Health Information technology

Informatics can also be termed information science. It is the practice of creating, storing, finding, manipulating, and sharing information. The advances in society and technology have led to changes within the healthcare system. Informatics is important in nursing and healthcare because it is used to improve the health of individuals, families, and communities (Aathi, 2014).

Through the use of nursing informatics, nurses can retrieve health information on the computer (Aathi, 2014). They also have access to disease centered educational literature which can easily be provided to the patient. The goal of nursing and healthcare informatics is to promote patient safety. Health Information technology decreases cost while improving healthcare quality and safety (Payne, Lussier, Foraker, & Embi, 2016).

Documentation of a patient’s heath and care is very important in every setting. Teachers is school would always say “If you don’t document, then it never happened.” The purpose of electronic health record (EHR) is to provide an easier and faster approach to documentation. According to Stimson & Botruff (2017), EHR increases accuracy and transparency with accurate data storage, accessibility to health information by other physicians, and allows placement of physician’s orders. EHR eliminates illegible physician orders or documentation and the follow up phone calls to clarify the order. An EHR is beneficial for a mastered prepared nurse and interprofessional collaboration because of the accessibly of documentation from other physicians.

Health information technology is also important in public health. The storage of information on communicable diseases can be found using informatics. It allows for active disease management to overall improve care coordination, patient safety, and communication among patients and doctors (Allen et al., 2014).