5 trends in Nursing Informatics

1. Standardized nursing terminologies

 It provide a consistent basis for communicating the unique contributions of

nursing to direct patient care and to research. Nursing has the dubious
advantage of having seven recognized term sets serving numerous purposes but
undermining the goal of consistency, key to widespread recognition and
acceptance. Adoption of a single vocabulary appears doubtful, though two stand
out for active support, currency and free availability. Widespread use of a
standardized nursing terminology will come with time, consistent use,
incorporation into nursing education and reference in professional health care
and nursing journals.
 Using standardized nursing terminologies (SNTs) has several importan and
necessary benefits: They include better communication among nurses and other
healthcare providers; increased visibility of nursing interventions and resultant
patient outcomes; improved patient care; greater adherence to standards of
care; and furthering the nursing research agenda by generating data about
patient care in a consistent manner

2. Clinical Decision Support Systems. CDSS

 A computer software tools designed to facilitate decision-making through
connecting evidence with patient status. Use of CDSS can improve guideline
compliance through warnings, alerts, and advice. CDSS is an increasingly
important tool in nursing practice.

3. Mobile Health
 This wave is unique from other types of health information technology, since the
impetus is largely consumer driven. “Innovations in mobile health (mHealth)
technology offer applications to promote wellness management and health
behavior change outside of formal clinical settings.
 
4. Usability
 They defines usability as the extent to which a product can be used by specified
users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in
a specified context of use. Although data are available to support return on
investment (ROI) and improved patient safety when usability principles and
processes are used, many organizations do not incorporate usability into
product purchases, design, deployments or evaluations. Three accepted goals of
usability are improved effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. Usability
can be a strategic asset, saving organizations revenue, preventing errors and
improving the user experience with products ranging from EHRs to medical
devices. 

5. Data exchange and interoperability

 The capacity of different information systems, devices or applications to access
and exchange data within and across organizational boundaries, could play a
role in eliminating the redundant, time-consuming and potentially life-
threatening aspects of health care.
 Interoperability is all about: bringing multiple sources of information together
and using health care technology, innovations and analytics to apply it more
meaningfully to the care we provide to patients. It’s also about being able to use
the data to engage patients and consumers in changing behaviors in a positive
way along their health care journey. 

We, as health care leaders, all collectively must address this by working to improve
interoperability, the usability of data and how to better share all data across all
systems in meaningful ways.

The purpose of informatization aims to prepare nurses, as well as to benefit

from integrating computer technology into everyday practice. “Nursing informatics
(NI) is the integration of nursing, its information, and information management with
information processing and communication technology, to support the health of
people worldwide. We can say that nursing informatics is described as the
intersection of computer, information and science in nursing, to manage and
communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice. Generally the
definition reflects the work of nurse informaticists, the emergence of patients as
active participants in their own care, and the key concepts intersecting nursing and
informatics.

Nursing informatics helps improve vital nursing processes like documentation,

which is an important aspect of the profession and essential for effective patient
care. Before electronic health records (EHRs), nurses recorded patient information
on charts. Today, nursing informatics simplifies documentation and automates the
transmission of patient data via connected devices to provide access by nurses,
physicians, and patients.

Advancements in the future of nursing informatics will center on automated

patient and clinical data records, improved operations at health care facilities,
simplified data collection, tracking, and analysis, and real-time access to patient
information anytime, anywhere.