Written by Trisha Taylor, — Information that I added to the other post.
What is Nursing Informatics
Nursing informatics can now be defined as a combination of computer science, information science, and nursing science designed to assist in the management and processing of nursing data, information and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care. (Graves & Corcoran, 1986)
History
The frame work model for nursing informatics (shwirian,1986), was introduced when nursing informatics was defined as having a information based approach.
As time moved forward technology and information oriented outlooks combined to form our current definition of nursing informatics( NI).
The American Nurses Association( ANA) recognized the benefit of nursing informatics in 1992.
In 1993 the National Center for Nursing Research set program goals for informatics research , that are still used today.
Technology:
Telehealth
Telehealth is used when a patient and helath team member are unable to complete in person visits. It can also be used for two health team members to communicate on a shared patient. The advancement of technology has created a greater opportunity for telehealth use. The use of telehealth helps to create bridges to better health.
Tele health has been a part of the medical field as early as that 1800’s. One of the first marked examples was back in 1879 when a woman called her doctor with concerns of her baby having croup. The doctor lisened to the child over the phone to provide patient care. (Genes 2018)
During the 1920’s medical advice was provided through the radio to communicate with clinics on ships and in the 1950’s television links were broadcasted.
Fast forward to current times and we are able to provide medical services in two ways. Visits can be complete in an asynchronous manner, where the sender and receiver are within different time frames, or a synchronous visits use same time frame and are done through two-way device communication. Through telehealth medical teams are able to remotely monitor their patients by receiving current data that is transmitted to monitoring centers or healthcare professionals.
Telehealth is used to educate both patients and health care professionals as well. It is imperative that medical professions give patients information on their health and provide ways that they can manage and monitor their own health status. Telehealth can be used to provide educational videos, links for resources,and additional information to improve patients self-management. Health care professionals can also use telehealth for training purposes so that we are able to stay up to date on current medical situations,medicine advancements and more.
There is now a vast amount of technology devises that are used in health care. Medical professionals use robotics to complete surgeries. Portable monitoring devices have input devices connected to peripheral monitoring. Even patients are able to use self-monitoring mobile devices. Patients are able to monitor their own blood pressure, blood sugars, their hearth rates, etc., all through their own vices and within their own environment.
Other areas of health that benefit use telehealth are mental health services and intensive care and disaster services.
Follow this link to watch a brief video about telehealth! https://youtu.be/Xgwl9D3lq7c
References
Miller, K.S. (2025). Informatics and Nursing Opportunities and Challenges, (7th ed.) Wolters Kluwer