Greater use of health IT by nurses could help improve patient care, according to Roy Simpson, a nursing informatics expert and vice president of health IT vendor Cerner, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
At a nursing technology conference at the Medical College of Georgia earlier this month, Simpson discussed how technology is transforming the field of nursing. He said that the creation of a Nursing Minimum Data Set, the first effort to standardize the collection of crucial nursing data across different locations, will fundamentally change nursing. He also believes that the nationwide push for hospitals use electronic health records by 2013 will significantly affect nurses.
Simpson said that more nursing data will help the public and health professionals better understand the role nurses play in the health care system (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/28).