Module Six: Policy/Ethical Issues Related to Information Technology

What is one new thing you learned in this module, or something that you knew but had forgotten?

I have learned many important things about computers and computer systems within the health care setting in this class. From this module, it is very important to keep patient information safe and secure as you are viewing it on a computer. I used to become frustrated at how many times I had to change passwords at work and school, but now I understand just how important keeping your (and your patients) confidential information safe truly is. I also found the "10 Tips to Secure Your Laptop" very useful and will be utilizing those tips in the future.

We have had many problems in the unit where I work concerning Facebook. Many of my colleagues have found it a place to "release" some of their built up frustrations from work and make comments about it on their Facebook page. The problem with this is many people forget that what you write on your Facebook page is there for everyone to see. This becomes a problem because what is said may offend someone, or, they put to much information about a patient on there which is a direct violation of that patients (and that patients family) privacy. This module has taught me that there are many ethical considerations that need to be considered when using the internet and computerized health care information systems.  

Module Five: Decision Support for Care Delivery

How did the readings influence your perception of your own clinical decision-making?

After viewing the lecture given by Daniel Kahneman (which I enjoyed) and reading the articles for module five, I have learned that I use intuition a great deal more than I realized. I would not ever call myself an expert in the field of neonatal medicine as it is ever changing, however; I certainly have had my days where I come on to a shift and notice "little" things about a baby that just do not feel right only to have that baby become very sick on my shift. Because of that "intuition" the NICU team is able to get that baby the help that it needs a lot faster, giving that baby a better chance at survival. 

I did learn that it does take more than just intuition to make the best decisions possible. In the Intermountain Healthcare NICU where I work, we utilize the Collaborative Practice Guideline (CPG) system. I have seen it work many times in helping with many different situations from how to unclot a line depending on what the substance was that had clotted the line, to what to do with a cardiac suction tube post op cardiothoracic surgery. It definitely helps to have intuition (system I) along with controlled reasoning (system II) to give the best care to our little patients in the NICU.    

Module Four: Teaching with Technology

What sort of teaching is done in your professional role?

There are many forms of teaching done in my professional role. One of the most important is the teaching that I give to parents and families on a daily basis at work. From the moment the parents step into the NICU, I teach them how to scrub their hands well so they do not pass on germs to their sick infant. When they visit their baby's bedside for the first time, I teach them all about the monitors and what the numbers mean. I teach them about the medications their baby is on, about all the lines and wires, the IVs, the baby's condition, and any modes of ventilation their baby may be receiving. Each day there is always something new to teach the parents and family about the baby and the baby's care; sometimes I have to re-teach the same thing to the parents because they are so over stimulated they may not remember something from the day before. There is also a lot of discharge teaching to be done with the parents such as teaching them how to give a bath, when to call the doctor, and how to do CPR at home as well as teaching them how to manage stress and avoid shaken baby syndrome. 

Is there any nursing/health care provider role that does not involve teaching in some manner?

I do not believe that there is a care provider role that does not involve teaching in some manner. My sister works for a GI doctor as a receptionist. Even though she is not a nurse or nurse assistant, she is responsible for giving the patient information (teaching them) regarding their upcoming visit or surgery with that doctor.


Welcome to Your Wiki for NURS 6004 on Mobile Devices for Healthcare Information: Mobile Device Wiki 

Module Three: Information Retrieval

You used an electronic index, a guideline index, and a web search engine to retrieve information relevant to your clinical problem. Compare and contrast your results. Which resources were useful/ not useful for your information retrieval task, and why?

During the module 3 retrieval activity, I was able to use many electronic and guideline indexes and a couple web search engines. Before becoming more proficient in using resources such as PubMed I used Google. Google is a good search engine, but you may have to search through pages of articles and websites before finding what you are truly looking for. I find that medical based indexes such as PubMed and CINAHL to work much better for my needs in finding articles related to the subject I am researching. EndNote is another useful tool in research; I can search for articles through EndNote and keep the relevant citations in a folder for later use. There are a couple downsides to the EndNote program; you have to make sure to edit your citations to the correct format and the program does not always find a full version or link to your article of choice.  I did go the National Guideline Clearinghouse web site for the first time and found that I did not get as large of a selection on my particular subject: Neonatal sepsis. I tried using different words to expand the results but usually I was only able to retrieve 7 entries, however, I feel that my inexperience may be to blame. I will go back to that site again at a later date to see if I can learn to make better use of it in the future.  

Module Two: Healthcare Information Systems and Devices

1. What is one way you could become involved in designing, selecting, evaluating, or implementing an information system in your workplace?

We have many committees at my place of work that get together to discuss the implementation of new information systems. Joining one of these committees would give me a chance to become involved in at least selection, evaluating, and implementation. When the vocera communication system was in the early stages I was on the committee for that. I was able to trial run it and then become a super trainer so that I could teach others on my unit how to utilize this new technology. I think nurses are involved in using information systems on a day to day basis making us evaluate and implement the systems we use; we use a scanning devise to scan in every medication that is given to include saline flushes, the monitors that measure or patients vital signs, and the programs we use to look up lab results and photographic images at the patients bedside in a matter of minutes. The possibilities of becoming involved in information system in the workplace is endless.

One of the best ways to become involved is to mention when you find a glitch in a new (or older) system. When my unit first implemented the use of the medication scanning system, we had many problems with our narcotic and sedative drips. These were usually continuously running drips; however, we would use these same continuous syringe drips for our break though pain or sedation boluses. The bar code on the syringe would only come up on the electronic MAR as a drip/infusion and we could not charge it or record it as a bolus dose. We now have a separate bar code for the syringe and one for the bolus given off of that particular syringe.

Module One: Introduction

Hi everyone, I am Jennifer.

I have been married for 15 years and I have three children; Megan, Collin, and Addy. My husband’s family is from England and a few years ago we decided to do a wild and crazy thing; we moved to England so that our children could see what it was like to actually live a British lifestyle and get to know his side of the family (my husband was the only child out of nine to be born in the States). We lived in a little village called Holbeach which is about two and a half hours north east of London. We knew that we were only going to stay there for a little over one year (the kids were not pleased with the move so we promised only one year) so we traveled as much as we could. We were able to visit many parts of England, Spain, Italy (best food in the world), Ireland (kissed the Blarney Stone), Netherlands, Africa, Scotland, and France (on many occasions to visit Disneyland Paris to keep the kids happy). It is safe to say that our kids were very tired of looking at castles by the end of our one year. Mine and my husband’s dream (and hopefully long term goal) is to move back to England and renovate a very old house and barn.

I work in the NICU at Primary Children's and I am in the DNP-NNP cohort. I think it is important for a graduate level nurse to know about information management; there are so many ways in this day and age to keep track of and monitor our patients. Our bedside monitors keep track of the patients vital signs and alert us when one of them is out of the normal parameters. As a graduate level nurse, the use of information management has become very important in the way we communicate with other medical professionals regarding our patients status.

As far as what is happening related to IT in my clinical practice setting, it is endless! At Intermountain Health Care we use the Vocera system which is sort of like a walkie talkie that hangs around your neck letting you be hands free when needing to find someone really fast such as in a code. I can even use it to talk with other medical professionals at other facilities. I really like the Vocera technology! We also use a computer system to look up labs and test results as well as look at x-rays right at the patients bedside. There really seems to be no end to the increasingly important use of IT in the medical setting. I do have to admit that beyond setting up a blog, I am some what useless when it comes to using new technology and I am looking forward to this class.