Nursing Informatics Specialist

Texas Health•Arlington, TX

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Nursing Informatics Specialist role will provide advanced leadership, consultation and coordination for nursing informatics activities, as well as integration of those activities with THR's information technology strategies. This role involves analyzing complex clinical operations, organizational structures, and care processes to facilitate decision making regarding clinical transformation. The specialist will utilize knowledge and skills of clinical practice to determine clinical functions suitable for computer applications and ensure information systems are consistent with professional standards of practice. They will assist in the development and maintenance of facility-specific and THR-wide policy and procedures related to technology and systems, and participate in interdisciplinary process improvement teams to identify potential future uses and improvements of information systems. Collaboration with stakeholder groups, Clinical Decision Support, and ITS teams is key to developing interventions for improving patient care based on clinical evidence. The role also includes chairing committees for system optimization and utilization of technology and nursing processes, and providing presentations at local, regional, and national conferences.

Requirements

Masters Degree Nursing, Nursing informatics or related field required
3 years as an RN required
2 years in nursing informatics required
RN upon hire required
BCIN - Board Certified Informatics Nurse within 12 months of hire required

Responsibilities

Analyze complex clinical operations, organizational structures, and care processes to facilitate decision making regarding clinical transformation.
Utilize the knowledge and skills of clinical practice to determine clinical functions that are suitable for computer applications and ensure information systems are consistent with professional standards of practice.
Assist in the development and maintenance of facility-specific and THR-wide policy and procedures related to the technology and systems.
Participate in interdisciplinary process improvement teams to identify potential future uses of the information systems and potential improvements in the current use of the systems.
Collaborate with stakeholder groups, Clinical Decision Support, and ITS teams to develop interventions designed for improvement of patient care based on clinical evidence.
Chair committees for system optimization and utilization of technology and nursing processes.
Provide presentations at local and regional and national conferences such as HIMSS, AMIA, Epic UGM, etc.
Identify staff needs related to education and training in the areas of use of technology and competencies in the use of electronic tools for patient care.
Work with entity and system educators for the coordination of staff education for new employees, yearly skills updates, and ongoing clinical education of all staff.
Work with Nursing Leaders to identify opportunities for staff education and retraining, based on needs assessment of high-volume, problem-prone, or high-risk activities.
Supports and provides communication to entity/system staff on changes to nursing practice including CareConnect changes, changes in policy and procedures, and changes in nursing process.
Evaluates training methods for best-practices in managing effective learning of staff.
Assist with management of training databases and facilitate easy access to training materials by staff.
Ongoing assessment and evaluation of education offerings to ensure classes are meeting end-users needs and optimal learning occurs.
Plan for and support entity monitoring and assessment of staff knowledge, and expertise with use of technology and equipment.
Provide regular communication of accomplished, planned future activities and issues/risks identified that will adversely impact the optimization activities with recommendations for mitigation/resolution to Nursing/System Leadership.
Facilitate the bi-directional flow of information and communication with and between all key stakeholder groups to build and sustain understanding, cooperation and collaboration.
Communicates changes and updates within CareConnect to all clinicians to ensure timely education and training within the designated change management cycle.
Develops and executes a broad range of communication strategies to provide information to all levels of staff including Newsletters, Tip Sheets, and Resource Databases.
Works collaboratively with the CNIO and other nursing leaders including regular face to-face meetings and supporting verbal and written communications.
Reviews content of and oversees implementation and training of system policies pertinent to Nursing Informatics.
Works with members of all clinical disciplines to integrate clinical practice, workflows and knowledge into CareConnect and other uses of technologies such as RTLS, Vocera, and Nurse Call.
Regularly monitors and ensures that optimization activities reflect on the literature and best practices.
Promotes standardization of practices across all entities and works with entity leaders to ensure best practices are in place.
Establish a global understanding of the adoption and utilization of CareConnect and staff perception of the implementation and optimization, lessons learned, unresolved issues including workflow, functionality, system performance, ownership, and adoption, and the impact of hospital culture in managing change associated with implementation and optimization efforts.
Conduct and facilitate direct, ongoing observation of clinical and ancillary environments to assess and evaluate nursing practice, clinical and business processes and workflow, level of system integration in end-user work routines and workflow, functionality gaps in knowledge and use of CareConnect, staff work-arounds for functionality and/or process gaps, and level of end-user satisfaction with system performance/functionality.
Develop optimization plans and education activities from assessment findings including leadership and management communication, clinical workflows, technology and end-user device issues, and clinician and physician adoption.
Participate in pre and post implementation change evaluation, develop and lead required process changes, and support entity/system leaders in managing changes to work flow and technological processes.
Ensure pending changes are assessed for impact on staff, workflows and nursing policy and procedures.
Identify and communicate potential risks and issues related to change.
Manage communications and training for all changes to leaders, clinicians, and physicians.
Identify and manage Super User support to assist in implementation, optimization and change activities.
Assist with Physician communication and support in implementation, optimization and change activities.
Utilize change management resources, tools and techniques, as appropriate, to identify and mitigate actual and/or perceived adoption/adaptation issues with key stakeholders.
Identify and cultivate formal and informal end-user staff to serve as system/process change advocates and super users.
Assess effect of changes on clinical and business processes and develop plan to enhance adoption of changes.
Identify clinical and business processes, work flows and application functionality that require redesign effort and optimization.
Work with NI Council and other stakeholder groups to identify, develop and execute optimization efforts within THR.
Identify and communicate issues and opportunities for improvement from clinicians, hospital leadership, and physicians.
Assist in the development of education/training materials as needed for implementation, optimization and process redesign opportunities.
Assess changes for desired outcomes, improvement in care or process and clinical adoption.