THE ROLE OF THE NURSE INFORMATICIST IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION

Running Head: THE ROLE OF THE NURSE INFORMATICIST IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION

1

The Role of the Nurse Informaticist in Systems Development and Implementation

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

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THE ROLE OF THE NURSE INFORMATICIST IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 2

1. Introduction

Nurses have unique roles and responsibilities in ensuring they provide the best possible

care to their patients. Information is essential in helping nurses to make informed decisions about

healthcare delivery. Therefore, the ease with which nurses access important information

determines how effective they attend to their patients. One area that is greatly impacting

healthcare information is the implementation of Health Information Technology.

Nurses continue to use health information technology to better patient care, enhance

coordination of care, improve the accessibility of patient information, and enhance efficiency

(Cherry & Jacob, 2016). In introducing new information systems in healthcare organizations,

nurses have important roles to play in the system development life cycle (SDLC). This is because

they are at the heart of systems utilization hence delivering patient care (Wager et al., 2017).

When a new documentation system is being introduced to the organization, a nurse leader is

required on the implementation team. This paper presents the role description for a graduate

nurse to guide his/her participation in the implementation team of the documentation system. The

role description is presented with respect to the steps of the SDLC.

2. Role description

2.1. Planning and requirements definition

In the planning and requirements definition phase, the scope of the current system is

analyzed and an overview of the new system and its objectives are determined. Considerations

are made on the cost, time, benefits, and other aspects of the system (McGonigle & Mastrian,

2015). Besides, constraints, threats, and security issues of the system are considered.

In this phase, the graduate-level nurse has numerous roles that he/she can play. First, the

nurse has to work with the interdisciplinary team to establish the system's requirements in terms

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THE ROLE OF THE NURSE INFORMATICIST IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 3

of the technical, clinical, and medical elements. Besides, the graduate nurse can help in system

testing and pointing out any design flaws in the new system for further improvement. Basically,

the role of the graduate nurse is to bring to the fore the concerns of the frontline nurse so that the

system is tailored to help them deal with system challenges.

2.2. Analysis phase

At the analysis phase, the interdisciplinary team working on the new system considers its

functional requirements. The needs of end-users are analyzed to ensure that the system meets

their expectations. The requirements and prototype of the new system are defined.

At the analysis stage, the graduate nurse has a key role of working with the

interdisciplinary team to help identify the critical challenges that the system might pose to the

nurse as the end-user and suggest feasible solutions or ask for alternatives from the rest of the

team members (Kuziemsky, 2015). The graduate nurse has to have an idea of how the system

will be used and what challenges might be anticipated beforehand so that he/she can make

informed suggestions or alternatives to the team. This way the team can avoid sending a system

that has obvious faults for use in the workplace.

2.3. Design of the new system

During system design, the databases, applications, system, and user interfaces that will be

used in the new system are defined. These represent the functional elements that will make the

system work flawlessly (Kuziemsky, 2015).

The role of the graduate nurse at this phase may be limited due to the technical nature of

the stage, but still, he/she can suggest specific operational mechanisms that would enhance the

functioning of the system. The graduate nurse has the role of ensuring that the system design is

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THE ROLE OF THE NURSE INFORMATICIST IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 4

simpler and safer for nurses to use. It is the responsibility of the graduate nurse to establish the

usability of the system in meeting nurses’ informational needs.

2.4. Implementation

At the implementation phase, the majority of system coding for the program is done and the

system is put into production. Data and components are transferred from the old system to the

new system. The system is then installed and rolled out for use by the end-users. In collaboration

with the interdisciplinary team working on the system, the graduate nurse has a role in

undertaking system performance evaluation and help in identifying opportunities for redesigning

where the evaluation process recommends so. Besides, the nurse should also help if educating

and training other nurses and staff members on the operationalization of the new system.

2.5. Post-implementation support

At this phase, the emphasis is put on system maintenance and support to the users and

administrators and this is an ongoing process. This is designed to keep the system functioning

without major hitches. The end-user has an important role in this phase in that they can help in

fine-tuning it by adding new capabilities to enhance performance (Magnuson & Dixon, 2020).

Under support, system residual errors and other issues that may arise during its use are resolved

by a support team.

The graduate nurse has a role in this phase in documenting all issues experienced and forwarding

them to the system developers and management to be considered in making system upgrades.

3. Conclusion

From the foregoing, it can be seen that a graduate nurse acting as a leader on a system

implementation team can play an important role in the system development life cycle. From the

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THE ROLE OF THE NURSE INFORMATICIST IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 5

planning phase to the post-implementation phase, the graduate nurse can help make the system

even better for use by nurses.

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References

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.

Elsevier Health Sciences.

Kuziemsky, C. E. (2015). A model of tradeoffs for understanding health information technology

implementation. Stud Health Technol Inform, 215, 116-28.

Magnuson, J. A., & Dixon, B. E. (Eds.). (2020). Public health informatics and information

systems. Springer Nature.

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (Eds.). (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of

knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a practical

approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons.

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