Nursing Informatics and Patient Safety

Nursing Informatics and Patient Safety
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Nursing Informatics and Patient Safety
Section One
Three phases are assessed in the Clinical Communication guide. These are meant to address health IT-related patient safety risks. The first phase is safe health information technology (IT) which ensures that health IT systems are utilized within an organization for the safety of patients CITATION Hea231 \l 1033 (HealthIT.gov, 2023). The phase is critical since it emphasizes evaluating the safety of health IT systems during procurement and implementing the measures needed to ensure the completeness of patient data. Healthcare facilities ensure they procure systems that have undergone rigorous testing and meet the required standards. The second phase is using health IT, which entails using health IT systems to promote patient safety. The phase requires extensive training for the healthcare professionals handling the health IT systems. Policies are developed which promote the safe use of Health IT systems. Organizations must prioritize the knowledge and skills of their healthcare staff to ensure the safe use of health IT systems. The last phase is monitoring safety, where the safety of patients is monitored continuously to address potential safety risks. For instance, a regular assessment is done to establish the health IT systems' effectiveness and identify and export the adverse events that can compromise patient safety.
The self-assessment included in the Clinical Communication guide should be completed by individuals and teams tasked with clinical communication practices like nurses, physicians, and other authorized healthcare providers. The Team Members are drawn from different areas within the organization and sometimes from external sources. The Assessment Team Leader ensures the documentation of the people involved by recording the names of individuals, departments, or organizations contributing to the assessment. There are twelve (12) recommended steps for the nine SAFER Guides CITATION Hea231 \l 1033 (HealthIT.gov, 2023).
The role of informatics nurses when using the Clinical Communication guide is supporting a healthcare organization and providers to implement IT solutions. Moreover, informatics nurses support communication and care coordination among the teams involved. Informatics nurses are skilled in using technology to improve patient safety. When implementing IT solutions to improve safety, informatics nurses are on the forefront to ensure that technology improves patient safety. They guide other healthcare professionals in implementing IT solutions since they have the necessary training in the field of technology in healthcare.
Section Two
According to McBride & Tietze (2016), incorrect orders can find their way into the patient's electronic records when alerts are not activated or are inactivated. When healthcare professionals constantly deal with false positive alerts or where alerts are incorrectly configured, they can become desensitized and hence fail to respond to alerts accordingly. Inactivated alerts adversely affect patient safety because they can lead to medication errors and misdiagnosis. Addressing the issue requires healthcare facilities to establish processes to monitor and manage alerts. McBride & Tietze (2016) emphasize the importance of nursing informatics and advanced practice nurses in managing alerts and ensuring patient safety.
Action Plan
Team tools allow a healthcare organization to shift towards a culture of safety by progressing through various phases and completing key actions. The TeamSTEPPS Initiative takes place in three continuous phases: Phase I - Assessment; Phase II - Planning, Training, & Implementation; and Phase III – Sustainment. The assessment in Phase I is meant to assess an organization's readiness to undertake the TeamSTEPPS Initiative. The presence of leadership and key staff members who want to change indicates an organization’s readiness to make the shift CITATION Age23 \l 1033 (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2023). The Change Team undertakes Site Assessment and reviews the available data to establish organizational readiness. In Phase II, the Change Team develops a detailed Action Plan for the initiative. The team then follows the Plan to undertake medical training and implement the TeamSTEPPS Intervention. In Phase III, the sustainability of the TeamSTEPPS Initiative is established. The phase seeks to sustain and spread improvements in teamwork behavior emerging from the TeamSTEPPS initiative. The phase integrates teamwork behaviors and tools into daily practice and monitors the intervention's effectiveness.
Based on the problem of incorrect orders in electronic patient records because of not activated and inactive alerts, below is the action plan to implement TeamSTEPPS into this practice.
Step 1: Change Team
Change Team Member

Name (Staff Position)

Key Characteristic’s

Primary Role(s)

Senior Leader


* Has the authority to allocate time and resources to achieve the desired goal
* Authority over areas that will be affected by the change

* Creates a vision for the change process
* Leads the change implementation
* Supports the Change Team
...