Factors of nursing knowledge on health care informatics

Researchers have developed a device to measure pressure in the largest artery in the body. More accurate than the arm cuff, the technology works by a sensor in the watch recording the pulse wave of the artery, which is then fed into a computer together with a traditional blood pressure reading from a cuff. Scientists are then able to read the pressure close to the heart, from the aorta. Professor Bryan Williams from the University of Leicester says, "Unless we measure the pressure in the aorta we are not getting an appreciation of the risks or benefits of treatment. This device could change the way blood pressure has been monitored for more than a century."

        Health care informatics that support provider order entry and decision-making are the most prominent areas for system improvement and error reduction. It has been estimated that provider order entry can reduce serious medication error and adverse drug events. However, these systems can also promote use of errors if not subjected to meticulous usability testing and evaluation. Defining, detecting and preventing adverse events remains a challenge. Informatics programs that incorporate systems and information theory, software application development, and project design methodology, combined with extensive clinical experience in the development and evaluation of computerized systems, can be very influential in promoting systems that both detect and prevent medication errors and adverse events. System evaluation, specifically quality assessment and improvement, is often neglected in informatics education and clinical applications. 

                         

   Creating a safe patient environment is a very complex issue that will require the combined knowledge and skill of clinical informaticists, informatics faculty, researchers, and system designers. This setting cannot be developed without precise informatics education informed. Some of further implications for nursing informatics education include the standardization and defining of terms and taxonomies that represent knowledge of the domain and can be linked to a “patient-centered” ontology that also supports other disciplines;  student projects that require informatics students and developers to work collaboratively to improve current systems, particularly clinical decision support systems to prevent and detect adverse errors;  project development content that prepares students to conduct thorough  usability testing, provide appropriate system training, and adopt quality improvement models to evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of automated systems; and  emphasis on communication, information needs, and complex clinical environmental issues as they relate to systems engineering and implementation. Finally, informatics developers should work together with system designers to expand the development of collaborative, safety-related student informatics projects in a “real-time” laboratory environment.