Development of a computerized intravenous insulin application (AutoCal) at Kaiser Permanente Northwest, integrated into Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect: impact on safety and nursing workload.
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CONTEXT: The electronic medical record, HealthConnect, at the Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in the Northwest used scanned paper protocols for intravenous insulin administration. A chart review of 15 patients on intravenous insulin therapy using state-of-the-art paper-based column protocols revealed 40% deviation from the protocol. A time study of experienced nurses computing the insulin dose revealed an average of 2 minutes per calculation per hour to complete. OBJECTIVE: To improve patient safety and to reduce nursing workload burden with a computerized intravenous insulin calculator application connected to HealthConnect. SOLUTION: Using Kaiser iLab developers through innovation funding, a computerized protocol was developed and integrated into HealthConnect, with a computerized tracking system used to store and to analyze intravenous insulin data. OUTCOME: A review of 35 patient charts using computerized insulin infusion tool indicated 100% accuracy in computations with a reduction of nursing workload from 2 minutes to 30 seconds per calculation. CONCLUSION: Development and operationalizing an integrated intravenous insulin calculator into HealthConnect was successfully completed at the Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center, with 97% nursing satisfaction scores and a promise to generate data on intravenous insulin therapy to refine the protocol. (+info)
Social media use in nursing education.
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As technological advances continue to expand connectivity and communication, the number of patients and nurses engaging in social media increases. Nurses play a significant role in identification, interpretation, and transmission of knowledge and information within healthcare. Social media is a platform that can assist nursing faculty in helping students to gain greater understanding of and/or skills in professional communication; health policy; patient privacy and ethics; and writing competencies. Although there are barriers to integration of social media within nursing education, there are quality resources available to assist faculty to integrate social media as a viable pedagogical method. This article discusses the background and significance of social media tools as pedagogy, and provides a brief review of literature. To assist nurse educators who may be using or considering social media tools, the article offers selected examples of sound and pedagogically functional use in course and program applications; consideration of privacy concerns and advantages and disadvantages; and tips for success. (+info)
Communication technology and social media: opportunities and implications for healthcare systems.
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Electronic patient education and communications, such as email, text messaging, and social media, are on the rise in healthcare today. This article explores potential uses of technology to seek solutions in healthcare for such challenges as modifying behaviors related to chronic conditions, improving efficiency, and decreasing costs. A brief discussion highlights the role of technologies in healthcare informatics and considers two theoretical bases for technology implementation. Discussion focuses more extensively on the ability and advantages of electronic communication technology, such as e-mail, social media, text messaging, and electronic health records, to enhance patient-provider e-communications in nursing today. Effectiveness of e-communication in healthcare is explored, including recent and emerging applications designed to improve patient-provider connections and review of current evidence supporting positive outcomes. The conclusion addresses the vision of nurses' place in the vanguard of these developments. (+info)
Advancing nursing practice through social media: a global perspective.
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Social media has been used globally as a key vehicle for communication. As members of an innovative profession, many nurses have embraced social media and are actively utilizing its potential to enhance practice and improve health. The ubiquity of the Internet provides social media with the potential to improve both access to health information and services and equity in health care. Thus there are a number of successful nurse-led initiatives. However, the open and democratising nature of social media creates a number of potential risks, both individual and organisational. This article considers the use of social media within nursing from a global perspective, including discussion of policy and guidance documents. The impact of social media on both healthcare consumers and nurses is reviewed, followed by discussion of selected risks associated with social media. To help nurses make the most of social media tools and avoid potential pitfalls, the article conclusion suggests implications appropriate for global level practice based on available published guidance. (+info)
Challenges and solutions for using informatics in research.
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A pilot study to explore the feasibility of using theClinical Care Classification System for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services.
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While nursing activities represent a significant proportion of inpatient care, there are no reliable methods for determining nursing costs based on the actual services provided by the nursing staff. Capture of data to support accurate measurement and reporting on the cost of nursing services is fundamental to effective resource utilization. Adopting standard terminologies that support tracking both the quality and the cost of care could reduce the data entry burden on direct care providers. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of using a standardized nursing terminology, the Clinical Care Classification System (CCC), for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services. Two different approaches are explored; the Relative Value Unit RVU and the simple cost-to-time methods. We found that the simple cost-to-time method was more accurate and more transparent in its derivation than the RVU method and may support a more consistent and reliable approach for costing nursing services. (+info)
Collaborative development and maintenance of health terminologies.
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The quest for a standardized terminology that can meet the varying needs of healthcare practice, and requirements for secondary use, is ongoing. The number of potential users and the number of potential uses for standardized terminologies make collaborative development, rather than the traditional de jure approach, an imperative, and there appears to be significant worldwide interest in this area. In this article we describe an initiative of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), ICNP C-Space (Collaborative Space), which utilized a social media platform to encourage and facilitate global collaborative development of its terminology, the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP((R))). We report on several years of experience of managing the platform and provide valuable lessons on collaborative terminology development. Our experience suggests that web-based platforms such as ICNP C-Space certainly offer the promise of a broader, wider-reaching, and more inclusive community of contributors to the terminology development process. However, there are also potential limitations for which we provide practical recommendations. (+info)