Promoting patient safety through informatics-based nursing education

Bakken, Suzanne; Cook, Sarah Sheets; Curtis, Lesly; Desjardins, Karen; Hyun, Sookyung; Jenkins, Melinda; John, Ritamarie; Klein, W.Ted; Paguntalan, Jossie; Roberts, W.Dan; Soupios, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2004.04.008

« Previous Next »International Journal of Medical Informatics
Volume 73, Issue 7 , Pages 581-589, August 2004

Promoting patient safety through informatics-based nursing education

Suzanne Bakken
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 212 305 1278; fax: +1 212 305 6937.
Sarah Sheets Cook
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Lesly Curtis
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Karen Desjardins
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Sookyung Hyun
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Melinda Jenkins
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Ritamarie John
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
W.Ted Klein
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Jossie Paguntalan
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
W.Dan Roberts
- School of Nursing, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA
Michael Soupios
- Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, Mailbox 6, New York, NY 10032, USA

Abstract

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America identified the critical role of information technology in designing safe and effective health care. In addition to technical aspects such as regional or national health information infrastructures, to achieve this goal, healthcare professionals must receive the requisite training during basic and advanced educational programs. In this article, we describe a two-pronged strategy to promote patient safety through an informatics-based approach to nursing education at the Columbia University School of Nursing: (1) use of a personal digital assistant (PDA) to document clinical encounters and to retrieve patient safety-related information at the point of care, and (2) enhancement of informatics competencies of students and faculty. These approaches may be useful to others wishing to promote patient safety through using informatics methods and technologies in healthcare curricula.

Keywords: Patient safety, Education, Nursing, Evidence-based practice, Informatics