Assignment 1: Compare And Contrast Clinical And Clinical Informatics

The purpose of this post is to compare and contrast informatics and clinical informatics. I will then provide examples of clinical informatics, as well as examples of how a nurse manager can use data management as a strategy to improve patient care on their unit. Finally, I will discuss the mandate by President Bush to implement electronic health records by 2014.

According to the American Medical Informatics Association (2016), informatics combines the sciences of computers, management, information, and decision, with cognitive science, and organizational theory to manage information and knowledge regarding biomedical research, clinical care, and public health. In comparison, clinical informatics focuses on health care, including decision support, documentation, and system design to manage and utilize patient and population data (AMIA, 2016). Clinical informatics assists nurses’ in gaining information and evidence-based knowledge to make clinical decisions and providing safe patient care (Huber, 2014).

For example, a nursing colleague at my organization collaborated with our clinical informatics specialist to develop an electronic nursing discharge checklist for heart failure patients. The electronic checklist ensures heart failure patients receive education and a follow-up appointment before discharge. Another nurse identified patients with acute coronary syndrome occasionally do not have the appropriate order sets implemented by their physicians, which resulted in missed nursing treatments. Our clinical informatics specialist analyzed the data from our health information system to clarify the issue, as well as identify the physician(s) not utilizing the proper order sets. My organization corrected the issue by educating physicians and nurses regarding the impact incorrect order sets have on patient