NURS 6051 Assignment: The Nurse Leader As Knowledge Worker

Sample Answer for NURS 6051 Assignment: The Nurse Leader As Knowledge Worker Included After Question

Introduction

This presentation will discuss the concept of a knowledge worker. It explains nursing informatics and discusses the role of a nurse leader as a knowledge worker. In addition, I will present the hypothetical scenario that might benefit from the collection and application of data. I will explore the data that can be used, how it might be collected, and the knowledge derived from the data.

Concept of a Knowledge Worker

A knowledge worker plays a key role in the organization in generating knowledge.  They obtain, maneuver, interpret and apply information to carry out multidisciplinary, complex organizational work (Field & Chan, 2018). Besides, knowledge workers analyze data and use their expertise to address problems, generate ideas, and develop new products and services.

Knowledge work is often complex, and knowledge workers need certain skills, abilities, and acquaintance with factual and theoretical knowledge (Field & Chan, 2018).  Therefore, knowledge workers must obtain, access, recall, and apply data, interact well with others, and have the ability and motivation to obtain and enhance these skills.

Knowledge workers’ roles include making decisions whereby they work with ideas. Their duties focus on intellectual rather than physical power and are characterized by non-repetitive tasks (Field & Chan, 2018). In addition, they use various methods and techniques to address problems and are authorized to decide what work methods to employ to complete their job tasks. Knowledge workers include: scientists, professionals, educators, and information system designers.

Nursing Informatics

Nursing informatics is a specialty that incorporates nursing science with analytical sciences and information management. It seeks to discover, define, manage, and convey data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice (Moore et al., 2020). Nursing informatics supports nurses, the interprofessional health care team, healthcare consumers, patients, and stakeholders in decision-making in various roles and settings to attain desired outcomes. It supports this through information structures, processes, and technology (Moore et al., 2020).

Nursing informatics skills are applied to:

Create data structures and software tools to support nursing practice (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Keep EHR in line with best practices for data management, processing, and organization.

Apply analytics in evaluating and facilitating nursing processes (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Facilitate communication among healthcare and IT professionals.

Train providers on the best use of EHRs and CDSS (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Introduction & purpose of the presentation

vChanging & Dynamic Nature Of Nursing

vBig Data And Informatics As Defining Nursing

v Concept Of Knowledge Worker

vNursing Informatics: Definition & Role

vNurse Leader As A Knowledge Worker

vPatient Portals To Enhance Knowledge Among Nurse Leaders

The nursing profession continues to be dynamic and changes based on emerging trends aimed at increasing the quality of care and meeting the ever-rising demands. Today, nurses are leveraging information based on big data to make decisions and learn new ways of delivering patient care in diverse healthcare settings. Acquisition of knowledge remains a core aspect of this experience and professional development as nurses improve care delivery. Big data and informatics now define and are core aspects of nursing (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). The purpose of this presentation is explore the concept of knowledge worker and using patient portals illustrate how informatics nurse leaders are knowledge workers. The presentation deploys infographics to demonstrate the critical role of the concept of knowledge worker in nursing informatics and leadership.

Concept of Knowledge worker

vDeveloped by peter Drucker

vAdvanced-level employee

vWork independently with minimal supervision

vManage Themselves and Employ Analytical and Critical Thinking

vLeverage Education, Training, Experience & Skills

vInnovative and Creative

In his book, “The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959), Peter Drucker introduced and defined the idea of knowledge workers as individual employees that possess advanced-level workmanship and apply theoretical and analytical ideas and knowledge that they have gained through formal training and education. Through this knowledge, they develop requisite products and services to meet needs and ensure that they generate solution (Carroll, 2019). Further, knowledge workers execute their duties and roles independently, can manage themselves and use analytical and critical thinking skills in discharging their duties and making decisions. Further, they leverage their education, training, experiences and skills to make better decisions and implement effective models like value-based care. More fundamentally, they are innovative and creative in developing products that meet identified needs.

NURS 6051 Assignment: The Nurse Leader As Knowledge Worker

This presentation will discuss the concept of a knowledge worker. It explains nursing informatics and discusses the role of a nurse leader as a knowledge worker. In addition, I will present the hypothetical scenario that might benefit from the collection and application of data. I will explore the data that can be used, how it might be collected, and the knowledge derived from the data.

A knowledge worker plays a key role in the organization in generating knowledge.  They obtain, maneuver, interpret and apply information to carry out multidisciplinary, complex organizational work (Field & Chan, 2018). Besides, knowledge workers analyze data and use their expertise to address problems, generate ideas, and develop new products and services.

Knowledge work is often complex, and knowledge workers need certain skills, abilities, and acquaintance with factual and theoretical knowledge (Field & Chan, 2018).  Therefore, knowledge workers must obtain, access, recall, and apply data, interact well with others, and have the ability and motivation to obtain and enhance these skills.

Knowledge workers’ roles include making decisions whereby they work with ideas. Their duties focus on intellectual rather than physical power and are characterized by non-repetitive tasks (Field & Chan, 2018). In addition, they use various methods and techniques to address problems and are authorized to decide what work methods to employ to complete their job tasks. Knowledge workers include: scientists, professionals, educators, and information system designers.

Nursing informatics is a specialty that incorporates nursing science with analytical sciences and information management. It seeks to discover, define, manage, and convey data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice (Moore et al., 2020). Nursing informatics supports nurses, the interprofessional health care team, healthcare consumers, patients, and stakeholders in decision-making in various roles and settings to attain desired outcomes. It supports this through information structures, processes, and technology (Moore et al., 2020).

Nursing informatics skills are applied to:

Create data structures and software tools to support nursing practice (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Keep EHR in line with best practices for data management, processing, and organization.

Apply analytics in evaluating and facilitating nursing processes (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Facilitate communication among healthcare and IT professionals.

Train providers on the best use of EHRs and CDSS (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Nurse leaders are knowledge workers. Nurse leader competencies at the organization or system level are connected to knowledge management. Nurse leaders’ roles as knowledge workers include:

Facilitating organizational learning by supporting nurses as they find, share, and develop knowledge to advance nursing practice.

Developing and improving knowledge worker skills aligned to obtaining and analyzing data and examining clinical trends and patterns (Carroll, 2019).

They develop innovative approaches to improve access to health care, improve the quality of care, and reduce healthcare costs.

Nurse leaders focus on utilizing technology and developing electronic systems that will enhance data collection and analysis (Carroll, 2019).

Nurse leaders analyze data to establish information that is valuable in enhancing the delivery of patient care and improving the quality of care and health outcomes (Carroll, 2019).

Patient falls among geriatrics is a hypothetical scenario that would benefit from collecting and applying data in our healthcare organization. They result in severe injuries on patients, such as head trauma and fractures, which prolong hospital stay and increase healthcare costs (Venema et al., 2019). Data that could be used in relation to patient falls include the number of patient falls and common conditions of patients who suffer falls (Lucero et al., 2019). In addition, data on the length of hospitalization from falls and patient costs incurred from falls can be used to address the issue of falls.

Patient falls data can be collected from patients’ records and a hospital’s incidence reporting system (Lucero et al., 2019). The data can provide knowledge on patients’ at the highest risk of falls and the factors that put patients at risk of falls in the inpatient units. Data on the diseases with the highest falls can offer insight into the patients’ conditions that health providers should take additional measures to prevent falls (Lucero et al., 2019). Furthermore, the data can enlighten nurses on the gaps in patient care that contribute to patient falls and the measures they should implement to address the issue (McGonigle & Mastrian2017).

References

Carroll, W. M. (2019). The synthesis of nursing knowledge and predictive analytics. Nursing management, 50(3), 15-17. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000553503.78274.f7

Field, J. C., & Chan, X. W. (2018). Contemporary knowledge workers and the boundaryless work–life interface: Implications for the human resource management of the knowledge workforce. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2414. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02414

Lucero, R. J., Lindberg, D. S., Fehlberg, E. A., Bjarnadottir, R. I., Li, Y., Cimiotti, J. P., … & Prosperi, M. (2019). A data-driven and practice-based approach to identify risk factors associated with hospital-acquired falls: Applying manual and semi-and fully-automated methods. International journal of medical informatics, 122, 63-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2018.11.006

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Moore, E. C., Tolley, C. L., Bates, D. W., & Slight, S. P. (2020). A systematic review of the impact of health information technology on nurses’ time. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 27(5), 798-807. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz231

Venema, D. M., Skinner, A. M., Nailon, R., Conley, D., High, R., & Jones, K. J. (2019). Patient and system factors associated with unassisted and injurious falls in hospitals: an observational study. BMC geriatrics, 19(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1368-8

A Sample Answer for The Assignment: NURS 6051 Assignment: The Nurse Leader As Knowledge Worker

Title: NURS 6051 Assignment: The Nurse Leader As Knowledge Worker

My goal as a nurse in the intensive care unit was to decrease the amount of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). This is because most of our patients are immunocompromised. Based on our observations, it is common knowledge that our unit has become a popular breeding ground for opportunistic diseases. In addition to observing this trend, we have verified it by working with the Infection Control and Informatics Departments to analyze the unit’s electronic health records (EHRs) to ascertain the prevalence rate of HAIs over a set period of two years, the types of HAIs that were most prevalent, and their causal factors (Nagle et al., 2017). As it turned out, the rate was somewhat alarming, and the most common HAIs we had were CAIs (Catheter-Associated Infection), VAPs (Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia), CLABSIs (Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection), in addition to a few others caused by microorganisms like A.Bau, C.Diff, MRSA, Klebsiella, and much more.

Based on my experience and expertise as a nurse manager, I could apply this information to launch a comprehensive study in collaboration with key stakeholders like the hospital’s Infection Control Department and Infectious Disease Specialists on how to reduce the incidence of HAIs in our unit. To address and resolve this issue, I reviewed relevant research literature, conducted benchmarking using the best practices of local and worldwide hospitals, and solicited expert advice (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2021). As a result, we revised our policy to include measures such as increased assessment as well as documentation for monitoring the emergence of HAIs (e.g., changing the equipment at regular intervals), antibiotic stewardship, stringent aseptic measures, accurate patient cohorts, active screening, rigorous surveillance approaches (using the ICD), ongoing educational updates and updates to regulations about infection control. Because of this, our unit’s HAI rates dropped dramatically in under a year, even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evidence-based nursing practice relies heavily on data since it accurately portrays actual medical outcomes. The function of informatics is crucial since it facilitates the acquisition of this data. In turn, this provides nurses and nurse leaders with a foundation for enhancing the quality and security of care provided, paving the way for the first stage of the nursing process—the assessment—during which issues and requirements are recognized (Sweeney, 2017). The next step is formulating a plan and implementing interventions to deal with these issues based on the best available evidence and the patient’s best interests at heart.

 Thank you for your educational post. First, let me begin by appreciating the presence of technology in nursing care. It has without a doubt played a significant role in data collection, access, storage, retrieval, and sharing. It is for this reason that any “downtime” malfunction of technology leads to panic due to disruption of care. McGonigle & Mastrian (2022) describes nursing as hard work and the addition of technology in the care environment is meant to improve nursing care and make it easier (Ozan, & Duman, 2020). Mcgonigle & Mastrian (2022), note that the new technology being implemented in our practice environment is intended to boost productivity, encourage safety, and simplify the nursing job. The extent to which these technologies interfere with the interaction between a nurse and a patient is, however, a point of contention (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). For instance, you share your experience of a time the Electronic Health Record (EHR) was down. You couldn’t have access to data, and you had to spend so much time troubleshooting to get the issue resolved. I once worked in a facility that experienced “system downtime” and we had to utilize paper charts. Nurses took more time completing the daily tasks as compared to using the EHR. One of the issues of this shift is that the paper charts are most of the time not up to date. We have all had days when the alarms on our IV or feeding pumps won’t stop beeping. Keep in mind that the purpose of machines is to free up the nurse’s time for providing direct patient care. But when a machine is continually beeping or malfunctioning and needs rapid attention, the patient must wait while you fix the machine. The nurse completely disregards the needs of the patient in favor of the equipment.

                    You mention that you rely on data from patients reported directly to your monitor. In the department that you work in, this technology is crucial to keep both the mother and baby safe. I did my RN clinical rotations in different hospitals and realized that most departments have technologies that report data (vitals, heart rhythm, etc) to the nurse’s monitors. Currently, multiple bedside devices are used to continuously collect data from various monitoring systems about the patient’s blood pressure, carbon dioxide levels, oxygen saturation, heart rate, temperature, and breathing rate. Wireless transmission of the patient’s critical data to the hospital’s server, where specialized software applications stream the data into the patient’s electronic medical records. We only interact with the patient when we are passing medications, or they press the call button. Do you think we rely on technology too much? Although technology in nursing is fantastic, it should not replace the fundamental nature of care. Machines are unable to converse with patients or listen to their concerns. I’m hoping that as we include this fantastic technology in nursing care, we can also take the time to influence the core components of compassion, such as therapeutic conversation, listening, and touch. Human abilities that depend on the intricate interplay of the senses, knowledge, and intuition cannot be replaced by machines. McGonigle & Mastrian notes that the application of experience, knowledge, and intuition to the patient’s circumstance results in perspective (wisdom), which is provided by medical technology.  

Thank you so much.