Roles of the Nurse Informaticist and Administrator Order Instructions: Compare and contrast the roles of the Nurse practitioner, nurse education, nurse informaticist and nurse administrator in advance practice nursing pertaining to clinical practice, primary care, education administration, and research.
APA format is required. Include references of current literature, at least 3 research articles
Roles of the Nurse Informaticist and Administrator Sample Answer
Roles of the Nurse practitioner, nurse education, nurse informaticist, and nurse administrator
Nursing is one of the most important career fields impacting on healthcare. There are various nursing roles in a health facility that works together to promote healthy living. Some of the roles they play even though may differ to some extent; aim to achieve a common goal of promoting quality healthcare. This discussion compares and contrasts the roles of the nurse practitioner, nurse informaticist, nurse educator, and nurse administrator in advancing practice nursing in clinical, practice, education administration, primary care, and research.
Nurse practitioners are one of the nurses in the category of advanced practice registered nurse that serve patients as primary care providers. They execute different roles in their capacity in their areas of specialty. Some of these specialties of nurse practitioners include pediatric nurse practitioners, primary care nurse practitioners, geriatric nurse practitioners, psychiatric nurse practitioners and oncology nurse practitioner (Lowe, Plummer & Boyd, 2013). These nurses have a line of responsibilities they execute in their specialty areas. Some of the duties they perform include, providing diagnosis, treatments and provide counseling and consultations to their patients. These nurses as well as work in an outpatient situation and perform their duties independently as a team (Lowe, Plummer & Boyd, 2013). They as well educate patients on preventive care as well as prescribed treatments, conduct physicals, carry out tests and as well as prescribe medications to their patients.
Nurse educators as well play important roles in nursing. These educators are registered nurses with advanced education in various areas such as advanced clinical training in a specialty in healthcare. The educators offer their services in various capacities (Mcsherry, Pearce, Grimwood, Mcsherry, 2012). Nurse educators mostly work in the classroom and in practice setting in preparing and mentoring nurses. They help to strengthen the nursing workforce, serve as role models and provide leadership, required in implementing evidence-based practice.
They design, implement, evaluate and revise academic as well as continuing education programs for a nurse to help them deal with the various health problems in their practice (Mcsherry, Pearce, Grimwood, Mcsherry, 2012). They as well prepare nursing workforce to adapt to ever-changing and diverse health care environment. Nurse educators combine their clinical abilities with responsibilities. These nurse educators as well provide help to students and practicing nurses in identifying their learning needs, limitations and strengths as well in selecting learning opportunities to build on their strengths and manage their weaknesses (Griscti, Jacono & Jacono, 2005). The nurse educators as well provide advice to their students, engage in scholarly works such as research, present in professional associations, and engage in peer review as well contribute to the academic community through leadership roles. Nurse educators working in practice settings assess nurses in practice and collaborate with them in designing learning experiences to strengthen their abilities.
Nurse administrators as well play a critical role in health care nursing. Nurse administrators have high training and have skills and knowledge in nursing protocols and procedures. They are pivotal leaders in a health facility where they manage people and processes. They have the requisite qualifications that enable them to render their services in various positions in different health settings.
Administrators work in clinical settings and manage teams of nurses or a given unit or shift assigned to them. They must fully implement nursing processes and procedures and remain accountable for their actions. Some of the roles these nurse administrators execute include, ensuring that patients receive quality care from the nurses (Mcsherry, Pearce, Grimwood, Mcsherry, 2012). They must formulate appropriate policies and procedures and document these procedures for the nursing teams to render quality care. They also promote nurses development, develop budgets and maintain standard and practice guidelines. Administrators enhance the free flow of communication between nursing staffs and practice, schedule and supervise nurses; they also analyze nursing diagnosis and treatment decisions (Cathcart & Greenspan, 2013). They also adopt strategies that aim at building and counseling employees as well as patient consultation programs aimed at impacting on the quality of healthcare.
Nurse informaticists as well play important role in affecting the quality of care. These nurses combine nursing science, computer science, information management science to manage and process nursing data, information, and knowledge to deliver quality healthcare to the patients (Murphy, 2011). The introduction of technology in the provision of healthcare has improved service delivery as various technological and technological communications systems are adapted to deliver healthcare. The major role of nurse informaticists is to facilitate the integration of data, information and knowledge to support the patient, nurse and other providers in decision-making (Murphy, 2011). They, therefore, use information processes, structures, and technology to achieve their goals.
Nurse informaticists’ role is to develop systems that are user-friendly and effective in rendering quality care. They also enhance documentations in health facilities through the use of computer and information technologies (Murphy, 2011). One of the technologies they use is the Electronic Health Records to enhance documentation and communications between health care providers in a health setting. They, therefore, design and implement systems that improve documentation, enhance accuracy and eliminate unnecessary work and allow analysis of clinical data. They also enhance communication in an entity through the adoption of various technologies such as Smartphone, notepads, internet in a quest to make better decisions about patient care and in the overall delivery of quality healthcare (Murphy, 2011).
From this discussion, it is therefore apparent that these nurse professionals have some comparisons and contrasts. Some of the comparisons that cut across these nurses are that they work in a clinical setting or aims to promote quality health care. They as well must have acquired a certain level of training in their respective fields (Mcsherry, Pearce, Grimwood, Mcsherry, 2012). The nurse practitioners, educators, informaticists and administrators must be trained and obtain certification and license to operates. Furthermore, are expected to execute their roles by observing certain rules and regulations, policies and standards established. They as well expected to adapt to codes of ethics and professional standards. These nurses as well can participate in advocacy in creating awareness on the prevention of disease and infections. Their capacities and level of skills and knowledge and experience in health care makes them opinion leaders and can, therefore, influence the society to adapt to positive health behaviors as a way to improving and promoting health care.
There are as well some contrasts between the nurse practitioners, educators, informaticists and administrators. Their differences emanate from their roles and the settings they are working. For instance, nurse practitioners work in a primary care setting as they deal with issues of diagnosis, treatment, medical prescription in both inpatient and outpatient settings. They as well provide guiding and counseling services on prevention of certain diseases among other roles. Nurse educators work in a classroom setting as they train nurses on appropriate nursing practices. These nurse educators have requisite clinical training and experiences they have to train new nurses. They also engage in research to come up with new skills and knowledge to impact the nursing profession (Mcsherry, Pearce, Grimwood, Mcsherry, 2012). Informaticists work in all settings to enhance communication-using technologies available. They have requisite skills to use technologies in health care settings to facilitate communication between various stakeholders including patients, nurses, providers and other stakeholders to impact on quality of care. On the other hand, administrators have the responsibility to provide affable management and leadership in a health care facility to ensure that processes and standards of practice are met. They ensure that patients can access to quality health care through proper management, budgeting, and setting of policies and procedures.
In conclusion, nursing is a wide field with different practitioners required to execute their roles and duties to achieve common objectives. Nurse practitioners, educators, administrators, and informaticist have a role to play to enhance the quality of care. Understanding their role is important, as this will promote quality of care. Even though there are some differences in the roles and duties that these professionals do, they have a common objective of ensuring that quality healthcare is provided to the patients.
Roles of the Nurse Informaticist and Administrator References
Cathcart, E., & Greenspan, M. (2013). The role of practical wisdom in nurse manager practice: why experience matters. Journal of Nursing Management, 21(7):964-970.
Griscti, O., Jacono, B., & Jacono, J. (2005). The Nurse Educator’s clinical role. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 50(1): 84-92.
Lowe, G., Plummer, V., & Boyd, L. (2013). Nurse practitioner roles in Australian healthcare settings. Nursing Management – UK, 20(2):28-35.
Mcsherry, R., Pearce, P., Grimwood, K., Mcsherry, W. (2012). The pivotal role of nurse managers, leaders, and educators in enabling excellence in nursing care. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(1): 7-19
Murphy, J. (2011). The Nursing Informatics Workforce: Who Are They and What Do They Do? Nursing Economic, 29(3):150-153.
