The Nurse Informaticists Role in SDLC - Essay Example

Nurse Informaticist Role in SDLC

Introduction

When designing and developing a computerized system for managing a healthcare facility, a nurse informaticist plays an important role. A Nurse Informacists is a trained health information technology specialist who works within a health care setting collaboratively with others to address their Information Technology needs. The programmers working on the system may not have all the needed data for system integration. The input of the nurse informaticist enables them to create a system that captures the aspirations of the intended users and serves the purpose of availing a modern technology solution. In the system development lifecycle, the system engineers integrate configurations that actualize the system needs. The SDLC further incorporates the help of other teams who are beneficiaries within the health care setting. These include resident physicians and health experts, human services experts, environmental and mechanical elements, and the administrative aspects that influence better health outcomes. Therefore in the design of an SDLC within a health care institution, the input of all those who are directly involved in the daily operation of the system is crucial because the system essentially pools resources to improve performance through increased efficiency within the health care setting. When teaming up with the nurse informaticist, system designers can customize the software to the specific enterprise requirements. This project creates a framework for a nurse information specialist's duties and responsibilities and their specific roles in the team designing and implementing an SDLC.

Requirements Definition and Planning

After initiating the nursing documentation system, the activities that follow involve planning, and research plays a critical role in the overall structure of the system. The presence of a nurse Informaticist brings on board the experience and expertise about evidence-based research best practices help with any necessary information and communication that the design team may require in the process of SDLC. The nurse Informaticist further outlines to the team the need to have a system designed based on a prior needs assessment and illustrate the requirements specification to the team for clarity of thoughts and ideas (Balle et al., 2018). One of the features that the system must address is the flexibility for collaboration between teams, and an example of this is where health care staff can automate tasks such that it makes patient handling less stressful and efficient. Achieving this kind of seamless work environment is a daunting task that calls for the implementation team to hold discussions that will boost better time management and improve patient-nurse relationships.

Part of the requirement definitions also includes evaluating the level of workflow, which in turn influences output in terms of efficiency in handling the patient. Content streamlining includes making considerations for issues surrounding data duplication and distortion within the patient treatment schedules. The nurse informaticist ensures that this is streamlining the whole workplace. IT needs to conform to the health care setting (Sun et al., 2016). The nurse Informaticist knows the clinical needs and therefore, can guide the system programmers on which information requires real-time access in the course of their design process until they come up with a workable healthcare system (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). Therefore the Informaticist will provide all the required data to the system framework designer to facilitate the creation of the system.

Analysis

The nurse Informaticist must have a clear understanding of the proposed system, and this is done during the analysis stage. The task includes training all the healthcare staff responsible for handling the system and ensuring that all responsible staff clearly understands all the information retrieved from the system documentation. Thus the nurse leader will lead the efforts in evaluating the study of the current nursing practices and given that the nurse leader is more conversant with nursing processes, they will ascertain if any modifications to the current setup are necessary before recommending the final requirements (Balle et al., 2018). The expectations of nurse leadership teams and, indeed, the whole nursing team are captured at this stage and considered for inclusion in the final design phase.

System Design

At this stage, a program that is consistent with all the other components already considered is designed. During this stage, the system engineers begin designing from a higher level to deliver all the needs satisfactorily. The included parts entail database communications, user flows, and third party services. A demonstration of the execution cycle is done through broken down flow charts (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The four different design levels begin from the highest phase, which identifies the necessary programs for achieving better outcomes for both patients and nursing staff. Using nursing documentation enhances the effectiveness of developing the activities. (Sun et al., 2016). The second level is a low-level phase that conducts real-time discoveries on the actual program execution in its native work environment. The third level is an interface design phase, which considers the agility of the graphical user interface and its general cosmetic outlook. Stage four is the last stage, which entails the data design and development phase. The nursing leader plays a critical role in authentication and deployment of critical thinking skills to make sure that the system becomes an important asset to the health care setting.

Implementation

During this stage, there is mandatory scrutiny for the system to ascertain that its functionality conforms to the healthcare setting's required needs. Several testing protocols are deployed at different levels to test the program's suitability to the intended users. In actual terms, the Informaticist test runs the code based on the design done by the system designers. An interface is created to the data within the database for ease of retrieval through a GUI interface that the hospital staff can easily access. The nurse Informaticist must confirm that the output meets the health care setting's expectations. At this stage, the executed model is tested for validity and reliability before it is launched for general use (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The nurse leader again comes in handy in mobilizing all the staff members to participate in assessing it and giving feedback that can inform further changes to the system.

Post Implementation Support

Also called the maintenance phase, peer support to the fellow staff is given to familiarize them with the new system documentation and protocols. Consequently, during this phase, fixes and bugs are discovered and patched to ensure that the new system's suitability meets the standards and requirements of the health care setting. All the while, the nurse Informaticist leads the process of making modifications that aim to achieve agility within the health care teams using the system. The nurse leader also collects feedback from the system users and articulates the long term objective of the system during its launch (Balle et al., 2018). Managing all the staff needs to an optimum level will require a standby IT team that will work as super users to assure the reliability and effectiveness of the system in the long term.

Conclusion

A nurse Informaticist within a healthcare setting offers leadership on matters concerning the implementation of SDLC because they understand the internal functions of the health care environment. Proposed changes to the implementation of a new system take time because of the evaluation and analysis of the changes in line with their compatibility with the user environment's needs. Implementing a system change lies in good leadership, knowledge, and the attitudes of the intended users, and this is where the nurse Informaticist becomes important as it ensures the success of the implementation.