NURS 5051 Week 3: Knowledge and Information Management

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NURS 5051/6051 Week 3: Knowledge and Information Management essay assignment

NURS 5051/6051: Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Information Technology | Week 3 essay assignment

What words do you use to describe pain? What words do your colleagues use to describe pain? Does every patient use the same adjectives when discussing his or her level of pain? Consider the problems these differences can create when attempting to assess a patient’s health concerns.

Health information technology has greatly increased the opportunity for the exchange of meaningful data and information across health care systems; however, in order for that to successfully occur, care must be taken to ensure that patient data is entered in a manner that allows for that information to retain its meaning across different systems. To be able to use health information technology to its greatest advantage, nurses need to gain an understanding of how data and information can be standardized and organized.

NURS 5051 Week 3: Knowledge and Information Management essay assignment 

This week, you assess the purpose of standardized terminology in informatics. In addition, you are introduced to the continuum of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, and you consider the key elements of each stage.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • Assess the importance of standardized terminologies used to document patient care
  • Apply the data, information, knowledge, and wisdom continuum

 

 

As a result of the fragmented nature of the health care system, professionals in various specialty areas of medicine have developed their own unique sets of terminology to communicate within that specialty. In the past, limited attention has been given to codifying practices in order for them to be understood and utilized across disciplines or through different information technology systems. The implementation of a federally mandated electronic medical records system, therefore, poses a challenge to nursing professionals and others who must be prepared to utilize standardized codes for the new system. Why are coding standards important for promoting consistent, high-quality care?

According to Rutherford (2008, para. 15), “Improved communication with other nurses, health care professionals, and administrators of the institution in which nurses work is a key benefit of using a standardized nursing language.” In this Discussion you consider the reasoning behind and the value of standardized codification.

To prepare

  • Review the information in Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice. Determine which set of terminologies are appropriate for your specialty or area of expertise.
  • Reflect on the importance of continuity in terminology and coding systems.
  • In the article, “Standardized Nursing Language: What Does It Mean for Nursing Practice?” the author recounts a visit to a local hospital to view its implementation of a new coding system. One of the nurses commented to her, “We document our care using standardized nursing languages but we don’t fully understand why we do” (Rutherford, 2008, para. 1). Consider how you would inform this nurse (and others like her) of the importance of standardized nursing terminologies.
  • Reflect on the value of using a standard language in nursing practice. Consider if standardization can be limited to a specialty area or if one standard language is needed across all nursing practice. Then, identify examples of standardization in your own specialty or area of expertise. Conduct additional research using the Walden Library that supports your thoughts on standardization of nursing terminology.

By Day 3

Post an explanation of why nurses need to document care using standardized nursing languages and whether this standardization can be limited to specialty areas or if it should be across all nursing practice. Support your response using specific examples from your own specialty or area of expertise and using at least one additional resource from the Walden Library.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days using one or more of the following approaches:

  • Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence or research.
  • Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
  • Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
  • Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
  • Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
  • Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

 


Assignment: Application:
Using the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum essay assignment

Have you ever gone online to search for a journal article on a specific topic? It is amazing to see the large number of journals that are available in the health care field. When you view the library in its entirety, you are viewing untapped data. Until you actually research for your particular topic, there is little structure. Once you have narrowed it down, you have information and once you apply the information, you have knowledge. Eventually, after thoughtful research and diligent practice, you reach the level of wisdom—knowledge applied in meaningful ways.

Are there areas in your practice that you believe should be more fully explored? The central aims of nursing informatics are to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. This continuum represents the overarching structure of nursing informatics. In this Assignment, you develop a research question relevant to your practice area and relate how you would work through the progression from data to information, knowledge, and wisdom.

To prepare:

  • Review the information in Figure 6–1 in Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge.
  • Develop a clinical question related to your area of practice that you would like to explore.
  • Consider what you currently know about this topic. What additional information would you need to answer the question?
  • Using the continuum of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, determine how you would go about researching your question.
    • Explore the available databases in the Walden Library. Identify which of these databases you would use to find the information or data you need.
    • Once you have identified useful databases, how would you go about finding the most relevant articles and information?
    • Consider how you would extract the relevant information from the articles.
    • How would you take the information and organize it in a way that was useful? How could you take the step from simply having useful knowledge to gaining wisdom?

By Day 7 of Week 4

Write a 3- to 4-page paper that addresses the following:

  • Summarize the question you developed, and then relate how you would work through the four steps of the data, information, knowledge, wisdom continuum. Be specific.
    • Identify the databases and search words you would use.
    • Relate how you would take the information gleaned and turn it into useable knowledge.
  • Can informatics be used to gain wisdom? Describe how you would progress from simply having useful knowledge to the wisdom to make decisions about the information you have found during your database search.

Your paper must also include a title page, an introduction, a summary, and a reference page.