Imagine what Nightingale might have achieved with an EHR
We are honored this week to have 4 guest authors and guest hosts for the next HCLDR:
Peggy White, RN, BA, MN @_HOBIC
Tracie Risling, RN, BA, BSN, MN, PhD @traciewashere
Lynn Nagle PhD, RN, FAAN @LMNagle
Glynda Rees, RN, BSN, MN @healthedtech
Together they are bringing attention to and honoring nurses. Tuesday May 12, 2020 is the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Next week is also Nursing Week. We are truly honored to have these four nurses lead our next discussion.
Please join them on Tuesday May 12th at 8:30pm ET (for your local time click here ) for a special Nursing Edition of HCLDR.
Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East’ now known as the Rose Diagram was Nightingale’s way of explaining complex statistics
May 12, 2020 marks the 200 th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. Annually this day is recognized as International Nurses Day by countries around the world. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses caring for soldiers during the Crimean War. She gave nursing a favourable reputation and became known as the “The Lady with the Lamp” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night [i] . Florence Nightingale is considered as a pioneer in the use of infographics [ii] The ‘Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East’ now known as the Rose Diagram was Nightingale’s way of explaining complex statistics to inform care [iii] .
In 1863, Nightingale wrote that “In attempting to arrive at the truth, I have applied everywhere for information, but in scarcely an instance have I been able to obtain hospital records fit for any purpose of comparison…” [iv] . Two hundred years later, nurses and other clinicians are still attempting to find the information that they need to support clinical decision-making.
Currently many gaps exist in what is measured in healthcare, with much of the focus on administrative data rather than data that can support clinicians in improving the quality of care [v] . With increased pressure on healthcare organizations to improve clinical quality and efficiency, there is an opportunity for organizations to realize the benefits of electronic health records by standardizing clinical information [vi] . By virtue of nurses being the largest constituency of health professionals in Canada as in other countries, they are the predominant contributors and users of clinical data across the healthcare system. While there has been progress in different areas to identify, define, and standardize clinical data, these data are neither consistently collected nor widely integrated into EHRs. Furthermore, these data are not always captured within administrative systems nor abstracted into key data repositories.
There is often a lack of understanding among healthcare leaders of the value of...
