Using Health Information Technology as a Source of Evidence-Based Practice

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Before the digital revolution, health information technology supplied very limited support for evidence-based practice.

If nurses wanted to be informed about cutting-edge research, their best bet was to either subscribe to leading journals or make periodic trips to the library.

With the establishment of research databases, however, nurses became empowered to learn about and facilitate interdisciplinary and translational research. Databases are just one example of how health information technology supports evidence-based practice.

To prepare:

· Read the following scenario from the text (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015, p. 445):

Twelve-hour shifts are problematic for patient and nurse safety, and yet hospitals continue to keep the 12-hour shift schedule. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (Board on Health Care Services & Institute of Medicine, 2004) published a report that referred to studies as early as 1988 that discussed the negative effects of rotating shifts on intervention accuracy.

Workers with 12-hour shifts realized more fatigue than workers on 8-hour shifts. In another study done in Turkey by Ilhan, Durukan, Aras, Turkcuoglu, and Aygun (2006), factors relating to increased risk for injury were age of 24 or less, less than 4 years of nursing experience, working in the surgical intensive care units, and working for more than 8 hours.

· Consider how the resources identified in the scenario above could influence an organization’s practice.

· Select an issue in your practice that is of concern to you. Using health information technology, locate at least three evidence-based practice resources that address your concern and that could possibly inform further action.

RESOURCES

Required Readings

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

  • Chapter 23, “Research: Data      Collection, Processing, and Analytics”

The authors of this chapter relate nursing research to the foundation of knowledge model. The chapter assesses informatics tools for collecting data, storing information, and processing and analyzing data.

  • Chapter 25, “Translational      Research: Generating Evidence for Practice”

In this chapter, the authors differentiate evidence-based practice and translation research. They also describe models used to introduce research findings intro practice.

Hynes, D. M., Weddle, T., Smith, N., Whittier, E., Atkins, D., & Francis, J. (2010). Use of health information technology to advance evidence-based care: Lessons from the VA QUERI program. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(Suppl. 1), S44–S49. 

This article presents a study that evaluated the role of health information technology (HIT) in the Department of Veteran Affairs’ Quality Enhancement Research Initiative.

The authors convey their findings on how HIT provided data and information to aid implementation research, and how implementation research helped further HIT development. Additionally, the text details methods of overcoming common HIT barriers to implementation research.

Jamal, A., McKenzie, K., & Clark, M. (2009). The impact of health information technology on the quality of medical and health care: A systematic review. Health Information Management Journal, 38(3), 26–37. 

This text details a study that reviews the published evidence concerning the impact of health information technology (HIT) on the quality of health care.

The study investigated the use of HIT in medical care and allied health and preventive services. The authors primarily focus on the impact of electronic health records, computerized provider order-entry, and decision support systems.

Umscheid, C. A., Williams, K., & Brennan, P. (2010). Hospital-based comparative effectiveness centers: Translating research into practice to improve the quality, safety and value of patient care. JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(12), 1,352–1,355.

This article revolves around the usage of the hospital-based comparative effectiveness (CE) center model. The authors highlight the model’s benefits and the increasing usage of CE evidence. The article also reviews solutions to overcoming many of the challenges to operating hospital-based CE centers.

Optional Resources

Chlan, L., Tracy, M. F., & Grossbach, I. (2011). Pulmonary care. Achieving quality patient-ventilator management: Advancing evidence-based nursing care. Critical Care Nurse, 31(6), 46–50.