NURS 6051 THE INCLUSION OF NURSES IN THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE

 

            Systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a process from start to finish in which EHR systems are designed and implemented (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). The SDLC model has multiple phases in which an organization navigates through prior to rolling out a new system (Singletary & Baker, 2019). In the first phase, the business plan is formed to investigate if an organization’s existing architecture can support the new system, cost-effectiveness, and estimated timeline of the project (Singletary & Baker, 2019). Nurses should be involved in this stage from the beginning in order to ensure the organization doesn’t waste time effort and funding, such as purchasing a new system that doesn’t work as intended for nursing staff. The nurses should be able to view and assess the key features of each new system the organization is contemplating.  

            The key tasks that a nurse may be involved in during the SDLC. 

• Risk mitigation – such as downtime during systems transition or testing  
• Solution definition – working with IT to determine the appearance and interface useability  
• Plan development – working with IT to test and ensure the final product will meet the requirements  
• Implementation – as a “super user”, ensure the processes that were previously defined are adhered to and all stakeholders’ requirements are met  
• Operations – working with IT, assist when there are issues and helping to define problems in the software, such as patient assessment definitions  
• Maintenance – ongoing suggestions for additional interfaces for devices, such as smart pump integration to enhance the features of the system (Singletary & Baker, 2019; McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017)  

 

            I have been working for my current organization for over two and half years. I joined this organization post-implementation and therefore was not able to be involved in our last roll out. Working in the CVICU we have had to work with a nurse informaticist when identifying issues with charting, such as inputting data from ECMO, Impella, and IABP devices into the EPIC charting system. As technology continues to evolve there will always be the need to make modifications to the existing system.     

References 

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

Singletary, V., & Baker, E. L. (2019). Building Informatics-Savvy Health Departments: The Systems Development Life Cycle. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice: JPHMP, 25(6), 610–611. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001086 

Topaz, M., Ronquillo, C., Peltonen, L. M., Pruinelli, L., Sarmiento, R. F., Badger, M. K., Ali, S., Lewis, A., Georgsson, M., Jeon, E., Tayaben, J. L., Kuo, C. H., Islam, T., Sommer, J., Jung, H., Eler, G. J., Alhuwail, D., & Lee, Y. L. (2016). Nurse Informaticians report low satisfaction and multi-level concerns with electronic health records: Results from an international survey. PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5333337/