Informatics Functional Areas

Informatics Functional Areas
Informatics is one of the most diverse disciplines in health care. Many nurses have been able to capitalize on their informatics knowledge and interests to carve out new roles within their own health care setting. As you embark on your own informatics career path, it is important to be aware of the vast possibilities that await you. One of the best sources to begin your investigation is the American Nurses Association (ANA). The ANA recognizes that nursing informatics titles have little standardization across health care settings. As such, they have categorized the roles of informaticist into nine functional categories:
Administration, Leadership, and Management
Systems Analysis and Design
Compliance and Integrity Management
Consultation
Coordination, Facilitation, and Integration
Development of Systems, Products, and Resources
Education and Professional Development
Genetics and Genomics
Information Management and Operational Architecture
Policy Development and Advocacy
Quality and Performance Improvement
Research and Evaluation
Safety, Security and Environmental Health. (ANA, 2015, pp. 18-34)
In this Assignment, you first consider the various functional areas as outlined by the ANA. You then examine your personal attributes and interests as you consider your future as a nurse informaticist.
Informatics Functional Areas
To prepare:
Review the nine functional areas for nurse informaticists as identified by the ANA.
Select the functional area in which you are most interested. Then, conduct additional research to identify the general responsibilities and duties associated with nurses working within this area.
Consider your current professional role. How might your personal attributes and interests help you to be successful in your selected functional area? What skills might you wish to develop to better position yourself for success?
To complete:
Submit a 4- to 5-page paper on Saturday 06/11/2016 by 12pm noon in APA format with 6 references that addresses the following:
Identify the nursing informatics functional area in which you are most interested.
Summarize the general responsibilities and duties of nurses who work within this functional area.
Explain how your personal attributes, interests, knowledge, and nursing background will help you thrive within this area.
Propose three overarching skills you could develop to become more effective in this functional area. Justify the importance of each skill by providing applicable examples. Cite your resources as appropriate.
Required Resources
Readings
Saba, V. K., & McCormick, K. A. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Chapter 1, “Historical Perspectives of Nursing Informatics”
In this chapter, the authors explain the transition from paper-based records to electronic records. The chapter provides an overview of the historical events that contributed to the rise of electronic health records.
Liaw, S.-T., & Boyle, D. I. R. (2010). Primary care informatics and integrated care. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 151, 255–268.
Retrieved from the Walden University databases.
This article discusses how the health care field can be reformed by increasing access to information across organizations and professionals. The authors of the article justify the need for this reform and provide guidance on how it can be achieved.
Mitchell, J. K. (2011). Nursing informatics 101: Using technology to improve patient care. ONS Connect, 26(4), 8–12.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
The emergence of nursing informatics in health care is the main topic of this article. New trends in informatics are discussed, as well as the certification process, nurse education, and the implementation of new systems to support patient care.
Morath, J. (2011). Nurses create a culture of patient safety: It takes more than projects. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(3).
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
The author of this article emphasizes the need for nurses to develop skills for improving care and embracing new health care innovations. The author also describes the connection between individual nursing practice and the system-wide success of informatics.
Reiner, B. I. (2011). Improving healthcare delivery through patient informatics and quality centric data. Journal of Digital Imaging, 24(2), 177–178.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
In this article, the author analyzes the impact of the movement towards digitized medical data on patient care. The author discusses how this movement places more responsibility and empowerment on the patient.
Media
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012b). Dual nature of informatics systems. Baltimore: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 7 minutes.
In this week’s media presentation, Gail Latimer, Dr. Patricia Button, and Dr. Roy Simpson discuss one of the most important aspects of informatics: the collection and aggregation of health information. The electronic health record (EHR) is discussed, as well as the nurse’s roles in working with EHR systems
attachment
nurs_6401_applicationassignmentrubric.docx
Assignment: Informatics Functional Areas
Assignment: Informatics Functional Areas
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.