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

Nurses working in the recovery room at City Hospital received many complaints from patients who were required to void prior to being released. The nurses also questioned this requirement and decided to explore current best practices based on research evidence. Using the hospital’s health information technology, they located current research indicating that City Hospital’s policy was out of date and that research evidence no longer supported this practice. As a result of accessing and utilizing health information technology to locate evidence-based research, new practice guidelines were crafted and adopted.

This week you evaluate evidence available through health information technology and consider how health information technology supports evidence-based practice.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Evaluate evidence available through health information technology that lead to improved patient care
• Analyze how health information technology supports 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, 2011, p. 482):
  • 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.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses. Focus particularly on those questions raised to which you can add comments based on shared experiences or situations. Consider how your colleagues’ postings reflect and/or differ from your own perceptions and opinions. Review the Learning Resources for any clarification needed before responding.

For the discussion this week, you will select an issue in your practice that is of concern to you. You will then locate at least three evidence-based practice resources that address your concern and could possibly inform further action. In your post you will provide a description of your practice concern. Next you will discuss how you used health information technology to locate evidence to address this concern. Remember to cite and integrate insights from the three resources. You will conclude by analyzing how health information technology supports evidence-based practice.