Introduction
Throughout human existence, human beings have always learned from persons they interact with during their everyday life. Over the years, technological innovations have backed the implementation of nursing developments, including nursing informatics that integrates nursing science with other disciplines comprising computer and information science (Hoy & Frith, 2017).
Nursing informatics is vital to the general medical industry to enable them to monitor and track trends on consumer information. Several historical nursing informatics pioneers have flagged the way for the nursing informatics specialty (Hoy & Frith, 2017). These pioneers have further helped advance and establish the nursing practice in various ways that have influenced patient security and job satisfaction. The objective of this essay is to present an overview of Dr. Kathleen McComick and Dr. Susan Newbold’s undertakings and impressions on informatics, lessons learned, and their application to individual practice.
Pioneers: Dr. Susan Newbold and Dr. Kathleen McCormick
Accomplishments
Dr. Newbold was an entrepreneurial individual in the sector of nursing informatics. The latter’s contribution to the field of informatics was significantly influenced by her inspiration to advance healthcare practices and ensure consumer satisfaction. During her graduate degree in nursing, she focused on a class project that involved introducing technology in nursing. The medical scholar was issued her first task in computer science in 1982 (Branchini, 2012).
Dr. Newbold participated in the Convention for Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC) that comprised other nursing informatics pioneers. They established the Capital Area Roundtable and Informatics and Nursing (CARING) that further helped in the improvement of care and understanding of the clinical issues that nurses faced (Branchini, 2012). The group conducted regular meetings on networking to share information concerning informatics. Furthermore, she established her organization and offered a two-day boot camp on nursing informatics. Simultaneously, Dr. Newbold was a creative writer and authored numerous articles in nursing informatics research documents.
On the contrary, Dr. McCormick has also played a significant role in nursing informatics. Dr. McCormick served in the American Public Health Service for 30 years (Procter, 2015). Her first achievement was at the National Institute of Health (NIH), where Dr. McCormick employed her medical and computer knowledge to investigate using the Teknekon system. She questioned the influence of technology to explore the vital nursing issues that required resolutions. Moreover, Dr. McCormick worked at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) to create clinical policies and decision support tools (Procter, 2015).
She also pioneered and taught the first course on informatics at NIH alongside Virginia Saba. However, after retiring from public service, she worked at SRA Global Corporation as a research expert in bioinformatics and genomics (Procter, 2015). Dr. McCormick’s service on numerous committees and boards further contributed to her influence on nursing informatics.
Impact of Contributions to Nursing Informatics and Practice
Dr. Newbold’s impact on nursing informatics involves offering a forum for medical practitioners to collaborate on technological systems in nursing through CARING growth. It enabled practitioners in the sector of informatics to study through the case researches shared between them. In 1991, the United States Nurses Credentialing Center offered accreditation of nursing informatics as a domain (Larson, 2017).
Despite the absence of an informatics course, Dr. Newbold’s studied and passed the exams on informatics, which enabled her to establish the Nursing Informatics Boot Camp. The Boot Camp was created to help in the training of nurses on the knowledge they require to pass their certification exam. Furthermore, it was used by nurses to share ideas on techniques to improve care and achieve consumer and job satisfaction using technology. Her influence has continued through her writings and studies at the graduate level nursing informatics.
Conversely, Dr. McCormick has influenced nursing practice through introducing databases that can be used by practitioners to research information and transform treatment. Her role at NIH enabled nurses to utilize data, knowledge, insight, and wisdom to resolve a nursing concern (Larson, 2017).
Using this information, the pioneer used this understanding to change nursing practice by developing clinical policies centered on evidence-based practice. Moreover, her achievements impacted practitioners at the bedside by creating clinical decision support tools to incorporate medical procedures into computer science (Larson, 2017). By coordinating with other nursing informatics pioneers, Dr. McCormick was able to influence the progression of nursing informatics over the subsequent years. However, the most significant achievement was her work with databases and genomics. The accurate data fields netting genomic material are being utilized in national databases to learn about handling illnesses linked to genomes extensively.
Lessons Learnt and their Application to Personal Practice
Several lessons can be acquired from both of the nursing informatics pioneers. For instance, the shared study from both of the scholars is their openness to the invention. In each of their professions, their interest in computer science enabled them to transform healthcare through the utilization of information technology (Robinson, 2020). As a medical informaticist, I need to stay linked and capable of learning from innovative trends in nursing informatics. Dr. Newbold shared her ideas in nursing informatics through CARING, networking chances for practitioners to discuss computers in nursing, and her significance in nursing informatics boot camp (Sharma et al., 2020).
As a nursing expert, I have to spread my knowledge to a future generation of the nursing discipline. Finally, the lesson learnt from Dr. McCormick is to employ informatics to investigate and enhance patient treatment. Therefore, assessment and research of nursing informatics practices are essential for the medical informaticist.
The utilization of information technology systems is changing patient treatment at a fast rate. Several pioneers in nursing informatics contributed to technology informatics guiding education reform (TICER) which established competencies for medical practitioners for utilizing technology (Sharma et al., 2020). Technical necessities currently include informatics that is taught at every education level of medicine and nursing programs. Activities of the pioneers in nursing informatics continue today through their writings, training of nurses, and other works. Therefore, the nurses will learn from these nursing informatics pioneers and integrate them into their prevailing medical practice.
Conclusion
In conclusion, governments, practitioners, and medical organizations should engage in Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform to support medical providers through technology. The approach will enable nurses to offer care and achieve job satisfaction and patient security. However, the acceptance of information systems transformations has presented challenges to some physicians; hence, intensive training on nursing informatics will ensure inpatient care. The pioneers in nursing technology also continue to achieve recognition in the present nursing field, thus campaigning for informatics adoption in nursing practice. Therefore, nursing informatics is a vital topic in medicine and should be investigated further to fully determine its merits and demerits.
References
Branchini, A. Z. (2012). Leadership of the pioneers of nursing informatics: A multiple case study analysis. University of Connecticut.
Hoy, H., & Frith, K. H. (2017). Applied clinical informatics for nurses. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Larson, L. (2017). Perceptions and experiences of baccalaureate nursing program leaders related to nursing informatics [PhD Thesis]. University of Kansas.
Procter, P. M. (2015). Nursing Education. In Editors introduction to nursing informatics (pp. 415–425). Springer.
Robinson, A. Z. (2020). A Systematic Review of Structured Communication Among Interprofessional Teams.
Sharma, K., Devi, S. D., & Sharma, B. (2020). The role of nursing informatics in healthcare sector. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(10), 1364–1369. Web.