The ultimate goal of every healthcare practice is to provide the best services to the patients. These goals are gauged and reflected in the quality of the health care services. Patient care efficiency and safety are two elements of quality in healthcare. The role of healthcare technology in improving patient care efficiency, timeliness, and outcomes cannot be overemphasized (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2021).
In the medical and surgical units in healthcare delivery, bed-bound patients require timely monitoring to reduce their risks of pressure sores and venous thromboembolism. Turning of patients and change of positions are some of the nursing interventions used on bedbound patients to prevent hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) (Pickham et al., 2018).
Regular turning every two hours in the inpatient units requires proper scheduling. Using nursing informatics can make this process easier, timely, and safe. This paper aims to describe a project proposal to utilize nursing informatics to prevent hospital-acquired pressure injuries through regular turning.
This project will employ the use of electronic health records and wearable device technology to monitor and implement their nursing plan. In an inpatient unit, different patients require different recurrent interventions to maintain their health and improve recovery. The project will require that nurses coordinate with other healthcare professionals through the institution’s electronic health record system to make decisions and plan care.
In this project, bedbound patients will be monitored remotely through the use of healthcare technologies technology. Patients who cannot ambulate or are not physically active because they are mentally or physically debilitated in the two inpatient units will be identified by the shift nurses and monitored through the electronic health records systems. The nurse will explain the role of technology to patients or their families.
Because different patients will have different schedules for turning, the technology will alert the shift nurses through the electronic health records system. The monitoring will take place at the nurse’s station. The patient will have a sensor technology that will be connected to the EHR through the institution’s local area network (LAN). During that shift, the nursing staff will then implement the two-hourly turning plans after the alert reminder by the system.
This project will involve various stakeholders involved in direct and indirect patient care. The project will require input from the charge nurses of the two units. The charge nurses will offer the necessary leadership strategies to ensure their shift nurses work as a team to achieve patient care goals. The nurse informaticist will be needed for the success of the project’s technological and care delivery aspects.
The informaticist will ensure the planning for compatibility and usability of the system are given priority for efficiency of use. This project will also impact the patients and their families as they are the immediate recipients of care in the institution. Their feedback and participation will be crucial determinants of the project’s success and the care delivered.
The institution’s procurement officers and accountants will also be impacted because of the need for their services during the purchase and implementation of the technologies. This project will also impact physicians and surgeons because they will be required to prescribe turning and ambulation for these patients and follow them up.
Efficiency in any process is a measurable outcome. The nurses’ input and the output of the care are essential elements of the efficiency of the care delivery. The cost and time spent in providing the care should be commensurate with the cost and time incurred by the patient during this care process. This project will reduce the time spent on physical monitoring of patients requiring two-hour turning (Pickham et al., 2018; Pickham et al., 2018).
The project will personalize the time for the patient’s two-hourly turning and center the schedule around the patient’s needs. Therefore, the project will enhance patient-centered care by avoiding the generalization of nursing plans for all patients in the unit. The alerts from this new system of planning will reduce the risks of medical errors by ensuring that the patient
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