Friday, May 4, 2012 @ 8:07 AM
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United Kingdom
Electronic nursing: informatics
is about communication not technology, says Marina Copping, and nurses are
expert communicators
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Nursing
Standard' s Nursing the Future campaign aims to redefine nursing, celebrate its
diversity and challenge misconceptions. New and emerging roles are often
misunderstood, even within the profession itself, and the role of the nurse in
information management and technology (IM&T) is one of them.
There is
a myth that IT nursing is all 'techy' talk and computers, but in reality nurses
involved in informatics are agents for change and communicators who have less
interest in the technology and more in what it can do to support nursing care.
Nurses are becoming involved in informatics in increasing numbers and in
different ways, including:
* Local
IT developments, such as defining midwifery, renal or cardiac care systems.
*
Developing training tools, audit databases or patient information leaflets.
* Acting
as a bridge between clinical teams and IT departments.
* Working
in project management, education or research.
Information
technology department staff are always desperate for more clinicians to get
involved in developing, testing and using products, and they in turn can be
valuable allies for nurses in the wake of new ways of managing information such
as:
* Shared
assessments
*
Integrated records
* Child
protection alerts
* Mobile
technologies
*
National electronic patient records.
At the
same time, nurses can define what they need from IT, and where, why, and when
they need it, and can evaluate and measure results.
Building
partnerships with IT departments reaps benefits for all, and as expert
communicators, nurses can play a pivotal role in improving communication
between the departments.
You do
not have to be an expert in IT to become involved. The informatics nurse's role
is about new ways of working, communicating and managing change
Case
study 1
Kath
Darroch, informatics officer, University of Manchester
'My
practice became a lead site for practice-wide electronic patient records. I was
enthused by having information around that could help plan my work, and it
helped create a team feeling and an understanding about each other's
contribution to health care. The GPs now have a handle on what health visitors,
district and practice nurses do. I find it exciting to see health care evolving
and believe that by having improved access to information about patients we
deliver better care.'
Case
study 2
Val
Baker, director of clinical informatics, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh
'I got
involved in informatics to get rid of numbers and start working towards what
nurses really needed. I did a degree in informatics and social use of
computers, then became a nurse project manager for a new community information
system. Now I have the lead role in defining the clinical priorities in IT for
the region. As a nurse working in an IT department, I speak the language of the
people who need to use the technology. There is a need to change the view that
IT is about computers. It's not. It is about information for patients and those
who care for them--the technology is just the tool.'
Case
study 3
Rosemary
Currell, midwife, Suffolk West Primary Care Trust
'What I
love about working in informatics is the problem solving, the to understand
people's work, how they tick, their role [n the healthcare process, what they
do and why they do it. The technical computer side of it is only a little bit
of informatics. There are people who are skilled at managing wires and boxes,
but what is needed are people who can translate the needs of the clinical world
to the technical world.'
FURTHER
INFORMATION
* The
Scottish information, management and technology (TM&T)
strategy--Health/Information Management and Technology Strategy NHS Scotland--can
be accessed at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/imt
* For
information about the English strategy, visit www.dh.gov.uk and key
'information management and technology' into the search box.
* The
Welsh strategy, Informing Healthcare: Transforming Healthcare in Wales Using
Information and ICT, can be found at www.wales.nhs.uk. Click on 'continuous
improvement' on the left hand side, then click on 'national IM&T
programmes', and finally click on 'informing healthcare'.
* To
access Northern Ireland's Information and Communications Technology Strategy,
go to www.dhsspsni.gov.uk and key 'information and communications technology
strategy' into the search facility.
Marina
Copping is clinical nurse specialist, health informatics, NHS Lothian
Copping,
Marina
Source
Citation
Copping,
Marina. "Electronic nursing: informatics is about communication not
technology, says Marina Copping, and nurses are expert communicators." Nursing
Standard 19.40 (2005): 69+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 May 2012.
Document
URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA133682784&v=2.1&u=phspuqc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w
Gale
Document Number: GALE|A133682784
INSIGHT
All four of the UK's health departments have published comprehensive
information management and technology strategies (see further information
overleaf), all of which outline the development of core electronic health
records for patients. Each country is implementing its strategy in different
ways and nurses need to be engaged to ensure the strategies meet their needs,
as well as those of their patients and clients.
In the past nurses have had to cope with inappropriate IT systems that
were introduced without their input. Although communication plans for the new
strategies exist, a recent RCN online survey found that more than 90 per cent
of respondents felt that consultation on NHS information technology
developments was inadequate.
Despite nurses' expertise in communication and technology--a major part
of nursing care is, after all, about information sharing, and we use
sophisticated technology every day in the form of pumps or monitors--we do not
see ourselves as having a central role in IM&T.
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