Nursing Informatics and Project Management

Nursing practice has evolved and changed radically over the years, becoming more
reliant on health information technologies like electronic health records (EHRs), telehealth, and
decision support systems. As a result, nursing informatics has become a more integral part of the
nursing practice, affecting at least four core areas: clinical practice, nursing administration,
nursing education, and nursing research (Peltonen et al., 2019). Health IT is significantly
transforming today’s nursing practice from recording patient data and facilitating
interdisciplinary communication through electronic health records (EHRs) to supporting learning
through teleconferencing networks. Therefore, nursing informatics can align with technology by,
for example, facilitating communication among different departments in clinical settings.
Most importantly, nursing informatics can be more than just data collection and analysis
because it can enhance effective communication between nurses and patients through EHRs or
eHealth technologies. This can support collaboration and shared decision-making, potentially
improving the quality and safety of care, lowering medication errors and hospital stays, and
bolstering patient satisfaction and other clinical outcomes. Additionally, clinical staff training
uses nursing informatics to improve patient outcomes (Booth et al., 2021).
On the other hand, there are areas where project management as a discipline is vital,
including issue management, risk management, resource management, and budget management.
Technology can offer an organization the necessary competitive edge in these areas. Through
continuous information chain management, technology can improve project management
processes and reduce process bottlenecks that can potentially reduce efficiency and cause delays
(Davies et al., 2018). Project management uses technology in different ways, such as enhancing
communication, data management, project tracking, and collaboration.

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Finally, the goal of project management in nursing practice is to improve patient care,
establish good relationships with stakeholders, and bolster clinical processes (Tereso et al.,
2019). Specifically, it can be utilized in everyday practices to change the procedures used in
patient treatment. Project management can be seen as an organization’s framework or thought
process because it is used to align project, program, and portfolio management techniques with
organizational strategy and objectives, as well as to tailor or fit these practices to the context,
circumstance, or structure of an organization.

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References

Booth, R., Strudwick, G., McMurray, J., Chan, R., Cotton, K., & Cooke, S. (2021). The future of
nursing informatics in a digitally-enabled world. In Introduction to Nursing Informatics
(pp. 395-417). Springer, Cham.
Davies, A., Manning, S., & Söderlund, J. (2018). When neighboring disciplines fail to learn from
each other: The case of innovation and project management research. Research Policy,
47(5), 965-979.
Peltonen, L. M., Pruinelli, L., Ronquillo, C., Nibber, R., Peresmitre, E. L., Block, L., … & Topaz,
M. (2019). The current state of Nursing Informatics–An international cross-sectional
survey. Finnish Journal of eHealth and eWelfare, 11(3), 220-231.
Tereso, A., Ribeiro, P., Fernandes, G., Loureiro, I., & Ferreira, M. (2019). Project management
practices in private organizations. Project Management Journal, 50(1), 6-22.