The Application of Data to Problem-Solving
In the modern era, there are few professions that do not to some extent rely on data. Stockbrokers rely on market data to advise clients on financial matters. Meteorologists rely on weather data to forecast weather conditions, while realtors rely on data to advise on the purchase and sale of property. In these and other cases, data not only helps solve problems, but adds to the practitioner’s and the discipline’s body of knowledge.
Of course, the nursing profession also relies heavily on data. The field of nursing informatics aims to make sure nurses have access to the appropriate date to solve healthcare problems, make decisions in the interest of patients, and add to knowledge.
In this Discussion, you will consider a scenario that would benefit from access to data and how such access could facilitate both problem-solving and knowledge formation.
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
To Prepare:
- Reflect on the concepts of informatics and knowledge work as presented in the Resources.
- Consider a hypothetical scenario based on your own healthcare practice or organization that would require or benefit from the access/collection and application of data. Your scenario may involve a patient, staff, or management problem or gap.
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a description of the focus of your scenario. Describe the data that could be used and how the data might be collected and accessed. What knowledge might be derived from that data? How would a nurse leader use clinical reasoning and judgment in the formation of knowledge from this experience?
By Day 6 of Week 1
Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days, asking questions to help clarify the scenario and application of data, or offering additional/alternative ideas for the application of nursing informatics principles.
*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues.
Solution
The Scenario
The use of data, especially big data in healthcare has transformed how health is delivered today. This is expected to improve with time. However, to maximize the benefits of data and information technology in healthcare, health providers should be able to understand how to access the data and make the best of it. The hypothetical scenario that shall form the focus of this discussion is a management problem. In the last few months, the facility has been reporting poor outcomes in various departments such as falls in the med-surg departments as well as hospital-acquired infections in the critical unit. Before these outcomes were reported, changes associated with staffing were made and this also impacted shifts. Nurses were not involved and this led to long working hours, poor satisfaction with work, and an increase in the rate of turnover. It was apparent that something had to be done because the reputation of the facility was at stake.
Required Data based on the Scenario
A root cause analysis is one of the most important approaches when it comes to understanding the problem and getting to a solution. Notably, root cause analysis is said to be a process that is mostly used in healthcare as an investigational model with the view of learning more about system failures as well as understanding adverse events (Kwok et al., 2020). The administrative data should be used in this case. This allows one to establish the relationship between turnover and poor outcomes. This means that administrative data as well as data from electronic health records can be retrieved and compared to get a connection.
Knowledge from the Data
The knowledge that shall be derived from the data is that the issues started to worsen when the management decided to make changes that affected how the nurses work without involving them in the process of making the decisions. Normally, evidence shows that shared decision-making in health organizations improves nurse satisfaction and patient outcomes (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). However, in this case, there was no shared-decision making. Additionally, the data shall quantify the relationship between nursing turnover and adverse patient outcomes. This shall give a clear picture of what needs to be done in the organization.
How a Nurse Leader would use Clinical Reasoning and Judgment
This experience is supposed to help a nurse leader make better decisions in the future. The data that shall be collected will help in coming up with information that will make more sense. The information will then create knowledge that the nurse leader shall optimize in making better decisions through critical thinking. Indeed, knowledge creation forms an important part of the knowledge-to-action frameworks which is crucial in evidence-informed decision-making (Sweeney, 2017). In the scenario provided, the nurse can use clinical reasoning and judgment to start focusing on promoting a culture of shared decision-making to avoid the same situations in the future.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Sweeney, J. (2017). Healthcare informatics.Links to an external site.. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(1).
