Question 1

The nurse manager of a medical/surgical unit wants to increase the use of health care technology on the unit and is working with an ANA-certified informatics nurse to reduce barriers to health information exchange,including

A) basic informatics knowledge and skills.
B) offering the best set of tools.
C) privacy and security policies.
D) unit-specific terminology.

unit-specific terminology.

Accepted Answer

Unit-specific terminology would be a barrier to sharing health information because there could be confusion about terms.Standardized terminology within the electronic health record is critical for communicating care to the interprofessional team and exchanging health information.Competency in informatics including basic informatics knowledge and skills could facilitate the use of informatics; lack of competency could be a barrier.Offering the best set of tools could promote the ease of data entry and access.Privacy and security policies reduce legal and ethical concerns about sharing data,thus reducing barriers to health information exchange.

Question 2

To design and implement a decubitus ulcer risk management protocol in the electronic health record,the informatics nurse would first&#10;A) build the screens in the electronic health record.&#10;B) determine evidence supporting decubitus ulcer risk management.&#10;C) develop the training program for staff.&#10;D) select the appropriate standardized language.

Accepted Answer

Collecting the evidence related to the issue is the first step in addressing a problem (remember the nursing process,the foundation of nursing practice).Based on the evidence,an assessment tool or tools and data needed from a patient perspective would be identified.The screens in the electronic record would be based on the workflow surrounding the patient assessment.A training program could not be developed until the protocol is adopted.The appropriate standardized language is selected based on what needs to be documented and what has been approved for use by the agency (e.g.,ANA recognized terminologies).

Question 3

Florence Nightingale,the first nurse informatician,sought hospital data for comparison purposes to&#10;A) allow faster and accurate diagnosis.&#10;B) better coordinate care.&#10;C) improve the efficiency of care.&#10;D) show people how their money was spent.

Accepted Answer

"They would show the subscribers how their money was being spent,what amount of good was really being done with it,or whether the money was not doing mischief rather than good" (Florence Nightingale,1863).Although health information and informatics could fulfill the other purposes,none of these were the focus of Florence Nightingale's published purposes of her requests for hospital information.

Question 4

The application of information processing that deals with the storage,retrieval sharing,and use of health care data,information,and knowledge for communication and decision making is the definition of&#10;A) computer science.&#10;B) health informatics.&#10;C) health information technology.&#10;D) nursing informatics.

Accepted Answer

This is the definition of health information technology.Computer science is a branch of engineering that studies computation and computer technology,hardware,software,and the theoretical foundations of information and computation techniques.Health informatics is a discipline in which health data are stored,analyzed,and disseminated through the application of information and communication technology.Nursing informatics is a specialty that integrates nursing science,computer science,and information science to manage and communicate data,information,knowledge,and wisdom in nursing practice.

Question 5

The staff nurse who uses informatics in promoting quality patient care is most likely to access data in the domain of&#10;A) certified clinical information systems (CIS).&#10;B) clinical health care informatics.&#10;C) public health/population informatics.&#10;D) translational bioinformatics.

Accepted Answer

Clinical health care informatics and the subset,nursing informatics,provides for the development of direct approaches to patients and their families which can be used by the staff nurse to promote quality patient care.Certified CIS refers to the tools for achieving quality outcomes,including electronic health records,clinical data repositories,decision support programs,and handheld devices-not the data.Public health/population informatics is the domain which relates information,computer science,and technology to public health science to improve the health of populations; this domain would provide data for the nurse working with communities.Translational bioinformatics refers to the research science domain where biomedical and genomic data are combined; it's a new term that describes the domain of where bioinformatics meets clinical medicine,generally for health care research rather than direct patient care.

Question 6

Exemplars of the health informatics concept include&#10;A) clinical research informatics.&#10;B) hardware and software.&#10;C) privacy and security.&#10;D) standard terminology.

Accepted Answer

Exemplars of the health informatics concept include clinical health care informatics,clinical research informatics,public/population health informatics,and translational bioinformatics.Hardware and software,privacy and security,and standardized information systems and terminology are considered attributes related to the concept,not exemplars.

Question 7

When discussing the purposes of health care informatics with a nurse during orientation,the nurse educator would be concerned if the nurse orientee said that one purpose would be to&#10;A) develop a cognitive science.&#10;B) improve disease tracking.&#10;C) improve the health provider's work flow.&#10;D) increase administrative efficiencies.

Accepted Answer

Cognitive science is one of the theories that play a role in the implementation of informatics.Its development is not a purpose,and the nurse educator would use this incorrect response of the orientee to plan additional teaching about the purposes of health care informatics.Purposes of information health technology include to improve health provider work flow,improve health care quality,prevent medical errors,reduce health care costs,increase administrative efficiencies,decrease paperwork,and improve disease tracking.

Deck 44: Technology and Informatics