Posted: August 31st, 2022

Discussion – Week 1 The collection of data in health care

Discussion – Week 1 The collection of data in health care

The collection of data in health care is an important part of making sure that patients get good care. Data makes sure that the people who work in health care have all the information they need to give care. In this case, it would be smart for the doctors to make sure they have all the important information before making important decisions about health care (Mercieca-Bebber et al., 2018). For example, it can be hard to get information about a patient in the emergency room. This is because the doctor or nurse only has a short amount of time, usually just a few minutes, before they have to give immediate health care services. In this situation, the doctors and nurses might not have enough time to look into the patient’s medical history.

In the emergency room, the past medical history, medications, and allergies are the most important things to know. Even though other information is important at the time, health professionals should make sure they get the most important information. McGonigle and Mastrian (2021) say that the data will be important in deciding what kind of medicine to give at the time. In some cases, health care workers could give a patient medicine thinking they are saving their life, but the patient’s allergies could cause bad reactions or even kill them. So, health care workers would have to be careful and gather important information to make sure that patients get the care they need. In these cases, data should be collected and kept in systems for electronic health records. The patient’s information will be easier to find with this system. Patterson et al. also said that the data should be stored so that important information like the patient’s age, allergies, and medical history can be found in a summary of the patient’s information (2019). This will make sure that the people who are taking care of the patient have all the information they need. The data will also be easier to find, since all the needed information will be just a few keystrokes away. This will make the health care process more effective and efficient.

In the emergency room, it’s important for nurse leaders to be able to use clinical reasoning and judgment. Most of the time, nurses have to make important decisions in the shortest amount of time possible, without always having time to weigh their options (Berndt & Fischer, 2018). In these situations, the health care professional can “glance” at the summary of the patient’s health record. This will help the nurse think and decide in a way that meets the needs of the patient.

References

Berndt, M., & Fischer, M. R. (2018). The role of electronic health records in clinical reasoning. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1434(1), 109-114. McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Mercieca-Bebber, R., King, M. T., Calvert, M. J., Stockler, M. R., & Friedlander, M. (2018). The importance of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials and strategies for future optimization. Patient-related outcome measures, 9, 353.

Patterson, B. W., Pulia, M. S., Ravi, S., Hoonakker, P. L., Hundt, A. S., Wiegmann, D., … & Carayon, P. (2019). Scope and influence of electronic health record–integrated clinical decision support in the emergency department: a systematic review. Annals of emergency medicine, 74(2), 285-296.