Compare and contrast the various ways you can access information delivering professional continuing education
Discussion Question:
Discussion Question 1: Compare and contrast the various ways you can access information delivering professional continuing education. Explore any relationships between technology and learning and evaluate which works best for you.
Assignment:
Select two diverse clinical settings; for example: ED versus ICU, PeriOp versus Med-Surg, Pediatrics versus Adults, or Sports Medicine vs. Nursing Home, etc. For your two selected clinical settings, compare and contrast the content, features, need, and value of data, information, knowledge, and decision support to clinical practitioners in those settings.
Justify the clinical elements necessary for each clinical setting and create a recommendation of necessary elements for a shared clinical system.
Make sure that you include the four expanding rings of information (EMR, warehouse, regional, NHIN/PHIN) in your analysis. Describe how the differences would alter the design or features of a clinical system. Support your statements where you claim either similarities or differences between your two settings.
Construct a justification for the shared clinical system from ethical, legal, social, and public policy viewpoints. Formulate a plan for implementation and create the necessary workflow for a successful implementation. Evaluate the role of the master’s prepared informatics nurse after implementation.
Please submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of two scholarly sources, in addition to the textbook.
Assignment Expectations
Length: 1000-1500 words; must thoroughly address the questions in a clear, concise manner.
Structure: Include a title page and reference page in APA style. These do not count towards the minimum word count for this assignment.
References: Use the appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources utilized to answer the questions. Include at least three (3) scholarly sources to support your claims.
Format: Save your assignment as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx).
File name: Name your saved file according to your first initial, last name, and the assignment number (for example, “RHall Assignment 1.docx”)
Discussion Question 1
Expert Answer and Explanation
Accessing Information Delivering Professional Continuing Education
Accessing information can be done through multiple frameworks depending on convenience, availability, and affordability. Delivering professional care and continuing with education can have a number of challenges to the learner in terms of the acquisition of relevant information or resources to get the needed information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).
Depending on the nature of the education, a person can choose the most preferred form of information acquisition to help advance in their various academic fields. As a nurse, one can be able to access information either through the ease of technology or by learning from different avenues (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Progress in education is important to improve the understanding of how the nursing sector operates as well as the creation of a positive impact within the healthcare industry.
Relationship Between Technology and Learning
Access to information can be obtained either through the use of technology or other forms of learning. To begin with, technology in terms of access to information can be viewed as a large inventory of different information waiting to be discovered and put into practice. Technology from devices, to software to databases offers an effective way for nurses to access information from different sources in the world with easer and in an affordable manner (Pickering et al., 2017).
Healthcare professionals can make use of technology to impact the quality of care as well as improve their education. Learning on the other hand is the acquisition of education either through theoretical or practical engagement with an educator. A nurse delivering professional care can best use technology for continuing education as it works best and can be conducted at their convenience (Pickering et al., 2017). Learning requires one to be present physically, but technology can be utilized any time and a person can easily schedule their time.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN: 978-1284121247.
Pickering, J. D., Henningsohn, L., DeRuiter, M. C., de Jong, P. G., & Reinders, M. E. (2017). Twelve Tips for Developing and Delivering A Massive Open Online Course in Medical Education. Medical Teacher, 39(7), 691-696.
Alternative 1:
EHR and Education
Professional continuing education is a necessity for all nursing staff. This is a requirement by state boards of nursing and the nurse is responsible for maintaining any certificates to prove hours earned for continuing education credit (Moazami et al., 2014). These hours were previously offered in a traditional classroom setting or in a hands-on environment such a simulation lab. However, as technology has advanced and the need for online education has grown, CEUs (Continuing Education Credits) were offered via internet offerings (Moazami et al., 2014).
Many nurses struggle and want an in person education. Others are very technologically savvy and prefer the online environment. The state board here where this nurse is employed offers CEUs online through their nursing portal. Others offer education via webinars or attending virtually to a forum. This nurse previously preferred an in-person education class due to the need for retaining information. As this nurse returned to school and learned more technology, virtual offerings became easier to attend and earn CEUs.
As Covid impacted the healthcare world, nurses needed to attend many different virtual offerings. Many forums such as Dialysis care and post transplant care hosted Zoom conferences to allow more attendance. The entire world learned to be more technologically savvy and utilized webinars, Zoom, Webex and other virtual platforms to allow attendance and still have involvement. As this nurse is nearing completion of her MSN online, she is very grateful for technology and the opportunity to grow in a virtual classroom.
Reference:
Moazami, F., Bahrampour, E., Azar, M. R., Jahedi, F., & Moattari, M. (2014, March 5). Comparing two methods of education (virtual versus traditional) on learning of Iranian dental students: a posttest only design study. BMC medical education. https://www.ncbi.
Alternative 2:
Learning through technology
Continuing education is delivered in various ways thanks to technology. McGonigle and Mastrian (2018) described simulation, gaming, and virtual reality to educate nurses. Simulation represents real life situations done in person with role play, manikins, or web-based applications. Role play with manikins is great for hands on patient care experience to allow nurses to learn without harming actual patients.
Gaming can be a fun way to learn with rules and goals to promote motivation allowing educators to go through steps of a care process. Virtual learning copies a real-world scenario with the ability to socially interact with other players. All three types of education delivery mix with each other to provide learning.
Scott et al. (2017) wrote of 10 principles for continuing education using technology to include a need assessment, time for developing the technology, proven approaches for learning, skills development, allowing interaction with others, tailor content in respects of the group, piloting, retain learners for follow through, revising the system, and measure outcomes-not just satisfaction. These principles used with simulation, gaming, and virtual reality will provide a great learning experience.
Using hands on technology is my favorite learning method. I completed simulations with manikins with the ability to blink, hear a heartbeat, and watch the chest move. We practiced code situations with curve balls thrown at us to keep the group thinking. I appreciated it when everyone took it seriously as I helped me learn and understand other team members thought processes.
The debriefing at the end allowed for discussion and further education. Gaming is a close second for learning. We had an escape room (pre-COVID) for nursing compliances to find policies and protocol. The activity was fun and helped with learning retention. The minutes I have spent with virtual reality can be counted on one hand, I am old and okay with that. Although not much technology was involved I enjoyed going to conferences in-person.
Listening to experts share ideas and workflows helped me understand more of my nursing role at that time. Webinars took over this experience due to COVID but I do not feel there is the same interaction, perhaps too many people are checking emails and not really paying attention. Technology assist with continuing education by connecting nurses and their experience and keeping the patient out of potential harms way. Nurses can practice until they get it right and with out the worry of hurting anyone.
McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th edition). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Scott, K. M., Baur, L., & Barrett, J. (2017). Evidence-based principles for using technology-enhanced learning in the continuing professional development of health professionals. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 37(1), 61-66. doi: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000146
Assignment: Expert Answer and Explanation
Shared Clinical Information Systems
Technology advancement has changed how care is provided in different settings. Each of the diverse clinical settings has its own unique features, which might need to be captured to come up with effective clinical system designs. In this paper, two diverse clinical settings will be evaluated, and based on their unique characteristics, consideration of shared clinical information systems will be provided. The two clinical settings are sports medicine and nursing home.
Comparison of the Clinical Settings
McGonigle and Mastrian (2017) define health data and information as patient data collected to facilitate sound decision making. The authors also state that health data comprises care management data like details of patient visitations, medication reconciliation, directives, and consents (Pg. 710). Most of the health data collected are unique to the type of patients and setting in which it is collected. The quality of health data and information collected has an impact on the quality of clinical decisions to be made.
Starting with sports medicine, this is a line of clinical care that focuses on improving an athlete’s performance. Sports medicine also deals with the treatment and prevention of injury. In contrast, nursing homes are facilities that provide care for patients who do not prefer to be in hospitals and are still not capable of performing self-care.
For nursing homes, the patients are centralized in one location, with the nurses having easy access to the patients and the facilities needed for data collection, for example, diagnostic data. The same may not be the case for sports medicine, where the patient may at times be tended to offsite, meaning that clinical data for the patient may be collected offsite, then taken to a facility for analysis. In both settings, the value of information is more or less the same, especially when it comes to decision making.
However, in nursing homes, given the fragile state of the patients, then collection and analysis of information will be needed for faster decision-making. The decision support needed in both settings also varies based on the nature of patients served. For example, in nursing homes, decision support is required for routine nursing activities and prevention of sentinel events, like medication errors (Islam et al., 2018), while in sports medicine, the decision support
Justification of the Clinical Elements
Some of the clinical elements necessary in both settings include the patient’s personal and clinical data. This is an essential component that will be used to facilitate the clinical system to provide useful information that can support clinical decision-making. Examples of clinical data to be used include the heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, patient’s temperature, among others (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Another clinical element is patient-specific education materials.
This is because the nature of patients being taken care of, in most cases, have unique education needs to be captured by the clinical system. In both settings, a medication list repository containing patients’ active medication list, medication interactions, including possible allergic reactions also needs to be present to prevent any adverse outcomes from the decisions facilitated by the clinical system. Another necessary element is staff knowledge, whereby, the nursing staff and other users of the clinical system will be required to possess some form of knowledge on how to apply the clinical system.
In both sports medicine and nursing homes, the use of EMRs helps to simplify data collection. However, one of the differences is that in sports medicine, EMR records need to be accessed in real-time from a remote location, preferably with an integrated notification system, accessible to the patient care provider and the facility (Shrier et al., 2014). This is a feature that needs to be captured in the design of a shared system. The information collected in both settings is usually stored in data warehouses based on the quantity of data involved.
The storage, security, and access aspects of the data is a factor that needs to also be captured when establishing a data warehouse for the new shared system. The regional and national health information network (NHIN) integrate the various data warehouses into one system that can be accessed, with permission, by care providers in different locations and even in different health care organizations (Ruley et al., 2018). The need for such integration is higher in sports medicine than it is in nursing homes. However, such integration can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the shared system.
Justification for the Shared Clinical System
A shared clinical system will have several benefits other than presenting better outcomes for the patients and the clinicians who interact with the system. From an ethical perspective, a shared clinical system will help create a single standard of data and information protection. This means that information for a patient in the sports medicine setting will be treated similarly to a patient in the nursing home. This means that the same level of diligence will be taken to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of patient information.
From a social viewpoint, a shared system will help to reduce any existing disparities that are pertinent to a given setting. Having a shared will create a uniform protocol of decision making, which will create some form of equality in how patients are handled in both settings. From a legal standpoint, the shared clinical system will help to reduce malpractice claims resulting from wrong decisions, or medical errors that might be pertinent to a specific setting. Lastly, in terms of policy, the hared clinical system provides a new direction in system integration, which can help to simplify the complexity of policies attached to separate clinical systems.
To implement the shared system, the following plan will be followed. The first step will be to come up with an interdisciplinary team that will be responsible for identifying the necessary components and design of the system. The next step is to identify resources and coming up with an implementation schedule.
The third phase of the plan is to roll out the new shared system after which evaluation of the system will be done to look for ways in which the system can be improved. One of the evidence-based models that can be used to implement the system is the PDSA model (Crowfoot & Prasad, 2017). This is a four-step model that can facilitate continuous improvement when implementing a new system.
A master’s prepared informatics nurse is supposed to play an active role throughout the implementation process. An informatics nurse is supposed to help in the designing phase by establishing the necessary components needed for the shared system (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).
A master’s prepared informatics nurse is also supposed to participate in the actual implementation of the shared system to ensure that it is serving the needs of both the patients and the care providers. Similarly, an informatics nurse is supposed to identify areas that could use improvements based on evaluation data they have collected post-implementation.
Conclusion
This paper has focused on various aspects of a shared system that can be used in sports medicine and nursing homes. The paper has also elaborated on some of the components that need to be captured by the shared system and the role of a master’s prepared informatics nurse in the implementation of the shared clinical system. This information is significant in helping nurse informaticists on how shared systems can be used for different clinical settings and their roles in ensuring the shared system meets the established outcomes, the main outcome being to improve patient care.
References
Crowfoot, D., & Prasad, V. (2017). Using the plan–do–study–act (PDSA) cycle to make change in general practice. InnovAiT, 10(7), 425–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/1755738017704472
Islam, M. M., Poly, T. N., & Li, Y. J. (2018). Recent Advancement of Clinical Information Systems: Opportunities and Challenges. Yearbook of medical informatics, 27(1), 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1667075
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN: 978-1284121247.
Ruley, M., Walker, V., Studeny, J., & Coustasse, A. (2018). The nationwide health information network: the case of the expansion of health information exchanges in the United States. The health care manager, 37(4), 333-338. doi: 10.1097/HCM.0000000000000231
Shrier, I., Lamme, E., & Deschenes, E. (2014). Sport medicine surveillance 101: what clinicians need to know when choosing software programs to record injuries and illnesses. Current sports medicine reports, 13(5), 341-348. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000087
