Dive Brief:
- In recent times, nurses have begun to play an increasingly important role in health IT, holding positions such as chief nursing information officer and chief information officer and having a serious impact on health IT innovation.
- According to the HIMSS 2014 Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey, nurse informatics leaders are critical to information system development, implementation and optimization. Nurses are also showing more interest in getting additional training within the health IT field.
- Nurse IT leaders say that while they don't know what's ahead, healthcare facilities will have to keep up with the latest trends to attract savvy young people who expect to work with cutting-edge technology.
Dive Insight:
For far too long, nurses were expected to implement whatever technology was coming down the pike, but typically had little or no input into what that technology might be or how it was implemented. This lack of communication between health IT leaders and nurses did much to slow the diffusion of useful technology to the point of care, and often put technologies that did not work for nurses into their hands. This situation was good for neither the facility nor the patients.
Today, however, health facilities are increasingly recognizing the role of nurses in developing and deploying technology that works for frontline caregivers. They're also being asked for intelligent feedback on how successful health IT deployments have been, and what can be done to improve the usefulness of tech in caregiving. It's beginning to look like some advanced training in health information technology will become a critical part of the nursing curriculum.