Running head: E-FOLIO ESSENTIAL IV 1

E-folio- Essential IV
Soibah K. Jalloh
Frostburg State University







E-FOLIO ESSENTIAL IV 2

E-Folio- Essential IV
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essential for this eFolio
assignment is Essential IV Information Management and Application of Patient Care
Technology. The role and responsibilities of nurses are expanding rapidly as are all the
technologies that are involved in healthcare and around the world. It is essential for nurses to
keep up to date with all the new technologies to provide evidence base practice and quality
patient care. Nurses are the frontline of patient care and are involved not only in caring for
patients in the hospital settings, but also continuing patient care outside the healthcare setting
such as community nursing, public health nursing, educators, and etc. Gone are the days that
patients and healthcare providers have to wait weeks to months for routine laboratory results and
or other necessary life saving measures. With the expeditious advance in technology, healthcare
providers are able to provide safe, time efficient and excellent patient care (AACN, 2008).
Exemplar
The assignment that I have selected to discuss in relation to Essential IV is the
need for technological innovation at my current workplace. We have two systems at our place of
work that does not communicate with each other. The Certified Nursing Assistant (CNAs) use
the Kiosk to enter patients information, and the nurses use a different system to enter patients
information. In order to see what the CNAs have entered, one will have to login in to the kiosk
located at the end on each hall way on the unit. It takes a lot of time just to check when last a
patient had a bowel movement, total fluids intake, etc. It is pivotal for nurses to have information
about their patients readily available at all times, in order for the continuation of excellent patient
care. The technological innovation for the above problem would be to incorporate these two
E-FOLIO ESSENTIAL IV 3

systems together by allowing the nurses to have access to the information entered in the kiosk
through the computers at the nurses station; and only permits the certified nursing assistance
(CNAs) to have access to the kiosk information. This will improve nurse patient relationship by
giving the nurses more time to spend with their patients instead of going up and down the halls
several times during their shifts to obtain patients information from the kiosk.
Reflection
The fundamental focus of Essential IV is to ensure that baccalaureate prepare nurses not
only have the knowledge and are competent with patient care, but also to have basic
understanding of the use of computers and technologies that are involved in delivering safe,
efficient patient care and information management systems (AACN, 2008). According to McNeil
et al., computers and information literacy are crucial to the future of nursing. Improvement of
cost effectiveness and safety depend on evidence-based practice, outcomes research, inter-
professional care coordination, and electronic health records, all of which involve information
management and technology. It is imperative for nurses to not only keep up to date with their
skills, but to be able to adapt quickly to change, continue learning and stay updated with the
technologies that are involved and information management systems (McNeil, 2006). Some of
the underlying focuses of Essential IV are for nurses to advocate for the use of new technologies
to ensure patients are receiving safe, quality care. It is important for nurses to recognize and
evaluate to role of information technology in healthcare delivery time saving, cost-effectiveness
and uphold ethical standards. The technological innovation that was selected relates to Essential
IV because the recognition of new technology to ensure safe quality patient care, increase
productivity, enhance communication between staff and patients and also cost saving for the
company. These are just a few things that were covered under Essential IV. (McNeil, 2003)
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References:
Association of American Colleges and Universities (2008) Taking responsibility for the quality
of the baccalaureate degree. Washington DC: Author
McNeil, B.J., Elfrink, V., et al., (2006) Computer literacy study: Report of qualitative findings.
Journal of Professional Nursing 22(1): 52-9
McNeil, B.J., Elfrink, V., et al., (2003). Nursing information technology knowledge, skills, and
preparation of student nurses, nursing faculty, and clinicians: A US survey. Journal of
Nursing Education 42 (8): 341-9.


Project Part Two-Technology Innovation
Soibah Kareema Jalloh
Frostburg State University






E-FOLIO ESSENTIAL IV 5


Technological Innovation
We have two systems at my work place that does not communicate with each other.
The CNAs use the Kiosk to enter patients information, and the nurses use a different system to
enter patients information. In order to see what the CNAs have entered, one will have to login in
to the kiosk which is not at the nurses station by the way, but located at the end on each hall way
in the unit. It takes a lot of time just to check when a patient last had a bowel movement, etc.
My technological innovation for the above problem would be to incorporate these two
systems together by allowing the nurses to have access to the information entered in the kiosk
through the computers at the nurses station; and only permits the certified nursing assistance
(CNAs) to have access to the kiosk information. I believe this will save time for the nurses and
will help the nurses to be more productive by having the information needed to do their job
readily available at all times. In turn this will save the company money by having nurses leave
on time given that they no longer need to scramble around to obtain patients information. This
will also improve nurse patient relationship by giving the nurses more time to spend with their
patients instead of going up and down the halls several times during their shifts to obtain patients
information from the kiosk.