Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
You will use project management tools and strategies to propose how you would support and potentially implement a small nursing informatics project. While you may not have the opportunity to implement this proposed project, this project will allow you to apply the skills needed and the considerations that are required in deducing how a project of this scope might take place in your nursing practice. To complete this project, you will define a small informatics project that would be beneficial to your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Project: Implementation of Smart Phones in Academic Hospital. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
10-11 pages
- Identify and initiate a conversation with a nurse leader at your nursing practice or healthcare organization. Discuss what you will need to develop Scope and Charter Documents.
- Conduct a SWOT analysis which will provide information for the Scope and Charter. You can use a Word document and insert a table. Directions can be viewed in the Week 3 media piece, How to Perform a SWOT Analysis, found in this week’s Learning Resources. Some of the content is relevant to both the project for this course as well as organization of your doctoral dissertation. Overall, the first step for any project, work or your dissertation, requires a plan: what you will and will not do. That information is defined in a charter and scope.
- Create a visual using the Gap Analysis map of the identified gap, documenting the flow from the point of origin to the destination. After watching the Week 3 media piece, How to do a GAP Analysis, identify the gap and analyze the flow or lack of flow of information as the gap in a process. The visual map will include the flow from the point of origin to the destination.
- Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) using PowerPoint slides or another method. Be sure to review the media piece, What Is a Work Breakdown Structure? in the Week 3 Learning Resources.
- Create a Project Timeline Gantt chart, which defines who is responsible, due dates to start /finish activities. (You might also use this as you track your dissertation IRB submission for your proposal). You can find an example on pp. 95–96 of your text, using PowerPoint slides, or another method. Be sure to review the Gantt Charts, Simplified media piece in this week’s Learning Resources.
- RACI (responsibility chart) which outlines who will be responsible for which tasks, if working with a team. An example can be found in the Sipes text on pages 102–103.
- Communication plan – Include documentation of all communications, status reports, changes made, and next steps, especially if others will be responsible for helping you acquire documents such as IRB site documents if applicable. An example can be found in the Sipes text on page 109 and on pages 141–143. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
- Change management plan – Document all changes as they occur (e.g., meetings moved, revisions of drafts of project, due dates moved due to changes, changes in scope of project, change in team members). An example can be found in the Sipes text on page 106, 108, 138 and on pages 156–157.
- Risk management plan– After viewing the Week 4 media piece, “Risk Analysis How to Analyze Risks on Your Project,” document the impact of COVID-19 on current processes and potential for change. Be sure to also document how risk may be mitigated if possible. An example can be found in the Sipes text on pages 103–105.
Compile all updated and current documents from Weeks 1–4 to submit.
Include a description and application to practice for each of the tools you developed. Include the rationale in your submission. Address the following:
- How and why it was developed and its function (all activities will be identified in the WBS)
- How it will be applied to your project? Is it new technology?
- Who was involved in changes and what are their responsibilities? (This is the stakeholders, leadership, end users – (use the RACI chart)
- In what way has this changed with the onset of the pandemic, if at all? This might be the gap analysis, change management plan. What were the changes?
- Are health information system/application upgrades scheduled or planned? Why or why not?
Implementation of Smart Phones in Baylor Medical Center
Implementation of Smart Phones in Baylor University and Academic Center
The use of smartphones has become prevalent in academic hospitals today. Reports indicate that in the United States, healthcare professionals use smartphones to coordinate over 80 percent of their routine operations. Smartphones are famous technology that combines telephone communication and informatics in portable devices. Al Kuwaiti et al. (2018) indicated that smartphones in medical hospitals have transformed several aspects of clinical practice. Wu et al. (2010) argue that smartphones are becoming commonplace in medical settings today. The existence of medical devices has prompted rapid growth in the development of medical software applications used in clinical practices. In academic hospitals, smartphones are used to undertake essential tasks like information gathering, storing, and dissemination; time management, maintenance, access to health records; communication and consulting; reference and information gathering; clinical decision-making, patient management, monitoring, and medical education and training. This paper proposes the need to introduce smartphones applications in Baylor University Medical Center to facilitate communication and clinical practices and enhance research and clinical care.
The onset of the covid-19 pandemic has imposed a significant challenge in the healthcare sector, promoting the need to introduce smartphones to facilitate communication between healthcare professionals and patients or students while in their homes. The pandemic saw the overreliance on telemedicine to offer medical solutions to patients in remote areas. Telemedicine is an approach that allows patients with chronic infections like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, or hypertension to be discharged and allowed to continue with their medication in the comfort of their homes. The program provides for follow-up by nurses and other healthcare professionals using smartphones or any computer device while patients are in the comfort of their homes or offices.
Telemedicine is slowly but steadily becoming popular in the United States. Organizations such as Baylor, which are known cancer centers, have adopted telemedicine for patients with underlying conditions to control the spread of the pandemic and reduce the risk of the pandemic on the vulnerable population. One widely used telemedicine approach used in many academic healthcare centers is smartphones. The mobile device is effective in information gathering, storing, and dissemination; time management, maintaining and accessing health records; communication and consulting; reference and information gathering, clinical decision-making, patient management, monitoring, and medical education and training. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
Baylor University Medical Center offers the latest cancer-related treatments, which are of excellent quality. The hospital opened its cancer center in 2012, which has helped reduce cancer-related issues across the country. The medical center has over 1200 physicians and staff and more than one thousand beds. Baylor is a 1065 bed system with 6 specific medical facilities. Baylor has received high federal rating for heartcare, gynecology, urology, and orthopedics. In addition, Baylor has obtained a high national ranking for patient care, innovation, research and education. Baylor is a center for physician and nursing training with several programs. Baylor absorbs its students back to work as medical practitioners after they graduate. Baylor is located in Dallas, USA. The organization is engaged in several activities that require the use of smartphones. The major activity of Baylor is education and research. The implementation of smartphones will help the organization pass knowledge to students and patients, reduce medical cost by cutting travel costs, and enhance healthcare quality and care outcomes.
According to Lo et al. (2012), smartphones are frequently used among students, physicians, and medical interns, with overall use rates reaching 80 percent. These reports indicate that iOs-based systems such as iPhone are the widely used platform. Smartphones are popular in academic medical centers because of their versatility. The use of smartphone applications in academic hospitals helps in the decision-making process, information search and education application, and clinical practices (Felbaum et al., 2018). There is little evidence regarding the effectiveness of smartphones in improving academic performance among medical students.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
· The organization has highly skilled staff and students who can effectively use smartphone applications
· The hospital space is attractive and inviting for implementing smartphones in the organization.
· Students and physicians are the major stakeholders in this project, and they are supportive. They have accepted the need for smartphone implementation in the organization to facilitate education search, training, clinical practice, and information sharing.
· Baylor is a cancer center, and therefore, the implementation of smartphones will enhance the use of the telemedicine approach currently introduced in the organization for patients with chronic infections. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
· The availability of training and education programs in the hospital will enhance the implementation of new technologies such as smartphone application implementation. |
Weaknesses
· Limited space
· Limited network access
· High cost of acquiring smartphones
· Lack of enough funds to be used in the implementation of the new program
· The inventory system needs to be upgraded
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Opportunities
· Innovative teamwork. Baylor is a creative academic center that offers high-quality services and uses new technology in its operations.
· Medical students: the availability of medical students helps to offer the skills needed to use smartphone applications at the college level so that when the students are retained in the organization, they already have the skills, and as a result, the cost of training them will be reduced.
· The current pandemic: the covid 19 pandemic has presented a need to invest in technology in healthcare organizations to allow patients to continue receiving treatments in the comfort of their homes. The implementation of smartphones will help the organization to implement telemedicine programs effectively.
· Availability of smartphones: Over 80 percent of the total population have or understand how to use smartphones in the U.S. The availability of smartphones will reduce the cost of implementing smartphones to improve academic performance and enhance the quality of clinical practices.
· Excellent infrastructure network: Dallas is amongst the most affluent communities with good roads, network coverage, security, and social amenities. The implementation of the use of smartphones requires excellent network coverage. Excellent network coverage in Dallas is a great opportunity |
Threats
· The constant change in technology
· Threats of cyber actors
· Security and confidentiality threats to patient’s electronic records
· Threats of damage and loss of sensitive information
· Threats of
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Gap analysis map
The current performance (where we are)
Baylor University Medical Center is a profit organization. The organization wants to increase its growth by 30 percent per year but has been growing at 10 percent a year. This puts the current of Baylor at 8 percent growth per year. The organization has experienced a significant decline in its revenue since the onset of the pandemic. When the pandemic struck, the organization had to release all medical students and reduce hospital congestion by 50 percent. This follows the government directive, which demanded more space in hospitals to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Currently, the organization serves half of its usual patient population. The average patient population currently stands at 1000 daily instead of the usual 3000 patients. The organization has also limited the population of its students by a more significant percentage to minimize congestion in classes. These measures have reduced the organizational returns to 8 percent annually instead of the previous 15 percent as recorded in 2018. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
The abrupt decline is pegged on the effects of the pandemic, which ravaged the organizational operations. However, with the implementation of smartphone applications, the organization will be able to continue with its operations like teaching, training, and clinical practices even when students and patients are in the comfort of their homes or offices. There is a greater need for implementing smartphone use in the organization to help students continue receiving learning services at their homes even in the face of the pandemic. Similarly, it will help patients receive treatment and limit their face-to-face visits to hospitals for medical services. The organization also records low sales volume because the number of patients outweighs the total population of patients. When the face-to-face treatment method is used, each nurse can only serve a maximum of 100 patients in a day. However, through the telemedicine approach, a nurse can serve up to 200 patients daily. The most convenient telemedicine approach is the use of smartphones. The implementation of smartphones will increase the effectiveness of telemedicine, and as a result, there will be increased returns in the organization.
Where the organization wants to be (the potential of the organization)
The organization’s future target or desired goal is to increase its annual sales to 30 percent by the end of the year. To achieve this goal, the organization must change how it executes its operations by identifying the gap and how that gap can be bridged. The organization targets annual revenue of $25000 per physician and educator. This will be a greater improvement from the current $15000. The organization also seeks to increase its average patient-to-nurse ratio by implementing telehealth and telenursing. Through telehealth and telenursing, the average number of patients that nurses will attend to n a day will shift from 100 to 200. Telenursing is helped to reduce hospital congestion and healthcare costs and enhance the quality-of-care services and outcomes. It efficiently addresses care challenges to patients in remote areas and those with acute conditions. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
Identifying the gap
From the above chart, the “gap” is the grey shaded areas representing the differences between where the organization is currently and where it wants to be. The organization now has a revenue of $50 million. With the increase in revenue by 30 percent towards the end of the fiscal year, the organization is likely to increase its revenue to $200 million with 30% growth in 12 months and $103 million with 8% growth in the same period. Therefore, the gap that needs to be bridged is $97 billion.
Why there are gaps
Baylor University Medical Center uses the traditional medical approaches, such as face-to-face, which have become outdated today. The pandemic subjected patients to stay at home and acquire medical services in the comfort of their homes. the onset of the pandemic informed the need for other approaches such as telemedicine, telenursing and health informatics to address patient needs. These new approaches are effective in providing care to patients with acute conditions such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular infections. Baylor University Medical Center is popular for its exemplary services in the treatment of chronic conditions. It is also popular for its high-quality learning services to medical students, research and training. Many academic hospitals adopted telehealth as the primary technique of care. The powerful tools of telehealth are smartphones.
The implementation of smartphones presents a more significant opportunity for Baylor University Medical Center because it will enhance service delivery and the quality of clinical services. The performance of smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center will increase the number of patients attended to by nurses per day, which is essential in increasing returns to the organization. The Baylor University Medical Center enjoys the following privileges which are necessary for the successful implementation of smartphones in academic centers. These opportunities include excellent network coverage, availability of smartphones, skilled manpower, innovative workforce, high patient population, and medical students’ existence.
Work breakdown structure (WBS) for the implementation of smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center
The above work breakdown structure shows various activities undertaken when implementing smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center. From the diagram, it is evident that the implementation of the smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center will involve five major stages which include initiation, planning, execution, control and close out. Activities that will be undertaken in all these stages are reflected in the WBS. The WBS is an essential tool in project implementation (Sipes, 2019). The advantages of WBS in project management are that it defines and organizes all the work required and facilitates the quick development of a schedule by allocating effort estimates to sections of the WBS. In addition, WBS is used in project management to identify all the scope risks, and it provides a visual of the entire scope.
Project timeline
The project aims to implement smartphones in Baylor University Medical Center within 31 days. The proposed project’s impact will be felt after the close of the fiscal year. The major activities that will be undertaken during the project implementation include hiring nursing informaticists, purchasing smartphones, installing policies, security, and applications on the smartphones, and training the physicians, tutors, and students who will be the major stakeholders of the project. The project is scheduled to start in November and will close at the onset of December the same year. The project timeline has indicated how the activities identified in this project will be undertaken (Sipes, 2019). The use of a project timeline is essential in project management. It enhances project communication; there is ease in the tracking down of project progress, it outlines project goals and prioritizes activities
Responsibility chart: The RACI chart
The implementation of the proposed project will involve various stakeholders such as the project manager, consultant, team leaders, supervisor, finance manager, coordinator, and the project sponsor or project leaders. The RACI chart presents the tasks to be completed and the status of the tasks in this project. The task status included in the RACI chart shows whether the project is in progress, on hold, or is competing. The advantage of having a RACI chart is that it shows the stakeholders responsible for specific tasks. The chart also shows the statuses of the tasks to be completed. This helps determine whether or not the project will be completed within the timeline using the available resources. Completing the project within the stipulated time helps ensure that the activities are the roles are executed and are adhering to the set budget limits (Sipes, 2019). This helps to ensure that the project does not cost extra costs or delays. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
Change management
The project seeks to introduce smartphones to Baylor University and Medical Center. The introduction of smartphones will improve academic students’ academic achievements and enhance communication to facilitate the execution of clinical practices. It also seeks to increase the organizational returns and cost of acquiring healthcare services. The project seeks to reduce physical contact amongst the corporate stakeholders by introducing smartphone applications that can be used virtually and with patients and students in remote areas. The change that the project seeks to introduce will be managed by ensuring effective communication amongst all stakeholders and reducing the project’s resistance. Also, the change will be managed through training and educating all stakeholders on the significance of the project.
Communication plan
The following tools will communicate with stakeholders during the project initiation. They include email, Slack, Asana, Zoom, Google Meet, and social media sites. The use of every tool will depend on the nature of the information being shared. For instance, we will use email to communicate with external stakeholders. We will use Slack for synchronized communication about daily updates and quick questions. We will use Zoom and Google Meet for team meetings such as project post mortem and project brainstorming. Asana will be used to communicate synchronously about work, project details, project status updates and key project documents.
Communication plan for the implementation of Smartphones to Baylor University and Medical Center
Description |
Frequency |
Channel |
Audience |
Owner |
Status project updates |
Weekly |
Asana |
All internal stakeholders and project team members |
Project manager |
Virtual team meetings |
Monthly |
Zoom |
all project team members, stakeholders optional |
Project manager |
external stakeholder updates |
As needed |
Zoom |
Project manager and project stakeholders |
Project sponsor |
milestone and deliverable updates |
As needed |
Asana |
Project team |
All project team members |
Project check-ins |
Daily |
Slack |
Project team |
All project team members |
Risk management
The risks associated with this project include the effect of the pandemic, the war between Ukraine and Russia, and constant changes in technology. Economic, social and political risks characterize the pandemic. The pandemic has imposed major factors on the healthcare sector. The pandemic has reduced revenue collection in several healthcare organizations across the country and claimed many nurses and doctors. The implementation of smartphones in Baylor aims to counter the impacts of the pandemic by allowing digital learning, healthcare delivery, and access to electronic healthcare records. The risks of cyber actors who steal intellectual and business data are also a major issue for this project. However, project risks can be mitigated by developing strong security compliance and ensuring proper cryptography in smartphone apps to reduce cyber actors’ ability to hack them. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization
Conclusion
This paper has proposed the need to implement smartphones at Baylor University and Academic Center to counter the threats imposed by the pandemic to learners, healthcare providers, and patients. Smartphones are essential tools for sharing information, accessing electronic health records, learning resources, and changing clinical practices. It also acts as a medium for interacting with patients and learners in remote areas. The implementation of the smartphone will help in offering healthcare and learning services to learners remotely. The move is also characterized by increasing the annual organizational revenue, reducing hospital and classroom congestion, reducing the cost of accessing healthcare services, and increasing the quality of healthcare outcomes.
References
Al Kuwaiti, A., Al Muhanna, F. A., & Al Amri, S. (2018). Implementation of digital health technology at academic medical centers in Saudi Arabia. Oman medical journal, 33(5), 367.
Felbaum, D. R., Stewart, J. J., Anaizi, A. N., Sandhu, F. A., Nair, M. N., & Voyadzis, J. M. (2018). Implementation and evaluation of a smartphone application for the perioperative care of neurosurgery patients at an academic medical center: implications for patient satisfaction, surgery cancelations, and readmissions. Operative Neurosurgery, 14(3), 303-311.
Kostalova, J., & Tetrevova, L. (2018). Proposal of project management methods and tools oriented maturity model. Gestão e Projetos: GeP, 9(1), 1-23.
Lo, V., Wu, R. C., Morra, D., Lee, L., & Reeves, S. (2012). The use of smartphones in general and internal medicine units: a boon or a bane to the promotion of interprofessional collaboration?. Journal of interprofessional care, 26(4), 276-282.
Özkan, D., & Mishra, A. (2019). Agile Project Management Tools: A Brief Comprative View. Cybernetics and Information Technologies, 19(4), 17-25.
Sipes, C. (2019). Project management for the advanced practice nurse. Springer Publishing Company.
Wu, R. C., Morra, D., Quan, S., Lai, S., Zanjani, S., Abrams, H., & Rossos, P. G. (2010). The use of smartphones for clinical communication on internal medicine wards. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 5(9), 553-559. Developing A Small Nursing Informatics Project For Your Organization