What is INFORMATICS
▪ INFORMATICS
o Used in conjunction with the name of a
discipline, it denotes an application of
computer science and information science to
the management and processing of data,
information, and knowledge in the named
discipline.
o The science of automating information
interactions
o computer science + information science.
o French word “informatique” = computer
science.
 HIT – Healthcare Information Technology - refers to
the electronic systems health care professionals –
and increasingly, patients – use to store, share, and
analyze health information.
Example of HIT:
o EHRS – Electronic Health Record System
o EHRs allow doctors to better keep track of
your health information and may enable
them to see it when you have a problem
even if their office is closed. EHRs also make
it easier for your doctor to share
information with specialists, so that
specialists who need your information have
it available when it’s needed.
▪ SCOPE OF HIT/EHR
➢ Provision & documentation of patient care
➢ Education of healthcare providers
➢ Scientific research for advancing healthcare
delivery
➢ Administration of healthcare delivery services
➢ Reimbursement for patient care
➢ Legal and ethical implications
➢ Safety & quality issues
▪ HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS
o focuses on managing information in all
healthcare disciplines.
o uses the capture, retrieval, storage, presenting,
sharing and use of biomedical information, data
and knowledge in providing care, problem
solving and decision making
▪ NURSING INFORMATICS
o According to Scholes & Barbers (1980) – the
use of computer technology in all nursing
endeavors: nursing services, education &
research
o According to Hannah et al. (1994) – any use of
information technologies in carrying out nursing
functions
o “A combination of computer science,
information science and nursing science
designed to assist in the management and
processing of nursing data, information and
knowledge to support the practice of nursing
and the delivery of nursing care.” (Graves, J. R.,
& Corcoran, S., 1989)
o “The use of computers technology to support
nursing, including clinical practice,
administration, education, and research.”
o “The development and evaluation of
applications, tools, processes, and structures
which assist nurses with the management of
data in taking care of patients or supporting
the practice of nursing.”
▪ ORIGIN of Nursing Informatics
o Increase in knowledge has led to the
development of many specialties and
subspecialties.
o The number of cases increased with increase in
population, discovery of more diseases and
extension of life expectancy.
o Due to increase workload, lack of time to
channel into useful information or knowledge –
lead to development of
▪ TOP 4 PROBLEMS OF NURSES IN THE WORKPLACE:
o DOCUMENTATION IS EXCESSIVE
▪ writes narratives (patient’s history, progress
notes, care pans and special reports)
▪ fills up forms, records VS in graphing paper
and writes in tables input/output
▪ Benefit of Information Technology:
- Automation relieves nurses on writing
on and handling forms thus creating a
paperless environment.
- This eliminates ambiguity, redundancy
and tedious process of documenting.
- Normally in a paperless clinical area the
time allotted for documentation should
be 15% of a nurse’s shift.
o TURNAROUND TIME IS TOO LONG
▪ Turnaround time starts from the time a
request is made to the time it was fully
accomplished (ex. laboratory tests or
ancillary orders)
▪ Turnaround - the process of completing or
the time needed to complete a task,
especially one involving receiving
something, processing it, and sending it
out again.
▪ Benefit of Information Technology:
- Automation helps accelerate the
processes of request and facilitate
presentation of current status of result
of the request
o NURSING PROCESS ARE INACCURATE
▪ Rushing of nursing process may lead to
commission of errors
▪ ERRORS such as: Medication errors; wrong
entries, dictation, translation and
transcription of orders
▪ Benefit of Information Technology:
- Automation of these processes mostly
done beside a patient leads to a great
reduction of errors.
o COMMUNICATION IS POOR
▪ Communication between healthcare
providers and between departments is
POOR when served with telephone
 systems because of its real time nature
that requires the presence of both.
▪ Phone lines may be tapped or bugged
breaching privacy and confidentiality
▪ Benefit of Information Technology:
- Computers provide different modes of
communications like chat, telephony,
or video-conferencing or e-mail and
simple text messaging whatever is
most convenient and appropriate.
▪ Framework for Nursing Informatics
o Relies on the central concepts of data,
information and knowledge:
o A DATA is defined as discrete entities that are
described objectively without interpretation
o An INFORMATION as data that is interpreted,
organized or structured
o A KNOWLEDGE as information that has been
synthesized so that interrelationships are
identified and formalized.
o Resulting in DECISIONS that guide practice
o Synthesizing Information
▪ 3 Parts:
- reporting information
- organizing information
- correlation between ideas shared
▪ Teaching Nursing Informatics is a must in the
Philippines.
o January 2008 - CHED memorandum order CMO
NO. 5 series of 2008 to all deans of the colleges
of nursing throughout the country.
o CMO NO. 5 series of 2008
o It requires the replacement of basic computer
with 3-unit Nursing Informatics in the new
curriculum.
▪ Application of Nursing Informatics
o Nursing Informatics can be applied to all areas
of nursing practice, which include;
▪ clinical practice
▪ administration
▪ education
▪ research
NURSING CLINICAL PRACTICE
How it is applied to Clinical Practice:
▪ work list
▪ computer-generated client documentation
▪ EMR/CPR
▪ monitoring devices
▪ computer-generated NCP
▪ automatic billing
▪ reminders and prompts
COMPUTERS IN NURSING PRACTICE
Functions:
1. Records client information
2. Provides access to other departments
3. Used to manage client scheduling
4. Documentation of client’s status & medical records
keeping
 Provides access to standardized forms,
policies and procedures
 Access data about client that may be
somewhere in the medical record or
elsewhere in health care agency.
5. BEDSIDE DATA ENTRY
- records client assessments, medication
administration, progress notes, care plan
updating, client acuity and accrued charges
6. COMPUTER BASED CLIENT RECORD EMRs/CPRs
- Provides easy retrieval of specific data such as
trends in vital signs, immunization records,
current problems
- It can be designed to work providers about
conflicting medications or client parameters
that indicate dangerous conditions
7. ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO CLIENTS
▪ Used extensively in health care to assess and
monitor client’s conditions
▪ Data accumulated from various electronic
devices are stored for research purposes
▪ Can monitor client
▪ Computerized diagnosis
▪ Telemedicine
BENEFITS OF COMPUTER AUTOMATION IN THE
HEALTH CARE:
EMR(Electronic Medical Record)
1. Improve access to the medical record
2. Decrease redundancy of data entry
3. Decreased time spent in the documentation
4. Increased time for client care
5. Facilitation of data collection for research
6. Improve communication and decrease potential for
error
7. Creation of lifetime clinical record
NURSING ADMINISTRATION
How it is applied to Nursing Administration:
▪ Automated staff scheduling
▪ E-mail for improved communication
▪ Cost analysis and finding trends for budget
purposes
▪ Quality assurance and outcomes analysis
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
 Used to order supplies, tests, meals, and services,
from other departments
 Allows nursing service to determine the costliest
items used by a particular nursing unit.
 May provide information or decisions to modify
budget, provide different staffing, move supplies to
different locations, or make other changes for more
efficient and higher quality care
NURSING EDUCATION
How it is applied to Nursing Education:
▪ Computerized record keeping
▪ Computerized assisted instruction
▪ Interactive video technology
▪ Distance Learning
▪ Internet resources
▪ Presentation software for preparing slides and
handouts
COMPUTERS IN NURSING EDUCATIONS
COMPUTER Assisted Education
 PDA (Personal Digital Assistants)
 LCD Projectors
 Wireless Routers
 Desktops
 Laptops
 Smartphone
 VIDEOS/ANIMATIONS
 Distance learning
 Testing (NCLEX)
 Student and course record management

NURSING RESEARCH
How it is applied to Nursing Education:
▪ Computerized literature searching
▪ The adoption of standardized language related to
nursing terms
▪ The ability to find trends in aggregated data

COMPUTERS IN NURSING RESEARCH

1. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
- Useful in locating current literature about the
problem and related concepts. Helps in
searching for existing documents, and e-mail to
colleagues.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
- Software facilitate searches, contains
thesauruses so that the most appropriate terms
can be selected.
3. RESEARCH DESIGN
- Search literature for instruments that have
already been established or to design and test
instruments that need to be developed for past
study.
4. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
- Helps create form for the collection of data
such as informed consent, demographic data,
and recording forms.
Commonly used software for quantitative data
analysis: SPSS (statistical package for social
sciences), SAS (statistical analysis system), Sys
STAT, MYSTAT
5. RESEARCH DISSEMINATION
- computer word processing programs are used
to author the final reports of research and send
research to various readerships.
Help speeds completion or research projects

POINT TO PONDER...
“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid.
Humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant.
Together they are powerful beyond imagination.....”
- Albert Einstein