NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1 Nursing Informatics in Health Care

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX4045 Nursing Informatics: Managing Health Information and Technology

Prof. Name

Date

Nursing Informatics in Health Care

The integration of technologies such as Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) plays a pivotal role in improving patient satisfaction by refining diagnostic accuracy, streamlining care processes, and aiding clinical judgment. CDSS tools assist healthcare providers in making timely and informed decisions, ultimately promoting patient safety and reducing clinical errors (Laraichi et al., 2024). This proposal advocates for the strategic inclusion of Nurse Informaticists (NIs) to guide CDSS implementation, deliver drug interaction alerts in real time, and elevate overall patient care outcomes.

Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist

Nursing informatics is a specialized field that merges nursing science with information management and analytical sciences to facilitate decision-making in healthcare. It enhances data management in clinical environments, helping nurses interpret information efficiently to provide high-quality care (Nashwan et al., 2025). Nurse Informaticists are key players in managing this intersection of clinical practice and technology. They equip healthcare staff with the skills to navigate digital tools, assess technological innovations, and utilize data to guide practice changes (ANA, 2024). A notable figure in this domain, Dr. Virginia Saba, pioneered the Clinical Care Classification system, which has improved clinical documentation accuracy and care planning (Lopez et al., 2023). In a healthcare facility, the NI oversees the design and deployment of CDSS platforms to ensure usability and alignment with clinical goals. They play an active role in training staff and using clinical data to refine care strategies and prevent errors.

Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations

Health systems across the U.S. have increasingly relied on nurse informaticists to facilitate better clinical decisions through CDSS deployment and electronic health records (EHR) optimization. At Cleveland Clinic, the integration of informatics has enhanced EHR usability, leading to better workflow efficiency (Cleveland Clinic, 2024). Similarly, Mayo Clinic employs informatics to personalize treatment strategies for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) patients. CDSS technology there helps forecast risk and deliver actionable clinical insights tailored to individual cases (Mayo Clinic, 2024). These examples illustrate the significant role of NIs in transforming technological tools into patient-centered solutions, ensuring that systems are designed with end-users and clinical demands in mind.

Table 1: Examples of CDSS Utilization by Healthcare Organizations

Organization	Role of NI	Technology Used	Outcome
Cleveland Clinic	EHR optimization and training	CDSS & EHR	Improved documentation and clinician efficiency
Mayo Clinic	Personalized patient care for AKI patients	CDSS	Risk prediction and evidence-based decisions

In these examples, NIs collaborate with nurses, physicians, and IT professionals to translate technical solutions into improved clinical outcomes. They act as mediators who ensure that CDSS tools are designed for practical, real-world use.

Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology

Active participation of nursing staff in developing and utilizing technologies like CDSS leads to significant improvements in efficiency, patient care quality, and cost control. Nurses play a crucial role in translating CDSS alerts into patient-specific decisions. When involved early in the implementation process, nurses can contribute to customizing workflows and validating system usability (Zhai et al., 2022). Nurse Informaticists ensure CDSS tools are tailored to fit clinical routines and are accessible to all care providers. By minimizing redundant procedures and improving diagnostics, CDSS contributes to substantial financial savings—for example, curbing unnecessary vitamin D tests has saved up to \$300,000 annually (Lewkowicz et al., 2020). The inclusion of NIs in project oversight ensures a strong ROI by aligning tools with clinical workflows and enhancing productivity.

Table 2: Financial and Clinical Benefits of Nurse Engagement in CDSS

Benefit Area	Contribution by NI	Outcome
Cost Efficiency	Reduced duplicate testing, improved planning	\$300,000 annual savings (e.g., vitamin D)
Clinical Productivity	Real-time data access and decision support	Optimized workflows
Staff Training	Educates clinicians on secure, effective use	Enhanced adoption and reduced errors

Opportunities and Challenges

Nurse Informaticists offer promising opportunities by promoting data-driven, evidence-based care. Their expertise in combining clinical insight with digital tools helps avoid medical errors and align technology with patient care protocols (Laraichi et al., 2024). They are instrumental in facilitating cross-disciplinary training and addressing technical issues. However, the integration of such technologies is not without barriers—resistance to change, data security, and usability issues can hinder progress. NIs tackle these issues through training, stakeholder engagement, and deploying safeguards like data encryption and regular audits (Shojaei et al., 2024).

Table 3: Opportunities and Challenges in NI-led CDSS Implementation

Opportunities	Challenges	Solutions
Enhanced diagnostics and patient outcomes	Resistance to change	Awareness campaigns and user training
Real-time clinical alerts and workflow gains	Security and privacy concerns	Encryption, audits, and authentication
Interdisciplinary collaboration	Tool usability variability	Tailored CDSS interfaces and pilot testing

Through consistent collaboration with IT and clinical teams, NIs ensure that the systems implemented align with both organizational goals and patient needs.

Summary of Recommendation and Justification of the Role

The proposed inclusion of a Nurse Informaticist will bring numerous strategic advantages to the healthcare organization. First, NIs can enhance patient safety by ensuring accurate CDSS integration, which supports clinicians in complex care decisions (Laraichi et al., 2024). Second, they enable nurses to leverage health data, allowing for more patient-centered, evidence-based care delivery (Nashwan et al., 2025). Third, NIs will play a vital role in securing health data by establishing safeguards such as authentication protocols, training programs, and HIPAA compliance audits (Shojaei et al., 2024). Finally, NIs facilitate cost-saving measures by avoiding unnecessary tests and aligning clinical tools with workflows—resulting in a high return on investment (Lewkowicz et al., 2020).

Conclusion

The employment of a Nurse Informaticist is a forward-thinking strategy to optimize clinical workflows, enhance decision-making, and improve patient care outcomes through CDSS. Their collaborative role in bridging clinical needs with technological capacity supports better diagnostics, ensures patient data security, and elevates healthcare delivery standards. Ultimately, Nurse Informaticists are key to realizing the full potential of health technologies in modern care settings.

References

American Nurses Association (ANA). (2024). What is nursing informatics and why is it so important. https://www.nursingworld.org/content-hub/resources/nursing-resources/nursing-informatics/

Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Nursing informatics. https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/nursing/nursing-informatics

NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1 Nursing Informatics in Health Care

Laraichi, O., Daim, T., Alzahrani, S., Hogaboam, L., Bolatan, G. I., & Moughari, M. M. (2024). Technology readiness assessment: Case of clinical decision support systems in healthcare. Technology in Society, 79, 102736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102736

Lewkowicz, D., Wohlbrandt, A., & Boettinger, E. (2020). Economic impact of clinical decision support interventions based on electronic health records. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 871. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05688-3

Lopez, K. D., Langford, L. H., Kennedy, R., McCormick, K., Delaney, C. W., Alexander, G., Englebright, J., Carroll, W. M., & Monsen, K. A. (2023). Future advancement of health care through standardized nursing terminologies: Reflections from a friends of the National Library of Medicine workshop honoring Virginia K. Saba. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 30(11), 1878–1884. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocad156

Mayo Clinic. (2024). Clinical decision support systems for personalized management of patients with acute kidney injury. https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/pulmonary-medicine/news/clinical-decision-support-systems-for-personalized-management-of-patients-with-acute-kidney-injury/mac-20524049

Nashwan, A. J., Cabrega, J. A., Othman, M. I., Khedr, M. A., Osman, Y. M., Ashry, A. M. E., Naif, R., & Mousa, A. A. (2025). The evolving role of nursing informatics in the era of artificial intelligence. International Nursing Review, 72(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.13084

Shojaei, P., Gjorgievska, V. E., & Chow, Y.-W. (2024). Security and privacy of technologies in health information systems: A systematic literature review. Computers, 13(2), 41–41. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13020041

NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1 Nursing Informatics in Health Care

Zhai, Y., Yu, Z., Zhang, Q., Qin, W., Yang, C., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Transition to a new nursing information system embedded with clinical decision support: A mixed-method study using the HOT-fit framework. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 22(1), 310. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02041-y