NR 512 – Wk 5 Knowledge Generation through Informatics

What are informatics-related possibilities to accelerate the generation and uptake of new nursing
knowledge?

Consider this – does your current work environment support use of informatics tools to
generate/adopt new nursing knowledge? If so, please provide specific examples.
I look forward to your lively discussions this week.

Response:

Nursing informatics has opened up the field of nursing to an endless amount of

possibilities. It has accelerated the generation and uptake of new nursing knowledge simply by
providing nurses to more timely access to data and information. In the past, evidence-based
research and practice was difficult to look up due to the large volumes of paperwork that was
difficult to even seek out if the individual did not know that the research already existed. Today,
nursing informatics is everywhere. It can be seen in the monitoring technology that measures
patient’s vital signs, in the bar-coded medication administration system that allows nurses to
document when medications are administered, and in the telehealth applications that allows
medical professionals to examine patients who would otherwise find it difficult to be seen by
specialists just to name a few. Working in one of the largest teaching hospitals in South Carolina,
I have the benefit of being in an environment that supports the use of informatics tools to
generate and adopt new nursing knowledge. For example, a fellow coworker read an article that
was published regarding alarm fatigue in the ICU. In this setting nurses rely heavily on the
monitors that provide continuous readings of each patient’s vital signs. It was found that
educating the nurses on the monitoring system and encouraging nurses to individuals the alarms
for each patient resulted in a significant decrease in false alarms thus this has improved monitor
fatigue.

Reference:

Harper, E. M. (2013). The economic value of healthcare data. Nursing Administrator

Quarterly,37(2), 105–108. doi: 10.1097/NAQ.0b013e318286db0d