Transforming Nursing

IT IS A REPLY TO THIS DISCUSSION(ONE PAGE , THREE REFERENCES, PLEASE)             I agree with Ms. Sipes (2016) that Nursing Informatics is not fully understood, and the concept is difficult to grasp for many.  The most simplistic way I think of it is as health care data management and utilization.  In my organization, technology is still a bit behind the times.  As I mentioned in the last discussion, we still use paper charting and outdated technology.  There is not a nurse informaticist identified, and only one IT specialist for two campuses.  Corporate support is available for IT questions, but the response is slow and often minimally helpful.            Oddly enough, our IT specialist is really only a specialist with the hardware and base operating systems.  He is not familiar with our EMR, billing software, or pharmacy programs. If there is a problem with these systems, the go-to person for technical support is the person with the most experience working that day.   No one has been formally trained on the programs.  We have learned through trial-and-error; thus, the people who have been there longest have learned more and can help others.  If we do need to resort to asking for corporate support, we are usually unable to access the systems for hours.  This leads to a great deal of frustration, reduced access to records, and slower access to medications.  This can bleed over to the patient/ nurse relationship in a negative way.  It is so difficult to maintain a caring countenance for the patient when all the technology is falling apart (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018).             My suggestion for improvement, in agreement with Mosier et al. (2019), would be for our nursing leadership to develop a position of nurse informaticist.  Our organization would greatly benefit from one nurse that is familiar with all aspects of our health care processes as well as our technology options.  That person would then be responsible for training all new hires on how to use the software programs, troubleshoot issues, and develop new systems to support our growing needs.  Having a designated specialist would reduce the panic that starts as soon as something goes awry, and the search begins for someone that might be able to fix it.  This also would allow the floor nurses to concentrate their time and attention to providing patient care.  If technology is not seamlessly integrated, patient care will suffer.  For more information on Transforming Nursing  read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing