Informatics for patient safety: a nursing research perspective

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Nursing Research
• Patient Safety

Background:

• The Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified information technology's critical role in creating safe, effective, and equitable healthcare systems.
• Improved information systems are essential for healthcare delivery systems that prevent and learn from errors.
• This review focuses on informatics processes and information technology's impact on patient safety within nursing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the role of informatics and information technology in promoting patient safety.
• To summarize relevant nursing research concerning informatics infrastructure and patient safety.
• To identify knowledge gaps and research opportunities for nursing in health informatics and patient safety.

Main Methods:

• Describing informatics infrastructure components within the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) framework.
• Summarizing nursing research on infrastructure development and patient safety.
• Identifying knowledge gaps and future research directions for nursing.

Main Results:

• Health information technologies must support nursing practice to prevent medical errors.
• Informatics infrastructure is key to consumer-centric, information-rich healthcare.
• Nursing research contributes to developing best practices for patient safety.

Conclusions:

• Existing work is foundational but insufficient for achieving optimal patient safety through health information technology.
• Further nursing research is needed to fully leverage health information technologies for patient safety.
• Integrating informatics into nursing practice is essential for error prevention and safety enhancement.