Nurse’s Role in System Development and Implementation

Nurses play a central role in the delivery of healthcare services to patients because they
spend a lot of time with patients during various stages of treatment. In performing their role,
nurses often use various technologies to make their work easier and safer for patients. Thus, they
are usually the most affected healthcare professionals any time technologies are introduced in a
healthcare organization. The technologies can either significantly hinder or improve their work.
To make sure that the impact of technology introduction is positive and not negative, it is
important to involve nurses in all stages of the technology’s introduction. Since most healthcare
organizations use Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) when introducing new healthcare
information technologies, it is important that nurses are involved in SDLC’s various phases. This
paper examines the roles that a graduate-level nurse can play in various SDLC’s phases.
Role of nurse in planning and requirements definition
Some of the activities that occur during this phase include definition of scope and
problems, and examination of various alternatives that are available (McGonigle & Mastrian,
2017). Through performance of various feasibility tests, one of the alternatives is chosen. A
project schedule is then developed and resources provided for the implementation of the project
before the project’s launch (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). During this phase, there are various
roles that a graduate-level nurse can play. One of them is working with the team involved in the
project to establish the project’s deliverables. They can also help in determining the project’s
requirements, especially the clinical and medical aspects of the project. Lastly, they can help the
team to conduct the project’s feasibility studies.
Role of nurse in analysis

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The phase involves developing the project’s priorities, ensuring that the project is in line
with the organization’s policies, and making recommendations for the project’s improvement
(Rehani, 2019). One of the roles that a graduate-level nurse can play at this stage is develop a list
of the project’s priority areas in conjunction with other team members. Another role is providing
recommendations to make the project better at helping nurses and other healthcare personnel to
provide better care to patients.
Role of nurse in the design of the new system
This phase is a little bit technical as it concerns the technology’s architecture particularly
its software, user interface, data retrieval, and networking (Rehani, 2019). Since nurses are likely
to be heavy consumers of the technology, the main role of a graduate-level nurse at this stage is
to provide recommendations for development of a user interface that is nurse-friendly. A good
health technological system is one that meets the needs of its users (Louis, 2017). Nurses as the
main users of health information technologies, nurses ensure that they effectively meet their
needs.
Role of nurse in implementation stage
Some of the activities that take place during implementation stage include customizing
the technology system so that it better meets the needs of the healthcare organization, testing it to
make sure that it works as expected, and then installing it (Rehani, 2019). At this phase, some of
the roles that a graduate-level nurse can play include providing training to other nurses and
providing feedback about the system to the team involved in implementation of the system.
Role of nurse in post-implementation support phase

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After the project’s implementation, it is continuously maintained and supported. One of
the roles that a graduate-level nurse can perform during this phase is providing continuous
training to other nurses in order to increase buy-in for the technology. Another one is providing
information about areas that need to be improved on the technological system.

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References

Louis, I. (2011, August 17). Systems development life cycle (SDLC) [Video file].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtpyjPrpyX8
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge
(4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Rehani, N. (2019). Using SDLC Methodology to Implement HIT.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7fbd/35017b7085209694cd56373e8eab62b84b2a.pdf