My First Blog

I am currently enrolled in a Health Care Informatics class as part of my BSN completion.  When I registered for this class, I had no idea what to expect, just knew that it was a required course and it fit my schedule for this semester.  The first thing that was intriguing to me was that even though this is an online class, there was a “seated” introduction to the course offered.  I attended that introduction and am very happy that I did.  It was there that I learned that I would be creating this blog and also would begin using Twitter.  That was very unnerving, to say the least, as I have never used Twitter or had a blog.  I left that introduction feeling overwhelmed but glad that I had gone as my anxiety would have been even higher if I had tried to figure all of this out on my own. So, you may be wondering, as I did, just exactly what Health Care Informatics is all about.

What is Health Care Informatics?

According to our textbook Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge, Health Care Informatics is the “. . .combination of health care science, information science, and computer science”.  So what does that really mean?  It encompasses the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and the Clinical Information System (CIS) which give us programs that allow for electronic medical records.  This is the up and coming technology in the health care industry and provides convenience and continuity of care for the patient.  The EHR allows all health care workers within a system to view the patient’s medical records at a moments notice.  This is a wonderful tool to allow different health care workers involved in the patient care to compare therapies and medications so that the chance for unwanted interactions in medications or contraindicated therapies are lessened.  The CIS then incorporates the other areas of the patient care such as labs, imaging, coding, billing, etc. into the patient’s chart. These systems communicate with the “Legacy” systems (or those systems already in place for labs and xrays) and incorporate them into one record.  Then, as is noted above, all of this information is available on the computer and is accessible to those using the various health care systems, such as EPIC used at St. John’s. I believe that in the future this information will become accessible to all health care systems through use of the internet and secure websites.

What I have learned my first week. . .

In this first week of class I have expanded my knowledge of just exactly what is involved with the EHR and have learned to look at it in a new (and hopefully better) way.  I see it as a complete picture of the patient including symptoms, management, testing, outcomes, evaluations and billing.  This allows for all aspects of the patient’s care to be incorporated into one common site.  I have also learned to blog and have created a Twitter account and am hoping that as time goes on, I will become more comfortable with both of those as they are new to me.  I am excited about this course and what it will do for me in expanding my knowledge of the technology that is available to me as an individual but also as a professional nurse.  Twitter and this blog will give me a platform that is accessible to more people and fellow professionals than I would otherwise be able to reach.  On that same note, it will give me a way to connect with other nurses and health care professionals and allow me to learn from their expertise and knowledge.  Looking more in depth into the health care informatics will broaden my view of the electronic health system and will hopefully make me more effective in using the tools which are available to me and to my patients.  I am expecting great things from this class and am excited, and a little scared, about diving into the technology.

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