Information in Healthcare - From Data to Knowledge: Improving Data Literacy Competencies.

Digitalization in healthcare and the increasing availability of data demand data literacy competences of nurses and other healthcare professionals including technical, ethical and communication skills. The international Spring School 2023 "Information in Healthcare - From Date to Knowledge" aimed at these competences covering interoperability, data protection and security, data analytics and ethical issues. These topics were embedded in the overall case of data-driven quality improvement for diabetes patients in a region. The curriculum includes an online preparation-phase and a five-days attendance week, incorporating problem-based and group work approaches. According to the studentt's evaluation, the awareness of the importance of the topics was raised and theoretical as well as practical application skills were improved. The Spring School enhanced data literacy competences, critical thinking, problem-solving, interprofessional und intercultural skills among healthcare professionals. Such course offering can contribute to meeting the increasing challenges of digitalization in healthcare.

Integrating Health Informatics into Pre-Registration Nursing Education: Insights from a Participatory Workshop.

The implementation of health informatics in pre-registration health professional degrees faces persistent challenges, including curriculum overload, educator workforce capability gaps, and financial constraints. Despite these barriers, reports of successful implementation of health informatics pre-registration nursing programs exist. A virtual workshop was held during thein 15th International Nursing Informatics Conference in 2021 with the aim to explore successful implementation strategies for incorporating health informatics into the nursing curriculum to meet the accreditation standards. This paper reports recommendations from the workshop emphasising the importance academic-clinical partnerships to develop innovative approaches to enhance theof capacity of academic teams and access to contemporary point of care digital technologies that reflect applications of health informatics in interdisciplinary clinical settings.

Creating Case Studies for Digital Health and Technology Competency in Nursing.

BACKGROUND: Nursing programs and their faculty must ensure that graduates have the informatics, digital health, and health care technologies competencies needed by health systems. PROBLEM: A gap exists in nursing faculty knowledge, skills, and abilities for incorporating informatics, digital health, and technologies across curricula because of low focus on this area in faculty development initiatives and rapid adoption and evolution of technologies in health care systems. APPROACH: The Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science initiative Education Subgroup used a process to create case studies for including informatics, digital health, and the concomitant clinical reasoning/critical thinking competencies across curricula. OUTCOMES: Three case study examples were created using the process. CONCLUSIONS: The process for creating case studies that incorporate required informatics, digital health, and health care technologies can be used by nursing educators for teaching across their curricula and to assess student competency.

Deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism: a survey of self-reported prevention practices among hospitals.

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) are major causes of preventable complications for hospitalized patients worldwide. The National Quality Forum (NQF) recommends that all patients be assessed for DVT/PE risk upon admission, periodically thereafter, and receive evidence-based pharmacologic prophylaxis. Objectives of this study were to capture information about hospital practices related to detection, prevention, and treatment of DVT/PE and to explore relationships between hospital characteristics and an applicable patient safety indicator (PSI) #12 postoperative DVT/PE. Two study phases were conducted in the south-central region of the United States. First, a survey tailored to gather information about the study objectives from subject matter experts was administered, and then, using the subject matter expert results, an online survey of performance improvement professionals was deployed. Using this 5-point Likert scale online survey, respondents at each hospital reflected their DVT/PE prevention practices approach and status. Results provided insight for trends in hospital-based DVT/PE prevention practice, associated hospital characteristics, relationship among domains of prevention practice, and how electronic DVT/PE order sets related to DVT/PE outcomes. Relationship of all these characteristics to hospital overall PSI #12 postoperative DVT/PE rates were compared. Future study and survey development recommendations were discussed.

Rural hospital information technology implementation for safety and quality improvement: lessons learned.

This grant involved a hospital collaborative for excellence using information technology over 3-year period. The project activities focused on the improvement of patient care safety and quality in Southern rural and small community hospitals through the use of technology and education. The technology component of the design involved the implementation of a Web-based business analytic tool that allows hospitals to view data, create reports, and analyze their safety and quality data. Through a preimplementation and postimplementation comparative design, the focus of the implementation team was twofold: to recruit participant hospitals and to implement the technology at each of the 66 hospital sites. Rural hospitals were defined as acute care hospitals located in a county with a population of less than 100 000 or a state-administered Critical Access Hospital, making the total study population target 188 hospitals. Lessons learned during the information technology implementation of these hospitals are reflective of the unique culture, financial characteristics, organizational structure, and technology architecture of rural hospitals. Specific steps such as recruitment, information technology assessment, conference calls for project planning, data file extraction and transfer, technology training, use of e-mail, use of telephones, personnel management, and engaging information technology vendors were found to vary greatly among hospitals.

Impact of managed care on healthcare delivery practices: the perception of healthcare administrators and clinical practitioners.

Managed care has introduced changes, such as cost effectiveness, access to care, and quality of care, to many components of the U.S. healthcare delivery system. These changes have affected how healthcare administrators and clinical practitioners perceive the impact of managed care on healthcare delivery practices. A survey was initiated to explore whether the perceptions of administrators differed from those of practitioners and to discover which organizational variables could explain the difference. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used for the target population of administrators and practitioners in high, moderate, and low managed-care-penetration markets. Two investigator-developed instruments--the Managed Care Perceptions Inventory (MCPI) and the MCPI-Demographic--and an intact centralization of decision-making assessment subscale were used for data collection. Administrators had a statistically significant, more positive perception of the impact of managed care on healthcare delivery than did practitioners. When the distinction between administrator and practitioner was not used as a grouping factor, managed care market penetration, nonprofit status, and years in current employment position were factors that had statistically significant associations with a more positive perception of managed care. Based on these findings, both administrators and practitioners have a role in maintaining awareness regarding their perceptions and should work collaboratively to address issues of concern. Similarly, promoting trust and commitment at the organizational level is important. Recommendations for further research are also provided.