Value and Impact of NIs Survey

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

From the HIMSS website

The HIMSS 2009 Nursing Informatics Impact Survey, sponsored by McKesson, reveals the significant influence of informatics nurses on quality of care

CHICAGO (April 2, 2009) - Informatics nurse professionals regularly use their expertise to promote the adoption of more effective, higher quality clinical applications in their healthcare organizations. In addition, they contribute significantly to patient safety, change management and usability of systems.

These findings are just a few of the results from the 2009 HIMSS Nursing Informatics Impact Survey, conducted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and sponsored by McKesson.

Designed to evaluate the impact that informatics nurses have on the healthcare environment, survey respondents reported an average score of 6.29 on a 7-point scale regarding the value informatics nurses bring to the IT systems implementation process. The research also looked at the impact of informatics nurses on workflow, user/clinician acceptance and screen flow, areas that each received an average score of 6.0 or higher.

“Informatics nurses have always been critical to increasing the adoption of healthcare information technology,” said Merrie Wallace, RN, MN, vice president, solution line manager, nursing and clinical marketing, McKesson. “Their input and support is particularly vital as healthcare organizations look for ways to achieve meaningful use of IT in light of the economic stimulus package.”

The survey also found that most hospitals, care delivery, healthcare IT vendor and consulting organizations represented in the research employ informatics nurses. These healthcare professionals hold a variety of roles in their organizations that include:

User education

System implementation

User support

Workflow analysis

Gaining buy-in from end-users

Other key survey results include:

Involvement of Informatics Professionals: Eighty-five (85) percent of respondents noted that individuals with a clinical background are employed in the Information Services (IS) department at their organization. The vast majority of these organizations employ individuals with a nursing background.

Role of Informatics Nurses: Informatics nurses are involved in a wide variety of job responsibilities relating to IT. Nearly all respondents noted that informatics nurses play a significant role in user education, and user support was identified by 86 percent of respondents, emphasizing the importance of this role to successful change management and process improvement.

Value and Impact of Informatics Nurses: Respondents believe that informatics nurses involved in system analysis, design, selection, implementation and optimization of IT have the greatest impact on patient safety (6.21), workflow (6.17) and user/clinician acceptance (6.15). The area with the least impact was integration with other systems (6.03).

Success of Informatics Nurses: Making sure that IT does no harm (5.83) was the concept with the highest average rating relative to the area of impact in which informatics nurses have the most success.

Involvement of Informatics Nurses with Emerging Technologies: Eighty-one percent of respondents whose organization was pursuing medical device integration indicated that informatics nurses were involved with this initiative. Informatics nurses are also highly involved with smart devices and remote monitoring.

HIMSS received 432 useable responses for this web-based survey, with data collected between Dec. 8, 2008 and Feb. 10, 2009. Respondents also provided demographic data that includes the following information.

Almost 75 percent of the respondents work for either a hospital or healthcare systems with another 11 percent employed with a vendor organization or consulting firm.

The majority of respondents have nursing-related titles, with 18 percent of the representing a nurse executive, such as Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO), Director of Nursing/Director of Nursing Informatics or Chief Nursing Officer (CNO).

Another 10 percent of the respondents are comprised of non-nursing executives, such as Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Operating Officers (COOs) and Presidents/Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).

Some 37 percent holding a bachelor’s degree in nursing; another 30 percent reported that they have a master’s degree in nursing, while 23 percent have a master’s degree in another specialty area.

“With the economic stimulus incentives now confirmed, nurses in clinical informatics become even more vital to technology management as healthcare organizations implement the electronic medical record,” said Joyce Sensmeier MS, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, vice president, informatics, for HIMSS. “As clinicians who touch almost all points of care, nurse informaticists provide their expertise to ensure the highest quality care.”

For Complete Nursing Informatics Impact Survey Full Results:

http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIMSS2009NursingInformaticsImpactSurveyFullResults.pdf