Nursing Informatics in United Kingdom

Electronic nursing: informatics is about communication not technology, says Marina Copping, and nurses are expert communicators

Author(s): Marina Copping

 

Source: Nursing Standard. 19.40 (June 15, 2005):

.

Document Type: Article

 

Full Text:

 

Nursing Standard' s Nursing the Future campaign aims to redefine nursing, celebrate its diversity and challenge misconceptions. New and emerging roles are often misunderstood, even within the profession itself, and the role of the nurse in information management and technology (IM&T) is one of them.

There is a myth that IT nursing is all 'techy' talk and computers, but in reality nurses involved in informatics are agents for change and communicators who have less interest in the technology and more in what it can do to support nursing care. Nurses are becoming involved in informatics in increasing numbers and in different ways, including:

* Local IT developments, such as defining midwifery, renal or cardiac care systems.

* Developing training tools, audit databases or patient information leaflets.

* Acting as a bridge between clinical teams and IT departments.

* Working in project management, education or research.

All four of the UK's health departments have published comprehensive information management and technology strategies (see further information overleaf), all of which outline the development of core electronic health records for patients.

Each country is implementing its strategy in different ways and nurses need to be engaged to ensure the strategies meet their needs, as well as those of their patients and clients.

Tailored systems

In the past nurses have had to cope with inappropriate IT systems that were introduced without their input. Although communication plans for the new strategies exist, a recent RCN online survey found that more than 90 per cent of respondents felt that consultation on NHS information technology developments was inadequate.

Despite nurses' expertise in communication and technology--a major part of nursing care is, after all, about information sharing, and we use sophisticated technology every day in the form of pumps or monitors--we do not see ourselves as having a central role in IM&T.

We must challenge this view to avoid ending up with systems that do not meet our clinical needs.

Information technology department staff are always desperate for more clinicians to get involved in developing, testing and using products, and they in turn can be valuable allies for nurses in the wake of new ways of managing information such as:

* Shared assessments

* Integrated records

* Child protection alerts

* Mobile technologies

* National electronic patient records.

At the same time, nurses can define what they need from IT, and where, why, and when they need it, and can evaluate and measure results.

Building partnerships with IT departments reaps benefits for all, and as expert communicators, nurses can play a pivotal role in improving communication between the departments.

You do not have to be an expert in IT to become involved. The informatics nurse's role is about new ways of working, communicating and managing change

Case study 1

Kath Darroch, informatics officer, University of Manchester

'My practice became a lead site for practice-wide electronic patient records. I was enthused by having information around that could help plan my work, and it helped create a team feeling and an understanding about each other's contribution to health care. The GPs now have a handle on what health visitors, district and practice nurses do. I find it exciting to see health care evolving and believe that by having improved access to information about patients we deliver better care.'

Case study 2

Val Baker, director of clinical informatics, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh

'I got involved in informatics to get rid of numbers and start working towards what nurses really needed. I did a degree in informatics and social use of computers, then became a nurse project manager for a new community information system. Now I have the lead role in defining the clinical priorities in IT for the region. As a nurse working in an IT department, I speak the language of the people who need to use the technology. There is a need to change the view that IT is about computers. It's not. It is about information for patients and those who care for them--the technology is just the tool.'

Case study 3

Rosemary Currell, midwife, Suffolk West Primary Care Trust

'What I love about working in informatics is the problem solving, the to understand people's work, how they tick, their role [n the healthcare process, what they do and why they do it. The technical computer side of it is only a little bit of informatics. There are people who are skilled at managing wires and boxes, but what is needed are people who can translate the needs of the clinical world to the technical world.'

FURTHER INFORMATION

* The Scottish information, management and technology (TM&T) strategy--Health/Information Management and Technology Strategy NHS Scotland--can be accessed at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/imt

* For information about the English strategy, visit www.dh.gov.uk and key 'information management and technology' into the search box.

* The Welsh strategy, Informing Healthcare: Transforming Healthcare in Wales Using Information and ICT, can be found at www.wales.nhs.uk. Click on 'continuous improvement' on the left hand side, then click on 'national IM&T programmes', and finally click on 'informing healthcare'.

* To access Northern Ireland's Information and Communications Technology Strategy, go to www.dhsspsni.gov.uk and key 'information and communications technology strategy' into the search facility.

Marina Copping is clinical nurse specialist, health informatics, NHS Lothian

Copping, Marina

Source Citation

Copping, Marina. "Electronic nursing: informatics is about communication not technology, says Marina Copping, and nurses are expert communicators." Nursing Standard 19.40 (2005): 69+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 May 2012.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA133682784&v=2.1&u=phspuqc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Nursing Informatics in Ireland

ACENDIO

 

Author(s): Alba de Barros

 

Source: Nursing Diagnosis. 12.2 (April-June 2001): p66.

Document Type: Article

 

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Ireland. The Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland held its annual conference last November at Saggart, west of Dublin. The society, which represents informatics interests across the Irish healthcare system, includes the Nursing Informatics Group, a 100-strong body. The principal theme of the conference was the use of information technologies as a strategic element in integrated health care. Approximately half of the papers were presented by nurses. ACENDIO was represented at the conference by Fintan Sheeran, who manned an ACENDIO poster presentation.

A local nursing informatics initiative is in early stages of development at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin, under the leadership of Rosaleen Murnane. In January 2001, a seminar, organized by UK/Ireland ACENDIO, was held at this same hospital. More than 50 nurses from throughout the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland attended the day-long program and judged it to be a great success. June Clark provided a most interesting introduction to the key concepts inherent in nursing diagnosis. This was followed by a presentation on standardization by Anne Casey and a discussion of nursing classification systems by Nico Oud. The afternoon was practical, with Alex Westbrook providing attendees with an insight into her work at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, and Rosaleen Murnane providing a description of 10 years of nursing informatics at Mater Misericordiae Hospital. The day concluded with a Q&A session.

Portugal. An informal meeting of the nursing group looking at the International Standards Organization's (ISO) work on "integration of a reference terminology model for nursing" was held in Portugal prior to the 5th and last Telenurse ID conference. It is expected that the activity on this work will be based on the European Nursing Terminology PreStandard (Health Informatics--System of Concepts to Support Nursing) that was accepted at a meeting of the working group in December 2000.

The main objective of the TeleNurse ID ENTITY (Integration and Demonstration of European Nursing Terminology in Information Technology) project was to strengthen and enlarge the European consensus on the use of the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP). The 5th and final Telenurse ID Conference was held in Coimbra, Portugal, in November 2000. Participants from 22 countries discussed the translation, dissemination, and testing of the ICNP. Telenurse consortium partners were joined by nurses from countries as far afield as Japan and Korea, and also by representatives from national nurses associations who had undertaken peer reviews of translations of ICNP into many languages.

Germany. From 22-24 March, 2001, the ACENDIO third European Conference was held in Berlin. A special German preconference was organized around the theme of the issues regarding nursing classification--standardization and language. About 150 German-speaking colleagues attended this session and spoke highly of it.

William Goossen, Hanneke van Maanen, and Iris Mamier presented informative keynotes and papers. Cristoph Abderhalden spoke about the ICIDH-2, the perspective and meaning for nursing. The ICIDH (International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities & Handicaps, 1980) is an official WHO classification; the second version is expected to publish in 2001. This was followed by presentations by Peter Konig about the development of nursing language in Germany, Anne Berthou about the development of the Nursing Data Project in Switzerland, and Silvia Kuhne-Ponesch about the Austrian law regulating nursing diagnoses/process. At the end, Matthias Hinz and Frank Dorre spoke about the ICNP and the German-speaking User ICNP Group.

In the evening of the first day the opening ceremony was chaired by ACENDIO president, June Clark, and short presentations were given by representatives from the German Ministry of Health and the Municipality of Berlin, and the three main German Nursing Organizations. In the opening keynote, George Evers argued that the game of naming nursing and nursing search for evidence-based practice is being practiced on a larger and larger scale during the last few decades. He hoped that during the third ACENDIIO conference all participants would be able to share experience in naming nursing across cultural and language barriers and to search for empirical evidence or scientific principles to guide and improve the delivery of nursing service to the public in Europe.

The main conference, held over the next 2 days, was attended by 385 participants from 28 countries. In total, there were 8 keynote addresses, 52 presentations, 4 workshops, and 24 poster presentations. It is impossible to describe in detail all the interesting discussions, presentations, and meetings during this very successful conference. A few, however, deserve mentioning, such as the workshop on introduction to nursing terminology for newcomers given by Anne Casey, in which she explained in simple terms what is meant by nursing terminology. Another was the keynote by Derek Hoy about developing nursing's professional language, its purposes, and evaluation. Margareta Ehnfors spoke about the ICNP evaluation and application, and Anne Casey updated the attendees on international developments regarding nursing terminology and standards. Those interested in more detail can purchase the 320-page proceedings of this conference through Nico Oud, Hakfort 621, 1102 LA Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for $20 + postage (Fax ++ 31 20 4090550 or e-mail nico.oud@freeler.nl).

The conference provided a good overview of what is going on in Europe, and ACENDIO facilitated the opportunity for professional nurses to learn about, influence, and participate in the development of a common language, terminologies, and classifications, and to share knowledge about the developments in this area. It provided an excellent network for nurses from the different European and other) countries to promote and advance a common language to describe the practice of nursing. The fourth biennial conference will be in Paris, France, and will focus on making nursing more visible by showing and communicating the use of classifications and the results of nursing data collection as a means for improving nursing practice.

Brasil

The translation into Brasilian Portuguese of the 2001-2001 version of NANDA Nursing Diagnosis: Definitions and Classification was concluded in May and is expected to be available to Brazilian nurses in July. The 1999-2000 edition sold out and nurses are looking for this new edition. The revisions of the translation of Taxonomy I nursing diagnoses, as well as the translation of the new diagnoses and the structure of Taxonomy II, was done by Jeanne Liliane Marlene Michel, MSN, RN, and supervised by Alba Lucia Botura Leite de Barros, PhD, RN, from the department of Nursing of Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo. For further information, please contact Jeanne@denf.epm.br or barrosalba@dhsp.epm.br

Compiled by Alba de Barros, PhD, RN
Sao Paulo, Brasil

de Barros, Alba

Source Citation

de Barros, Alba. "ACENDIO." Nursing Diagnosis Apr.-June 2001: 66. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 May 2012.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA77747904&v=2.1&u=phspuqc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Scrub Hand Washing

USE PROPER HANDWASHING TECHNIQUES --- PROTECT YOUR HEALTH

 

Handwashing is the single most important procedure for preventing the spread of biological contamination. Despite this fact many laboratory personnel don't wash their hands properly. 

Here are some handwashing tips and procedures for your use.

1. Consider the sink, including the faucet controls, contaminated.

2. Avoid touching the sink.

3. Turn water on using a paper towel and then wet your hands and wrists.

4. Work soap into a lather.

5. Vigorously rub together all surfaces of the lathered hands for 15 seconds. Friction helps remove dirt and microorganisms. Wash around and under rings, around cuticles, and under fingernails

6. Rinse hands thoroughly under a stream of water. Running water carries away dirt and debris. Point fingers down so water and contamination won't drip toward elbows.

7. Dry hands completely with a clean dry paper towel.

8. Use a dry paper towel to turn faucet off.

9. To keep soap from becoming a breeding place for microorganisms, thoroughly clean soap dispensers before refilling with fresh soap.

10. When handwashing facilities are not available at a remote work site, use an appropriate antiseptic hand cleaner or antiseptic towelettes. As soon as possible, rewash hands with soap and running water.