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- QUESTION
Using Health Information Technology as a Source of Evidence-Based Practice
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, 2018 p. 506):Consider how the resources identified in the scenario above could influence an organization’s practice.
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.
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.
| Subject | Nursing | Pages | 3 | Style | APA |
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Answer
The Health Information Technology-Source of Evidence-Based Practice
This paper explores evidence-based medication safety quality enhancement programs as well as approaches which could be adopted within Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Therefore, my practice concern is on medication error. Patient safety has for an extended period been a crucial issue for healthcare experts working in health facilities (Klingner & Prasad, 2013). Over the last decade, medication safety has been fundamental as a substantial health concern through several high-profile safety occurrences (Klingner & Prasad, 2013). It approximated for instance that severe drug events transpire in 6.6% to more than 21% of hospitalised patients (Klingner & Prasad, 2013). Even though the majority of these medical errors are avertible, there exist a disagreement amid scholars concerning which category of issues possess the most significant effect on medication safety and the extent to which these concerns are avoidable. However, this paper identifies some of the medication safety resources and tools for CAHs as discussed below:
- Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (MATCH) Toolkit for Medication Reconciliation-This resource integrates the lessons and experiences gained by the hospital which have adopted MATCH techniques to enhance their medication reconciliation course for patients while they move via healthcare settings (Stavor, Zedreck-Gonzalez & Hoffmann, 2017).
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s “Protecting 5 Million Lives from Harm” campaign-This toolkit comprises of the strategies to mitigate harm from high alert medications, beginning with the emphasis on insulin, sedatives and narcotics (Stavor et al., 2017). Moreover, this resource includes the prevention of severe drug events via the adoption of useful medication reconciliation procedures (Stavor et al., 2017).
- The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Small and Rural Hospital Resource Center-The resource includes the links to best practices, policies, tools and guidelines which are pertinent to small rural health care settings (Stavor et al., 2017).
Conclusion
In light of the above discussion, indeed medication error is a significant healthcare issue within hospital settings, but it is preventable via the use of the three aforementioned evidence-based practice resources as indicated in the paper.
References
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Klingner, J., & Prasad, S. (2013). Evidence-Based Medication Safety Quality Improvement Programs and Strategies for Critical Access Hospitals. Stavor, D. C., Zedreck-Gonzalez, J., & Hoffmann, R. L. (2017). Improving the use of evidence-based practice and research utilisation through the identification of barriers to implementation in a critical access hospital. Journal of Nursing Administration, 47(1), 56-61. |