Consequences of a Healthcare Organization not Involving Nurses
ANSWER
NURS 6051C
Involving nurses at each stage of the SDLC when acquiring and deploying a new health information technology system is all about getting people on board with innovation and change, which is becoming increasingly vital for organisational success. Failure to involve nurses can have four implications.
Early engagement is lost since the nurses’ attention is not captured.
There is a lack of faith in the change process, as well as in the experience and skill of the implementers.
The new system introduces competing priorities that lower the nurses’ interest, resulting in dissatisfaction and fatigue.
The inclusion of nurses in the systems development life cycle is being discussed. Finally, there may be a loss of personal connection to the new system because the nurses’ core views and individual aspirations may differ from those of the organization (French-Bravo & Crow, 2015). Through initial involvement, nurses’ commitment to the new system will be stimulated by incorporating them into each stage of the SDLC.
Furthermore, they will be able to connect the system to care delivery, forming a personal connection as they become driven to serve patients and seek to enhance treatment. This also allows them to devote their time and energy to successfully implementing the new system (Cherry & Jacob, 2016; Stanley, 2017). On the other hand, the failure to involve nurses suggests that they will initially interact with the system throughout its deployment. This suggests that the nurses knew nothing about the new system before its introduction and will only have a short time to become acquainted with its operation. Some nurses will be unable to attend training on how to use the new system, limiting their ability to use it and slowing down workflow. Some will undoubtedly make blunders, typing arbitrary commands into the system and hoping for the best. As a result, the system’s benefits would not be achieved, and the system would be deemed a failure. Cherry and Jacob (2016); Stanley (2017) The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle is being discussed.
References
M. French-Bravo and G. Crow (2015). Shared Governance: The Importance of Buy-In for Change OJIN: The Online Journal of Nursing Issues, 20 (2). DOI 10.3912/OJIN.Vol20No02PPT02. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-20-2015/No2-May-2015/Articles-Previous-Topics/Role-of-Buy-In-In-Change.html.
D. Stanley (ed) (2017). Clinical nursing and healthcare leadership: putting beliefs into action (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Hoboken, NJ. Discussion: Nurses’ Inclusion in the System Development Life Cycle
Consequences of a Healthcare Organization not Involving Nurses
QUESTION
Consequences of a Healthcare Organization not Involving Nurses
Respond by offering additional thoughts regarding the examples shared, Systems Development Life Cycle SDLC-related issues, and ideas on how the inclusion of nurses might have impacted the example described by your colleagues.
Initial Post
Consequences of a Healthcare Organization not Involving Nurses
Nurses are the backbone of healthcare and when they are not involved in the design and decision-making processes of the Systems Development Life Cycle the results can be catastrophic. According to the authors Powell-Cope & Nelson (2008), nurses are the frontline and chief users of electronic health record (EHR) systems, it only makes sense they’d have a major say in EHR design and upgrades. Unfortunately, however, in many facilities, EHR design is left primarily to IT and only minor input is taken into consideration from the nursing staff. When subject matter experts, such as nurses, don’t have autonomy and responsibility within the design process, implementing and utilizing an EHR can take longer because providers are distanced from the outcomes (Powell-Cope & Nelson, 2008).
Inclusion of Nurses in EHR Design
When nurses are included in technology design, it enables and enhances safety (Hamer & Cipriano, 2013). A study was done in 2009 on early nursing involvement during the implementation of a Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) system. The authors of this study describe how nurses participated in the early design, planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of the BCMA. The study found that the benefits of early nursing involvement in each phase of BCMA technology greatly outweigh the problems that can arise from early nursing involvement (Weckman & Jansen, 2009). This study found that in order to find success when implementing new technologies, it is essential that nurses be involved throughout all phases of the process. Comments and feedback from nurses provide the necessary clues that are needed to resolve underlying systemic issues and can offer possible resolutions.
My Personal Input
My current healthcare facility is changing its EHR system to Epic. They have selected a specific team of nurses and nurse informaticists that are currently part of their healthcare team, to design and adapt the Epic program to meet the institution’s requirements. My facility has named their adaptation of the Epic EHR to Elle. The entire healthcare team has been invited to monthly townhouse meetings which involve disclosing the most recent updates made to Elle and team members are also encouraged to provide input on any modifications they would like to add to Elle. As critical nurses, we are excited that we will finally have a charting system that downloads our vital signs electronically. Before Elle, we had to write our vital signs every 15 minutes on each of our two patients. It might not seem like a big deal, but writing vital signs for two patients can take up a considerable amount of time, especially when a patient is unstable and on multiple drips. If nurses were not involved in the EHR design, downloading vital signs might be something that was overlooked again.