NR 512 Week 8: Reflection on Second Life Experiences, Nursing Informatics Skills and Impact on Speciality
NR 512 Week 8: Reflection on Second Life Experiences, Nursing Informatics Skills and Impact on Speciality
Course outcomes 2, 5, 7 were supported by the activities within Second Life. Demonstration of computer technologies with collaborative advanced nursing practice and utilization of competencies to include cultural humility were exemplified in all the stations. During the discussion of that week, I posed a question about the comment of our leader saying the scenarios were not created randomly. It wasn’t until the reflection discussion this week that I re-read the course outcomes paired with weekly assignments. Exploration of trends and issues as well as examination of ethical/legal issues were introduced with our HealthIT topic projects. This reflection discussion has sparked my interests about curriculum development as I proceed toward becoming a nurse educator. I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I was researching for this week’s discussion I discovered an interest about the development of simulated EHR systems within educational programs for informatics to give students opportunities to learn about its functional components (Mohan & Hersh, 2013). Understanding how student use of various learning styles can assist in developing appropriate training modules for easier transition from informatics education to real world application and integration (Mohan & Hersh, 2013). The week two quiz was very instrumental in preparing me for the need to continue learning about healthcare informatics and using it to deliver optimal patient care.
In health,
References
Mohan, V., & Hersh, W. R. (2013). Development and Evaluation of an Electronic Health Record Configuration and Customization Laboratory Course for Clinical Informatics Students. Studies In Health Technology & Informatics, 1921122. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-289-9-1122
My selected specialty is family nurse practitioner. Throughout my nursing career I have always taken my role as a professional nurse very serious. As a bedside nurse I had a great deal of pride in doing everything I could to promote positive patient outcomes. In understanding my roles in the past, present, and future I am excited at the potential NI has to improve the practice of nursing as both a professional nurse and advanced practice nurse. Specifically, I would like to see NI make considerable strides in the area of interoperability. Interoperability is a recurring theme for me for several reasons, the most important is the potential to improve patient safety. I am amazed at the fact that interoperability is in fact a reality in some countries and not in the United States. I believe that interoperability is one tool of technology and NI that can drastically improve the quality of care I am able to provide as an advanced practice nurse. While the task of interoperability seems cumbersome, NI can immediately take steps to improve the success of implementation and quality of data retrieved by working to establish on universal standard of terminology. While there has been a significant push to standardize nursing terminology, we have missed the mark, however standardization will aid in make interoperability systems more useful (Schwirian, 2013).
NI can improve my future role of advanced practice nursing by providing the tools and standardizations that will allow interoperability to be both a success and meaningful tool in the improvement of patient care.
Reference
Schwirian, P. M. (2013). Informatics and the Future of Nursing: Harnessing the Power of Standardized Nursing Terminology. Bulletin Of The Association For Information Science & Technology, 39(5), 20-24.
You made an interesting point on the use of second life to assist with stimulated learning during this course and how each student have their own learning style. As a future nurse educator being aware of each student’s diverse learning style will play an important role in the effectiveness of teaching and the student’s ability to learn. For me on-line learning is very convenient but I am also aware of it’s limitations and barriers; because I learn best in an interactive personal environment. The transition from human contact in teaching is a way to make education convenient and available to a larger population of individuals. The role of an educator is very challenging because teachers are required to support students, and assist them to acquire clinical knowledge and skills, facilitating the development of appropriate professional attitudes and fostering self-directed, lifelong learning (McKimm and Swanwick, 2009). In the advent on technology and NI; data, information, knowledge, and wisdom are incorporated into patient care to produce better outcomes for patients. Therefore, the need now for educators to make sure NI is taught and understood is paramount. You, also mention the quiz during the course. For me, it was challenging then I expected. I though I was going to fly through the questions but once again it opened my eyes for the need to foster my computer skills in order to be a better practicing professional in nursing.
Reference:
McKimm, J and Swanwick, T. (2009). Clinical Teaching Made Easy: Assessing learning needs. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, p 1-5.
