NUR 513 Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper

NUR 513 Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper

 Advanced registered nurses play a critical role in the current healthcare system in America. Advanced registered nurses enhance the access to care by addressing the shortage of physicians in the state. They also work with other healthcare providers and their patients to develop care interventions that utilize evidence-based data. In doing the above, advanced registered nurses practice in accordance with their scope of practice, standards, and philosophy. Therefore, this essay examines the scope of my future role as a nurse informaticist, professional organizations that will affect my scope, and evolving issues that are likely to affect my practice.

Scope of my Future Role as an Advanced Registered Nurse

            My future role as an advanced registered nurse is nurse informaticist. Nurse informaticists are nurses who have advanced knowledge and skills in the use of informatics in healthcare. The scope of practice of nurse informaticists is broad. Accordingly, nurse informaticists integrate information management as well as analytical sciences into nursing science. The aim of integrating information from the above disciplines is to understand, define, and communicate the ways in which technology-related data can be used to inform nursing practice. The scope of nurse informatics also extends to the use of health technologies and their related data to make informed decisions in their organizations (Kleib & Nagle, 2018). The ability to make informed decisions using informatics is attributable to the support that health organizations and providers acquire using information processes, information structures, and information technology.

            The scope of nurse informaticists also entails undertaking the assessment of organizational needs. Nurse informaticists perform an analysis of the needs of their organizations and the appropriate health technologies that can be embraced to address them. For example, nurse informaticists identify organizational issues such as medication errors and propose the use of technologies such as barcode medication administration systems in solving them (Strudwick et al., 2019). The scope of nurse informaticists also includes planning. Nurse informaticists participate in system development and planning where they develop strategies that are needed for the successful implementation of technologies in their organizations. They also implement, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted systems in addressing the needs of their organizations (O’Connor & LaRue, 2021). For example, they incorporate the inputs from other healthcare providers in ensuring the successful implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health information systems.

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            The scope of practice for nurse informaticists also includes the provision of their services with a consideration of ethics that influence their practice as well as competencies. Nurse informaticists promote safe, efficient and effective use of health information technologies in their organizations. They also ensure that competencies such as continued education, collaboration, leadership, and health policy are upheld in their practice (Kleib & Nagle, 2018). The American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC) certifies nurse informaticists. The respective states license the informaticists. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is also another professional body that influences the scope of practice for the nurse informaticists. ANA develops and defines the scope of practice, ethics, and competencies that nurse informaticists should uphold in their practice.

Three Professional Nursing Organizations

            Professional nursing organizations play an important role in influencing the scope of practice, personal and professional development of advanced registered nurses. Nurse informaticists can belong to a number of professional nursing organizations. However, I am most likely to join professional organizations that include American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), and American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a professional organization that was developed with the aim of educating health information professionals. The organization aims at ensuring that health information professionals have the desired knowledge and skills in promoting safe use of health technologies and patient data. The organization also helps health organizations to achieve their desired goals of efficiency by ensuring interconnectedness of the patients with their healthcare providers and organizations. Nurse informaticists benefit by being members of the AHIMA by accessing the educational resources for their continued professional development. They also benefit from networking with other informaticists; hence, sharing information on ways in which health informatics can be advanced (AHIMA, n.d.).

            The American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) is another professional institution that I can belong as a nurse informaticist. ANIA is a professional organization that was established for nurse informaticists. The organization aims at ensuring the integration of nursing, computer, and information science into nursing and informatics practice. The organization also advocates the adoption of interventions that increase the relevance of nursing informatics as a specialty that is critical to organizational performance and success. ANIA benefits its members through the promotion of professional development opportunities such as training and conferences and networking platform (ANIA, n.d.).

            The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is the third professional organization that influences my scope of practice and role. AMIA is a professional organization that was developed with the main aim of transforming healthcare through practice of informatics. AMIA acts as a platform for connecting a community of professionals as well as students that are interested in health informatics. The organization also provides its members the opportunities to collaborate on issues related to application of informatics into research, education and healthcare. The membership to AMIA benefits healthcare providers through the provision of opportunities for professional development and networking (AMIA, n.d.).

One I am Likely to Join

            I am most likely to join ANIA. I am likely to join ANIA because it was established with the main aim of meeting the needs of nurse informaticists. The organization is mainly interested in examining the ways in which nurse informaticists can contribute optimally to the performance of their organization. The organization also uses nursing philosophy in supporting interventions or initiatives that improve informatics in nursing and health. The mission, vision and goals of ANIA also align with my nursing philosophy. Accordingly, I believe in doing good and protecting the rights of others. ANIA aims at promoting safe and efficient use of health informatics in nursing practice. The organization strives to achieve its mission through collaboration, research and evidence-based practice. The organization’s focus on the above aspects aligns with my philosophy. My membership with ANIA will improve my practice in a number of ways. Firstly, the organization will contribute to my personal and professional development. The organization will provide me the opportunities to participate in interventions that contribute to continuous improvements in the practice of informatics (Nagle, 2021). The organization will also provide me the educational resources that I needed to develop and advance my competencies as a nurse informaticist. The other way in which my membership to ANIA will contribute to my practice is expanding my professional network. I will collaborate with other nurse informaticists in examining the ways in which nursing practice can be improved. I will also use the organization as a platform to share my knowledge with other providers through participation in activities such as scientific conferences on informatics.

Controversial or Evolving Issue Likely to Affect my Scope

            A number of emerging or controversial issues are likely to affect my future scope as a nurse informaticist.  One of the issues is the promotion of the meaningful use of health information systems. The use of health information technologies entails the sharing of information between and among healthcare providers. Sharing of information entails the use of EMR systems that are associated with the challenge of maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of data. The use of EMR systems raise ethical issues related to protection of data integrity by health organizations. The implication of the above on my future practice is the increased need for the adoption of EMR systems that uphold data integrity. I also have the responsibility of assisting the organizations that I will be working in the future select effective and efficient systems to ensure meaningful use of data. The other emerging issue that is likely to affect my future scope of practice is the increased use of health technologies to provide personalized patient-care. Health technologies such as Telehealth have largely been embraced to promote patient-centered, continuity in care, and efficiency. However, the technologies raise ethical concerns about the safety and integrity of the patient data (Kleib et al., 2021). Therefore, I will have the responsibility of ensuring the safe and efficient use of health technologies in addressing the health needs of the diverse patient populations.

Conclusion

            Nurse informaticists play a critical role in healthcare. Nurse informaticists abide by their scope of practice in addressing the needs of their organizations and patients. Professional organizations have a positive impact on the roles played by nurse informaticists. The organizations provide them with opportunities for professional growth alongside imparting them with knowledge and skills needed to address controversial and emerging needs in their practice. Therefore, nurse informaticists should remain updated on the events that affect their current and future practice.

References

AHIMA. (n.d.). AHIMA Home. AHIMA. https://www.ahima.org/

AMIA. (n.d.). AMIA Mission | AMIA. https://www.amia.org/about-amia/mission-and-history

ANIA. (n.d.). About Us [Text]. American Nursing Informatics Association. https://www.ania.org/about-us

Kleib, M., Chauvette, A., Furlong, K., Nagle, L., Slater, L., & McCloskey, R. (2021). Approaches for defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies: A scoping review. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 19(4), 794–841. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBIES-20-00100

Kleib, M., & Nagle, L. (2018). Development of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale and Evaluation of Alberta’s Registered Nurses’ Self-perceived Informatics Competencies. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36(7), 350–358. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000435

Nagle, L. M. (2021). The Role of the Informatics Nurse. In P. Hussey & M. A. Kennedy (Eds.), Introduction to Nursing Informatics (pp. 295–315). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58740-6_11

O’Connor, S., & LaRue, E. (2021). Integrating informatics into undergraduate nursing education: A case study using a spiral learning approach. Nurse Education in Practice, 50, 102934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102934

Strudwick, G., Nagle, L., Kassam, I., Pahwa, M., & Sequeira, L. (2019). Informatics Competencies for Nurse Leaders: A Scoping Review. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(6), 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000760