Discussion: Using Health Information Technology as a Source of Evidence-Based Practice

Before the digital revolution, health information technology supplied very limited support for evidence-based practice. If nurses wanted to be informed about cutting-edge research, their best bet was to either subscribe to leading journals or make periodic trips to the library. With the establishment of research databases, however, nurses became empowered to learn about and facilitate interdisciplinary and translational research. Databases are just one example of how health information technology supports evidence-based practice.

To prepare:

• Read the following scenario from the text (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015, p. 445):

Twelve-hour shifts are problematic for patient and nurse safety, and yet hospitals continue to keep the 12-hour shift schedule. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (Board on Health Care Services & Institute of Medicine, 2004) published a report that referred to studies as early as 1988 that discussed the negative effects of rotating shifts on intervention accuracy. Workers with 12-hour shifts realized more fatigue than workers on 8-hour shifts. In another study done in Turkey by Ilhan, Durukan, Aras, Turkcuoglu, and Aygun (2006), factors relating to increased risk for injury were age of 24 or less, less than 4 years of nursing experience, working in the surgical intensive care units, and working for more than 8 hours.

• Consider how the resources identified in the scenario above could influence an organization’s practice.
• Select an issue in your practice that is of concern to you. Using health information technology, locate at least three evidence-based practice resources that address your concern and that could possibly inform further action.

By Day 3

Post a description of your practice concern. Outline how you used health information technology to locate evidence-based practices that address this concern. Cite and include insights from the resources. Analyze how health information technology supports evidence-based practice.

In this week’s discussion question you were asked to consider a potential problem (appropriate to your role option) that you would like to investigate through nursing research. For this assignment you will review current research from (….)and provide a critical evaluation on that research through an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a brief summary and analysis of the journal article reviewed. For more information on annotated bibliographies please visit Purdue’s OWL: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/

A total of four annotated bibliographies are to be submitted (not to exceed one page each). The articles must come from nursing scholarly literature and may not be older than 5 years since publication. Please note that the articles must be research based and reflect a quantitative methodology (review our reading assignments). Web pages, magazines, textbooks, and other books are not acceptable. 

Each annotation must address the following critical elements: 

• Explanation of the main purpose and scope of the cited work
• Brief description of the research conducted
• Value and significance of the work (e.g., study’s findings, scope of the research project) as a contribution to the subject under consideration
• Possible shortcomings or bias in the work
• Conclusions or observations reached by the author
• Summary as to why this research lends evidence to support the potential problem identified specific to your role option.