Rhi's Blog For Nursing Informatics

  The Potential of Data Mining to Revolutionize Nursing Care and Patient Outcomes In the article "Automated Data Mining of the Electronic Health Record for Investigation of Healthcare-Associated Outbreaks" by Sundermann et al. (2019), the authors explore how advanced automated data mining techniques can be leveraged to detect and analyze healthcare-associated outbreaks. By utilizing electronic health records (EHRs), the study demonstrates the application of computational methods to identify patterns and generate actionable insights in infection control and hospital epidemiology. The research highlights the role of machine learning algorithms in systematically analyzing complex datasets to uncover latent connections between clinical cases and outbreak sources. The article emphasizes the transformative potential of automated clinical data mining. Through real-world examples, it describes how integrating data mining into EHR systems can promptly identify outbreaks, leading to t...

  The Power of Personal Health Records (PHR): Enhancing Patient Engagement, Safety, and Quality The world of healthcare is ever evolving, the relationship between a patient, their healthcare provider, and the tools they use to manage their health has never been more crucial. One tool that stands at the center of this relationship is the Personal Health Record (PHR) . With growing emphasis on patient-centered care, PHRs have emerged as essential tools that not only help patients take control of their health but also play a pivotal role in improving patient safety, communication, and overall healthcare quality. PHRs enhance patient engagement and contribute to better patient outcomes (Alfurayh et al., 2025). Understanding Health Concerns: Empowering Patients to Take Control Understanding that inorder to utilize the PHR a patient needs to have an essential level of health literacy . Without health literacy the  patient does not have the ability to understand and manage their own ...

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) has significantly transformed healthcare delivery by improving safety, quality, and efficiency. As providers, Nurse Practitioners have to understand and be able to properly utilize the features of the EHR. 1. Improve the Quality of Patient Care EHRs provide comprehensive, up-to-date patient information, which is accessible instantly to healthcare providers. This results in more informed decision-making, enabling NPs to tailor treatments to the individual’s specific needs. By eliminating paper records, EHRs reduce the likelihood of errors, such as incorrect medication dosages or missed diagnoses (Rotenstein et al., 2022). The NP's use of EHR ensures that they can provide timely, evidence-based care that is tailored to the patient's current condition, improving outcomes. 2. Increase Patient/Consumer Participation in Care EHRs often come with patient portals that allow individuals to access their health information, review lab results, and commu...

Reflecting on the role of the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) as a Nursing Informatics Specialist, I realize how beneficial and  integral  technological tools and data systems have become in practice. I realize that they were created to improve patient outcomes, enhance efficiency, and ensure the delivery of high-quality care. Nursing informatics involves the use of technology, information systems, and data management to support nursing practice and improve healthcare delivery. An incredible example of nursing informatics is the Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The EHR allows providers to access patient histories, lab results, medications, and other important information at the point of care. This improves decision-making and allows FNPs to create more personalized care plans for their patients. In addition to EHRs as providers we use clinical decision support systems (CDSS) such as UptoDate to provide evidence-based guidelines, reminders, and alerts to support our clinical...