Technology: The Future

The power of nursing will be best positioned when Nurse Leaders see the value of embracing technology that will promote the nursing profession by the nature of improving patient outcomes. The work of Nursing Informatics will continue to develop and the Nurse Leader is in the ideal position to develop teams of nurses who can be successful in integrating technology in patient care. This role will continue to be presented challenges just as there have been in the history of the profession. The future is bright with the added value of Nurse Leaders Leveraging technology for the betterment of patient outcomes and the nursing profession.  The power of new technology on nursing care on Nursing Leadership challenges in the integration of new technology; including the balance of the human element with technology, balancing cost and benefits, training a technology enabled Nursing 
professionals and ensuring ongoing competency of nursing using new technologies. There  are a host of challenges that present when the Nurse Leader encounters integration of technology but the challenge is rewarding when considering the benefit the outcome of patients, health of the organization and furthering of the nursing profession.
(OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing)

  

References

Huston, C., (May 31, 2013) "The Impact of Emerging Technology on Nursing Care: Warp Speed Ahead" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 18, No. 2, Manuscript 1.



Rutherford, M. A. (2008). Standardized Nursing Language: What Does it Mean for Nursing    Practice? American Nurses Association, 13(1). Retrieved February 1, 2016.

Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/ehrmeaningfuluse/introduction.html

Retrieved from: http://www.nih.gov

Retrieved from: http://www.pressganey.com/solutions/clinical-quality/nursing-quality