Assignment Help | Describe a nursing informatics best practices policy for effective and safe data use in a nursing practice setting or organization.

Today’s health care professionals need to be accountable for the use of information systems that are repositories for copious amounts of protected health information (PHI).

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How does research support best practice?
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What nursing roles should be in place to support the use of evidenced-based practice?
How would you describe the concept of meaningful use and technology adoption stages: electronic health records (EHR) incentive programs, and how does this fit within the context of best practice?
What are the main points to consider as you review The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and why is this best practice? | PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW AT writtask.com |
How does the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA) support patient safety and improved patient outcomes?

MODEL ANSWER

Purpose Statement

Nursing informatics is greatly growing within the healthcare industry. It is basically described as the combination of nursing practices and information technology by avoiding a lot paper work like it is in the traditional nursing practice. By implementing such a system, patient data will be secured and the provision of quality healthcare to patients will be guaranteed (Yen, Phillips, Kennedy & Collins, 2017). Every organization has to come up with a best practice policy document as it provides standards for the daily activities in regards to the safety of the patient data. It also helps provide clarity on issues that could be critical in the healthcare facility. The policy document also provides the guidelines for practice nurses to ensure they follow the ethical and legal practices to promote the safety of a patient.

Best Practices

Secure data practices involve the use of technological mechanisms as a way of ensuring that patient information is kept secure. Promoting data integrity (accuracy, consistency, and reliability) is one the best practices that an organization should invest in because most treatment procedures rely on electronic health records. The approach requires healthcare practitioners to comply with the set regulations on data privacy, confidentiality, and availability (Ghosemajumder, 2017). Data validation is also another best practice of maintain data security and quality in a hospital setting. This involves setting procedures to ensure appropriate authorization in handling and accessing health records. Other best practices involve information governance, record correction, authorship validity, and patient identification among others.

For clinicians and nurses, documentation is a very important practice in ensuring that quality patient care is guaranteed. The privacy and security of patient information helps in building trust which is essential in healthcare. This idea is important since patient data is sensitive and have to be protected against theft, disclosure, or improper use. The data have to be in the hands of authorized personnel only.

The organization has to use evidence-based practices that can guarantee patient data security and provision of quality healthcare services. Such practices include ensuring that healthcare is accessible to all citizens without discrimination, creating a positive patient experience, ensuring that patients are given quality patient care among other quality care practices (Yen et al., 2017). Therefore, data security refers to the means that can be used to control the access of patient information by unauthorized persons who may have malicious intent.

However, data integrity and security may not be possible if the organization uses manual data entry methods. In this case, there is high possibility of making errors and documenting inaccurate data, regardless of staff training. In addition, ignorance of some patients and healthcare practitioners poses threat to heath records (Ghosemajumder, 2017). Clueless users may be tempted to share their login credentials with unscrupulous individuals who may steal, adjust, or amend stored data for their interest. Lack of regular data audit and failure to ensure employees access data based on their roles and responsibility also pose threats to data integrity and confidentiality.

Ethical Standards Needed to Promote Patient Confidentiality

The first ethical standard concerns access to sensitive information. Data privacy can always be breached if multiple access is allowed. Therefore, it is unethical for any healthcare facility to provide permission for access to patient data to unauthorized persons. The healthcare facility should be accountable for data loss or breach if the mess resulted from healthcare practitioners’ negligence. The hospital management has to define roles and responsibilities of each employee and should provide limited access to private and sensitive data (Epstein & Turner, 2015). For instance, nurses should have access to data that help them prevent illnesses, treat health conditions, and manage physical needs of the patient while doctors should have access to data that help them to diagnose, care for and treat patients.  This approach promotes confidentiality by ensuring that only authorized people have access to health and patient records.

Ensuring that the patient has autonomy and have control over personal data promote confidentiality. The patient has the final say as pertains to any information concerning his/her status and the health professional is under no obligation to convince the patient on any matter (Lusardi, 2012). For example, a patient has the right to disclose, amend, or even delete personal information related to his/her medication history, health status, and treatment condition.

The principle of beneficence also has to be observed where healthcare providers have to ensure that they do everything possible to benefit the patient. The medical practitioners must thus ensure they provide services with utmost skills and knowledge. They thus have to be trained to be considerate as pertains the prevailing circumstance of the patient. Such practices will ensure that the practitioner is considerate of the need to keep the data of patients secure. It is also ethical that the principle of justice has to be maintained by all healthcare providers. The principle of justice is basic in healthcare as it entails treating patients fairly and making appropriate medical decisions (Epstein & Turner, 2015). It also…