Today, I am at the Nursing Informatics Institute, now in session…and the room is packed! This event is hosted by the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and held in conjunction with HIMSS Professional Development and Informatics sections. You may have read the blog post on May 10, during National Nurses Week, by Marianela ”Nelita” Zytkowski, DNP, MS, RN-BC, Senior Director, Nursing Informatics, Cleveland Clinic Health System, who is here today. Now, take a moment to read her comments on nursing informatics and more about the Nursing Informatics Institute. Helen Figge, Senior Director, Career Services, HIMSS
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Q. Can you tell me more about your role in nursing and nursing informatics at the Cleveland Clinic? What does your typical day involve?
A. There is no such thing as a “typical” day in informatics, which is one of the reasons I am drawn to the field. Each day is ripe with opportunity and challenges to overcome. Being a Senior Director of Nursing Informatics means partnering with staff nurses, nurse administrators, the nursing informatics team, IT staff, physicians, and vendors every day to “do the right thing” for the care and safety of our patients.
A typical day means participating in both formal and informal conversations about existing systems in place, new systems being proposed, and the quality of nursing care we provide. On average, we spend a significant amount of time each day examining how nurses are adopting technology at the bedside, what we can do to better support change control and clinical practice, and prepare for future implementations. There is not a day that goes by that you are not faced with several dozen questions about how to improve a documentation process for the nursing staff using electronic medical records.
Staff is also requesting more technology, more features and more training to better use all the systems we have in place. Whether we are educating, problem solving or designing plans for the future nursing informatics is central to the core nursing and IT operations that occur from day-to-day.
Q. What are three important take-aways from today’s Nursing Informatics Institute?
A. Many nurses are curious about how technology relates to nursing, why people specialize in nursing informatics, and the future of the field with the current changes in healthcare reform. We hope to discuss these topics at this event as well as offer an opportunity for networking with specialists working in the field and include some insight into different career paths that one can take within this specialty area of nursing.
Q. Final thoughts?
A. Even if you never plan to work in the nursing informatics field, this is a fascinating topic for all nurses. Technology is now infused into many facets of our everyday life. Learning to adopt technology to the unique needs of healthcare helps to enhance the way that we interact with our care providers and take care of ourselves and our loved ones. With the changing healthcare market, we are even beginning to see more technology solutions used by our patients at home, continuing into hospital admissions, and during long-term care visits.
This educational forum is a great opportunity to hear how all of this ties together and why nurses are the “PERFECT” caregivers to champion these solutions.
Marianela ”Nelita” Zytkowski, DNP, MS, RN-BC Senior Director of Nursing Informatics Cleveland Clinic Health System, Cleveland, Ohio
