What is the future of nursing informatics?

The sky is the limit!  Already technology has gone so much further and so much faster than we ever knew it would.  McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K., authors of Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge, state that nursing informatics can “manage and enhance the healthcare data, information, knowledge, and wisdom for the dual betterment of patient care and the nursing profession” (2008, p. 395).  What are some of the ways this can happen? 

I already use my fingerprint to access radiology images and to remove medications from the AccuDose.  Unfortunately, it’s not as reliable as one would hope.  What if retinal scanning was used to access information or supplies that are needed?  This would definitely eliminate the need for passwords that require upper case, lower case, symbols, numbers, and letters!  Anyone else have trouble remembering theirs??  What about call lights with video monitors?  How about using blue tooth capabilities on the floor for a more hands-free approach when needed?  Placing a small chip, with a full health history, in a person’s wrist would surely be helpful in an emergency. 

Undoubtedly, schools and businesses are entering the social networking world.  The hospital I work foe has a Facebook page and it also tweets.  Many hospitals have email accounts for their employees but prevent access from home—I think it would be extremely helpful to be able to do so.  It seems that everyone has a cell phone these days and sending out mass texts to employees with extremely important information would definitely get a message out. 

The future will certainly bring more change and advancement to technology and nursing informatics.  It is best to embrace it and not be left behind!

      McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2009). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, LLC.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) has no standard laboratory test for diagnosis.  When a patient goes to his/her healthcare provider with many of the common complaints that goes along with CFS, many other disease processes, such as multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematous, must be ruled out.  Early on there was thought that CFS was related to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) that causes mononucleosis; however, there were too many people that had been diagnosed with CFS that had never had EBV.  Likewise, there are many healthy, unaffected people that have had EBV in the past and have never suffered from CFS.

Another issue related to CFS is whether or not it is a real problem or something that is fabricated in the sufferer's mind.  I have repeatedly seen physicians and nurses roll their eyes when a patient comes in with complaints of CFS.  I remember sitting in my Fundamentals of Nursing class and learning that pain is subjective and difficult to assess objectively.  Margo McCaffrey's definition of pain has been widely used..."Pain is whatever the person experiencing the pain says it is."  According to Anthony L. Komaroff, Asst. Professor of Medicine at Harvard, "...there is now considerable evidence of an underlying biological process in most (CFS) patients (which) is inconsistent with the hypothesis that (the syndrome) involves symptoms that are only imagined or amplified because of underlying psychiatric distress.  It is time to put that hypothesis to rest."

The following webliography provides a list of different sources of information about CFS.  Is it triggered by a virus?  Is it autoimmune?  Is it caused by a bacterium?  You decide...

          Komaroff, A. (2000).  The biology of the chronic fatigue syndrome.  American Journal of Medicine 108:99-105.


Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/
This page offers excellent information about the causes, diagnoses, symptoms and treatments for CFS.  There is general information for the everyday consumer and more specific material for healthcare providers.  Links are available for continuing education, meetings and workshops, programs available for CFS and other related links.


The Mayo Clinic
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/DS00395
This information is provided by the Mayo Clinic, a reputable healthcare system.  There is good general information about the condition that would be helpful for those studying the topic for papers or research, as well as patients themselves.  The first page has a general definition but links are also available to look more specifically at risk factors, symptoms, tests, and treatments.


Science Magazine
Detection of an Infectious Retrovius, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1179052
A report that shows a link between xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and CFS.  Multiple links available following the report.


Autoimmunity Research Foundation

http://autoimmunityresearch.org/
The Autoimmunity Research Foundation is a charity whose educational efforts are focused on letting Health Professionals, and the public, know the cause of Th1 chronic inflammatory disease...some believe CFS to be autoimmune.  A plethora of articles for patients and physicians are also available.


ABC News
Panel Pushes for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Name Change 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Health/panel-pushes-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-change/story?id=11891485
An excellent article and video by ABC News, this story explains why experts are pushing for a name change for CFS.  Multiple video links and related articles about CFS also available.


CFIDS Association of America
Working to make CFS widely understood, diagnosable, curable and preventable

http://www.cfids.org/
A website dedicated to helping others learn about CFS.  This site links to information about "what's new" and CFS and new research being done.  There are also webinars available to watch.  Plus, this website offers a home page that cater to youth with CFS.

I'm tweeting...and I'm kinda liking it!

This Health Informatics class is making me step outside of my comfort zone.  Honestly, I've never had a big desire to join the Twitter network.  But....what I've figured out...it is pretty cool!  My instructor, Terri Schmitt (you can follow this link to her blog), required us to make a Twitter account and recommended we use some sort of application to help us follow different tweets and to make it easier to participate in discussions.  I'm using Tweetdeck, but I know others that use HootSuite.  There are also applications that are availabe for smart phones.  I'm seriously considering adding this application to my iPhone!

What I'm learning, is that change is inevitable...nothing is static!  I suppose that I might as well embrace the changes that are taking place around me or I'll be left behind.  Afterall, I'm female, I'm a nurse, I'm a mom...I'm adaptable!

Why Nursing Informatics?

Technology is transforming the world…FAST!  Every aspect of our lives is being impacted by this constant change.  My first grader can run a computer better than my 61 year old mother.  My 13 year old nephew can write computer programs.  I have my i-Phone, laptop and desktop computer and I still feel technologically challenged too often. 

According to Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge, nursing informatics is “a combination of nursing science, information science, and computer science” (McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K., 2009, p. 5).  As I read this definition, the first thing that pops into my mind is “I went to school to be a nurse…I don’t have a communications degree and I definitely had no desire to work in IT!”  Here’s the deal—it doesn’t matter!  McGonigle & Mastrian (2009) also explain that:

Nurses are knowledge workers, working with information and generating information and knowledge as a product.  We are knowledge acquirers, providing convenient and efficient means of capturing and storing knowledge.  We are knowledge users, individuals or groups who benefit from valuable, viable knowledge.  Nurses are knowledge engineers, designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining knowledge.  We are knowledge managers, capturing and processing collective expertise and distributing it where it can create the largest benefit.  We are knowledge developers or generators, changing and evolving knowledge based on the tasks at hand and information available. (p. 9).

And to that extremely long but amazing quote I say, WOW!  We nurses are pretty amazing people!

I carry a handheld computer around at work and I scan medications and patient’s wrist bands.  I chart on a computer in the patient’s room or the COW in the hall or the desktop/laptop at the nurse’s station.  The IV pumps I use are all computerized and the clinics, doctor’s offices, and hospital computers are all networked together.  When I fax a medication order it is scanned automatically into a computer for the pharmacist.  That’s where the information science and computer science come into play. 

I will graduate next spring with my BSN and I am taking Health Care Informatics.  As I read the syllabus and learned that I was going to twitter and blog for this class I questioned the validity of the assignment and quite frankly, asked myself how that really applies to nursing.  What the first week of class taught me is that caring for my patients is still my main priority; however, technology has changed the scope of nursing.  Electronic records, e-mail, internet, and social networking require us to enter the electronic age.  Don’t forget…we nurses are knowledge users!

          McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2009). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, LLC.