NUR4040 Managing Health Information and Technology
Assessment 1
Nursing Informatics in Health Care
Write a 4-5 page evidence-based proposal to support the need for a nurse informaticist in an organization who would focus on improving health care outcomes.
As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are encouraged to complete the Team Perspectives of the Nurse Informaticist activity. Completion of this will help you succeed with the assessment as you explore the nurse informaticist's role from the different perspectives of the health care team. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.
Nurses at the baccalaureate level in all practice areas are involved in nursing informatics through interaction with information management and patient care technologies. Nurses must not only demonstrate knowledge of and skills in health information and patient care technologies, but also how to use these tools at the bedside and organizational levels. Moreover, nurses need to recognize how information gathered from various health information sources can impact decision making at the national and state regulatory levels.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Describe nurses' and the interdisciplinary team's role in informatics with a focus on electronic health information and patient care technology to support decision making.
Define nursing informatics and the role of the nurse informaticist.
Explain how the nurse collaborates with the interdisciplinary team, including technologists, to improve the quality of patient care.
Justify the need for a nurse informaticist in a health care organization.
Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information.
Explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients' protected health information (privacy, security, and confidentiality).
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.
Create a clear, well-organized, and professional proposal that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Scenario
For this assessment, assume you are a nurse attending a meeting of your state’s nurses’ association. A nurse informaticist conducted a presentation on her role and its impact on positive patient and organizational outcomes in her workplace. You realize that your organization is undergoing many technological changes. You believe this type of role could provide many benefits to your organization.
You decide to pursue proposing a nurse informaticist role in your organization. You speak to your chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager. These individuals ask you to prepare a 4–5 page evidence-based proposal to support the new role. In this way, they can make an informed decision as to whether the addition of such a role could justify the return on investment (ROI). They need your proposal before an upcoming fiscal meeting.​
Preparation
To successfully prepare for this assessment, you will need to complete these preparatory activities:
Review assessment resources and activities.
Conduct independent research on the nursing knowledge and skills necessary to interact with health information and patient care technology.
Focus your research on current resources available through peer-reviewed articles, professional websites, government websites, professional blogs, wiki pages, job boards, et cetera.
Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and authoritative sources.
Interview peers in your network who are considered information technology experts.
Ask them about how information technology advances are impacting patient care at the bedside, at the organizational level, and beyond.
Proposal Format
The Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Human Resources (HR) manager have asked you to include the following headings in your proposal and to be sure to address the bullets underneath each heading:
Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
What is nursing informatics?
What is the role of the nurse informaticist?
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
What is the experience of other health care organizations with nurse informaticists?
How do these nurse informaticists interact with the rest of the nursing staff and the interdisciplinary team?
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
How does fully engaging nurses in health care technology impact:
Patient care?
Protected health information (security, privacy, and confidentiality)?
Workflow?
Costs and return on investment?
Opportunities and Challenges
What are the opportunities and challenges for nurses and the interdisciplinary team with the addition of a nurse informaticist role?
How can the interdisciplinary team collaborate to improve quality care outcomes through technology?
Summary of Recommendations
What are 3–4 key takeaways from your proposal about the recommended nurse informaticist role that you want the CNO and the HR manager to remember?
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
Submission length: 4–5 double-spaced pages, in addition to a title page and references page.
Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Citations and References: Cite a minimum of 3 current scholarly and/or authoritative sources to support your ideas. In addition, cite a minimum of 1 current professional blog or website to support your central ideas. Current means no more than five years old.
APA formatting: Be sure to follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references. For an APA refresher, consult the Evidence and APA page on Campus.
NUR4040 Managing Health Information and Technology
Assessment 2
Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices
Prepare a 2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI) activity. The will support your success with the assessment by creating the opportunity for you to test your knowledge of potential privacy, security, and confidentiality violations of protected health information. The activity is not graded and counts towards course engagement.
Health professionals today are increasingly accountable for the use of protected health information (PHI). Various government and regulatory agencies promote and support privacy and security through a variety of activities. Examples include:
Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).
Provision of EHR incentive programs through Medicare and Medicaid.
Enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.
Release of educational resources and tools to help providers and hospitals address privacy, security, and confidentiality risks in their practices.
Technological advances, such as the use of social media platforms and applications for patient progress tracking and communication, have provided more access to health information and improved communication between care providers and patients.
At the same time, advances such as these have resulted in more risk for protecting PHI. Nurses typically receive annual training on protecting patient information in their everyday practice. This training usually emphasizes privacy, security, and confidentiality best practices such as:
Keeping passwords secure.
Logging out of public computers.
Sharing patient information only with those directly providing care or who have been granted permission to receive this information.
Today, one of the major risks associated with privacy and confidentiality of patient identity and data relates to social media. Many nurses and other health care providers place themselves at risk when they use social media or other electronic communication systems inappropriately. For example, a Texas nurse was recently terminated for posting patient vaccination information on Facebook. In another case, a New York nurse was terminated for posting an insensitive emergency department photo on her Instagram account.
Health care providers today must develop their skills in mitigating risks to their patients and themselves related to patient information. At the same time, they need to be able distinguish between effective and ineffective uses of social media in health care.
This assessment will require you to develop a staff update for the interprofessional team to encourage team members to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Describe nurses' and the interdisciplinary team's role in informatics with a focus on electronic health information and patient care technology to support decision making.
Describe the security, privacy, and confidentially laws related to protecting sensitive electronic health information that govern the interdisciplinary team.
Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information.
Identify evidence-based approaches to mitigate risks to patients and health care staff related to sensitive electronic health information.
Develop a professional, effective staff update that educates interprofessional team members about protecting the security, privacy, and confidentiality of patient data, particularly as it pertains to social media usage.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.
Create a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional staff update that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Preparation
To successfully prepare to complete this assessment, complete the following:
Review the infographics on protecting PHI provided in the resources for this assessment, or find other infographics to review. These infographics serve as examples of how to succinctly summarize evidence-based information.
Analyze these infographics, and distill them into five or six principles of what makes them effective. As you design your interprofessional staff update, apply these principles. Note: In a staff update, you will not have all the images and graphics that an infographic might contain. Instead, focus your analysis on what makes the messaging effective.
Select from any of the following options, or a combination of options, the focus of your interprofessional staff update:
Social media best practices.
What not to do: Social media.
Social media risks to patient information.
Steps to take if a breach occurs.
Conduct independent research on the topic you have selected in addition to reviewing the suggested resources for this assessment. This information will serve as the source(s) of the information contained in your interprofessional staff update. Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and/or authoritative sources.
Instructions
In this assessment, assume you are a nurse in an acute care, community, school, nursing home, or other health care setting. Before your shift begins, you scroll through Facebook and notice that a coworker has posted a photo of herself and a patient on Facebook. The post states, “I am so happy Jane is feeling better. She is just the best patient I’ve ever had, and I am excited that she is on the road to recovery.”
You have recently completed your annual continuing education requirements at work and realize this is a breach of your organization’s social media policy. Your organization requires employees to immediately report such breaches to the privacy officer to ensure the post is removed immediately and that the nurse responsible receives appropriate corrective action.
You follow appropriate organizational protocols and report the breach to the privacy officer. The privacy officer takes swift action to remove the post. Due to the severity of the breach, the organization terminates the nurse.
Based on this incident’s severity, your organization has established a task force with two main goals:
Educate staff on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
Prevent confidentiality, security, and privacy breaches.
The task force has been charged with creating a series of interprofessional staff updates on the following topics:
Social media best practices.
What not to do: Social media.
Social media risks to patient information.
Steps to take if a breach occurs.
You are asked to select one of the topics, or a combination of several topics, and create the content for a staff update containing a maximum of two content pages. When distributed to interprofessional team members, the update will consist of one double-sided page.
The task force has asked team members assigned to the topics to include the following content in their updates in addition to content on their selected topic(s):
What is protected health information (PHI)?
Be sure to include essential HIPAA information.
What are privacy, security, and confidentiality?
Define and provide examples of privacy, security, and confidentiality concerns related to the use of the technology in health care.
Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
What evidence relating to social media usage and PHI do interprofessional team members need to be aware of? For example:
How many nurses have been terminated for inappropriate social media usage in the United States?
What types of sanctions have health care organizations imposed on interdisciplinary team members who have violated social media policies?
What have been the financial penalties assessed against health care organizations for inappropriate social media usage?
What evidence-based strategies have health care organizations employed to prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and security breaches, particularly related to social media usage?
Notes
Your staff update is limited to two double-spaced content pages. Be selective about the content you choose to include in your update so that you are able to meet the page length requirement. Include need-to-know information. Leave out nice-to-know information.
Many times people do not read staff updates, do not read them carefully, or do not read them to the end. Ensure your staff update piques staff members' interest, highlights key points, and is easy to read. Avoid overcrowding the update with too much content.
Also supply a separate reference page that includes 2–3 peer-reviewed and 1–2 non-peer-reviewed resources (for a total of 3–5 resources) to support the staff update content.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Ensure the staff update is free from errors that detract from the overall message.
Submission length: Maximum of two double-spaced content pages.
Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point.
Citations and references: Provide a separate reference page that includes 2–3 current, peer-reviewed and 1–2 current, non-peer-reviewed in-text citations and references (total of 3–5 resources) that support the staff update's content. Current mean no older than 5 years.
APA format: Be sure your citations and references adhere to APA format. Consult the Evidence and APA page for an APA refresher.
NUR4040 Managing Health Information and Technology
Assessment 3
Annotated Bibliography on Technology in Nursing
Write a 4-6 page annotated bibliography where you identify peer-reviewed publications that promote the use of a selected technology to enhance quality and safety standards in nursing.
Before you begin to develop the assessment you are encouraged to complete the Annotated Bibliography Formative Assessment. Completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment and counts towards course engagement.
Rapid changes in information technology go hand-in-hand with progress in quality health care delivery, nursing practice, and interdisciplinary team collaboration. The following are only a few examples of how the health care field uses technology to provide care to patients across multiple settings:
Patient monitoring devices.
Robotics.
Electronic medical records.
Data management resources.
Ready access to current science.
Technology is essential to the advancement of the nursing profession, maintaining quality care outcomes, patient safety, and research.
This assessment will give you the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of how technology can enhance quality and safety standards in nursing. You will prepare an annotated bibliography on technology in nursing. A well-prepared annotated bibliography is a comprehensive commentary on the content of scholarly publications and other sources of evidence about a selected nursing-related technology. A bibliography of this type provides a vehicle for workplace discussion to address gaps in nursing practice and to improve patient care outcomes. As nurses become more accountable in their practice, they are being called upon to expand their role of caregiver and advocate to include fostering research and scholarship to advance nursing practice. An annotated bibliography stimulates innovative thinking to find solutions and approaches to effectively and efficiently address these issues.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 3: Evaluate the impact of patient care technologies on desired outcomes.
Analyze current evidence on the impact of a selected patient care technology on patient safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team.
Integrate current evidence about the impact of a selected patient care technology on patient safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team into a recommendation.
Competency 4: Recommend the use of a technology to enhance quality and safety standards for patients.
Describe organizational factors influencing the selection of a technology in the health care setting.
Justify the implementation and use of a selected technology in a health care setting.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
Create a clear, well-organized, and professional annotated bibliography that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for all bibliographic entries.
Preparation
To successfully complete this assessment, perform the following preparatory activities:
Select a single direct or indirect patient care technology that is relevant to your current practice or that is of interest to you. Direct patient care technologies require an interaction, or direct contact, between the nurse and patient. Nurses use direct patient care technologies every day when delivering care to patients. Electronic thermometers or pulse oximeters are examples of direct patient care technologies. Indirect patient care technologies, on the other hand, are those employed on behalf of the patient. They do not require interaction, or direct contact, between the nurse and patient. A handheld device for patient documentation is an example of an indirect patient care technology. Examples of topics to consider for your annotated bibliography include:
Delivery robots.
Electronic medication administration with barcoding.
Electronic clinical documentation with clinical decision support.
Patient sensor devices/wireless communication solutions.
Real-time location systems.
Telehealth.
Workflow management systems.
Conduct a library search using the various electronic databases available through the Capella University Library.
Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and/or authoritative sources.
Access the NHS Learner Success Lab, linked in the courseroom navigation menu, for additional resources.
Scan the search results related to your chosen technology.
Select four peer-reviewed publications focused on your selected topic that are the most interesting to you.
Evaluate the impact of patient care technologies on desired outcomes.
Analyze current evidence on the impact of a selected patient care technology on patient safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team.
Integrate current evidence about the impact of a selected patient care technology on patient safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team into a recommendation.
Notes
Publications may be research studies or review articles from a professional source. Newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not considered professional sources.
Your selections need to be current—within the last five years.
Annotated Bibliography
Prepare a 4–6 page annotated bibliography in which you identify and describe peer-reviewed publications that promote the use of your selected technology to enhance quality and safety standards in nursing. Be sure that your annotated bibliography includes all of the following elements:
Introduction to the Selected Technology Topic
What is your rationale for selecting this particular technology topic? Why are you interested in this?
What research process did you employ?
What databases did you use?
What search terms did you use?
Note: In this section of your bibliography, you may use first person since you are asked to describe your rationale for selecting the topic and the research strategies you employed. Use third person in the rest of the bibliography, however.
Annotation Elements
For each resource, include the full reference followed by the annotation.
Explain the focus of the research or review article you chose.
Provide a summary overview of the publication.
According to this source, what is the impact of this technology on patient safety and quality of care?
According to this source, what is the relevance of this technology to nursing practice and the work of the interdisciplinary health care team?
Why did you select this publication to write about out of the many possible options? In other words, make the case as to why this resource is important for health care practitioners to read.
Conclusion/Recommendation
How would you tie together the key learnings from each of the four publications you examined?
What organizational factors influence the selection of a technology in a health care setting? Consider such factors as organizational policies, resources, culture/social norms, commitment, training programs, and/or employee empowerment.
How would you justify the implementation and use of the technology in a health care setting? Consider the impact of the technology on the health care organization, patient care/satisfaction, and interdisciplinary team productivity, satisfaction, and retention.
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Assessment 3 Example [PDF].
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
Length: 4–6-typed, double-spaced pages.
Number of resources: Cite a minimum of 4 peer-reviewed resources.
Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12 point.
APA: Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for all bibliographic entries.
NUR4040 Managing Health Information and Technology
Assessment 4
Informatics and Nursing Sensitive Quality Indicators
Prepare an 8-10 minute audio training tutorial (video is optional) for new nurses on the importance of nursing-sensitive quality indicators.
As you begin to prepare this assessment you are encouraged to complete the Conabedian Quality Assessment Framework activity. Quality healthcare delivery requires systematic action. Completion of this will help you succeed with the assessment as you consider how the triad of structure (such as the hospital, clinic, provider qualifications/organizational characteristics) and process (such as the delivery/coordination/education/protocols/practice style or standard of care) may be modified to achieve quality outcomes.
The American Nursing Association (ANA) established the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®) in 1998 to track and report on quality indicators heavily influenced by nursing action.
NDNQI® was established as a standardized approach to evaluating nursing performance in relation to patient outcomes. It provides a database and quality measurement program to track clinical performance and to compare nursing quality measures against other hospital data at the national, regional, and state levels. Nursing-sensitive quality indicators help establish evidence-based practice guidelines in the inpatient and outpatient settings to enhance quality care outcomes and initiate quality improvement educational programs, outreach, and protocol development.
The quality indicators the NDNQI® monitors are organized into three categories: structure, process, and outcome. Theorist Avedis Donabedian first identified these categories. Donabedian’s theory of quality health care focused on the links between quality outcomes and the structures and processes of care (Grove, Gray, Jay, Jay, & Burns, 2015).
Nurses must be knowledgeable about the indicators their workplaces monitor. Some nurses deliver direct patient care that leads to a monitored outcome. Other nurses may be involved in data collection and analysis. In addition, monitoring organizations, including managed care entities, exist to gather data from individual organizations to analyze overall industry quality. All of these roles are important to advance quality and safety outcomes.
The focus of Assessment 4 is on how informatics support monitoring of nursing-sensitive quality indicator data. You will develop an 8–10 minute audio (or video) training module to orient new nurses in a workplace to a single nursing-sensitive quality indicator critical to the organization. Your recording will address how data are collected and disseminated across the organization along with the nurses’ role in supporting accurate reporting and high quality results.
Reference
Grove, S. K., Gray, J. R., Jay, G.W., Jay, H. M., & Burns, N. (2015). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Describe nurses’ and the interdisciplinary team’s role in informatics with a focus on electronic health information and patient care technology to support decision making.
Describe the interdisciplinary team’s role in collecting and reporting quality indicator data to enhance patient safety, patient care outcomes, and organizational performance reports.
Competency 3: Evaluate the impact of patient care technologies on desired outcomes.
Explain how a health care organization uses nursing-sensitive quality indicators to enhance patient safety, patient care outcomes, and organizational performance reports.
Competency 4: Recommend the use of a technology to enhance quality and safety standards for patients.
Justify how a nursing-sensitive quality indicator establishes evidence-based practice guidelines for nurses to follow when using patient care technologies to enhance patient safety, satisfaction, and outcomes.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
Deliver a professional and effective audio tutorial on a selected quality indicator that engages new nurses and motivates them to accurately report quality data in a timely fashion.
Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.
Preparation
This assessment requires you to prepare an 8–10 minute audio training tutorial (with optional video) for new nurses on the importance of nursing-sensitive quality indicators. To successfully prepare for your assessment, you will need to complete the following preparatory activities:
Select a single nursing-sensitive quality indicator that you see as important to a selected type of health care system.
Conduct independent research on the most current information about the selected nursing-sensitive quality indicator.
Interview a professional colleague or contact who is familiar with quality monitoring and how technology can help to collect and report quality indicator data. You do not need to submit the transcript of your conversation, but do integrate what you learned from the interview into the audio tutorial. Consider these questions for your interview:
What is your experience with collecting data and entering it into a database?
What challenges have you experienced?
How does your organization share with the nursing staff and other members of the health care system the quality improvement monitoring results?
What role do bedside nurses and other frontline staff have in entering the data? For example, do staff members enter the information into an electronic medical record for extraction? Or do they enter it into another system? How effective is this process?
Watch the Informatics and Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators Video Examplar.
Recording Your Presentation
To prepare to record the audio for your presentation, complete the following:
Set up and test your microphone or headset using the installation instructions provided by the manufacturer. You only need to use the headset if your audio is not clear and high quality when captured by the microphone.
Practice using the equipment to ensure the audio quality is sufficient.
Review the for Kaltura to record your presentation.
View Creating a Presentation: A Guide to Writing and Speaking. This video addresses the primary areas involved in creating effective audiovisual presentations. You can return to this resource throughout the process of creating your presentation to view the tutorial appropriate for you at each stage.
Notes:
You may use other tools to record your tutorial. You will, however, need to consult Using Kaltura for instructions on how to upload your audio-recorded tutorial into the courseroom, or you must provide a working link your instructor can easily access.
You may also choose to create a video of your tutorial, but this is not required.
If you require the use of assistive technology or alternative communication methods to participate in this activity, please contact DisabilityServices@Capella.edu to request accommodations.
Instructions
For this assessment, imagine you are a member of a Quality Improvement Council at any type of health care system, whether acute, ambulatory, home health, managed care, et cetera. Your Council has identified that newly hired nurses would benefit from comprehensive training on the importance of nursing-sensitive quality indicators. The Council would like the training to address how this information is collected and disseminated across the organization. It would also like the training to describe the role nurses have in accurate reporting and high-quality results.
The Council indicates a recording is preferable to a written fact sheet due to the popularity of audio blogs. In this way, new hires can listen to the tutorial on their own time using their phone or other device.
As a result of this need, you offer to create an audio tutorial orienting new hires to these topics. You know that you will need a script to guide your audio recording. You also plan to incorporate into your script the insights you learned from conducting an interview with an authority on quality monitoring and the use of technology to collect and report quality indicator data.
You determine that you will cover the following topics in your audio tutorial script:
Introduction: Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicator
What is the NDNQI®?
What are nursing-sensitive quality indicators?
Which particular quality indicator did you select to address in your tutorial?
Why is this quality indicator important to monitor?
Be sure to address the impact of this indicator on quality of care and patient safety.
Why do new nurses need to be familiar with this particular quality indicator when providing patient care?
Collection and Distribution of Quality Indicator Data
According to your interview and other resources, how does your organization collect data on this quality indicator?
How does the organization disseminate aggregate data?
What role do nurses play in supporting accurate reporting and high-quality results?
As an example, consider the importance of accurately entering data regarding nursing interventions.
After completing your script, practice delivering your tutorial several times before recording it.
Additional Requirements
Audio communication: Deliver a professional, effective audio tutorial on a selected quality indicator that engages new nurses and motivates them to accurately report quality data in a timely fashion.
Length: 8–10 minute audio recording. Use Kaltura to upload your recording to the courseroom, or provide a working link your instructor can access.
Script: A separate document with the script or speaker notes MUST be provided.
References: Cite a minimum of three scholarly and/or authoritative sources.
APA: Submit along with the recording a separate Reference page that follows APA style and formatting guidelines. For an APA refresher, consult the Evidence and APA page on Campus.
