Prelims

• Nursing Informatics is a subset of healthcare informatics that supports inter-professional education, practice, and research

  
• Informatics Nurse is a registered nurse with experience in nursing informatics and a Master's degree in the field
• Computer hardware consists of the physical components of a computer, which uses electronic components and instructions to perform tasks
• Computer's architecture includes electronic circuits, processors, RAM, ROM, graphic and sound cards, motherboard, internal hard drives, cooling system, modem, Ethernet connectors, optical drives, USB connectors, and a multiformat media card reader
• The motherboard is a thin flat sheet made of a firm nonconducting material with printed circuits, chips, and slots, connecting all parts of the computer together
• Memory on a computer refers to electronic storage devices or chips on the motherboard, including ROM, RAM, and cache
• ROM is a form of permanent storage in a computer with instructions for booting and essential machine instructions, programmed by the manufacturer and unchangeable by the user
• RAM is working memory for primary storage, while cache is a small form of RAM that speeds up processing by storing frequently called items in a rapid access memory location
• Input devices allow the computer to receive information from the outside world, such as electrodes, pulse oximeters, CT scans, and MRIs
• Output devices allow the computer to report results to the external world, translating information into readable formats for people or machines
• Storage media for computers include hard drives, USB flash drives, optical media, cloud storage like Google Drive, and solid-state electronic data (SSD)
• Types of computers include supercomputers, mainframes, microcomputers, and handheld computers
• Keyboard keys are divided into typing (alphanumeric), control, function, navigation, and numeric keypad groups based on function
• A Medical Scribe is a certified professional who writes down dictated information in various settings, while a Medical Scribe in healthcare performs documentation in the EHR and partners with medical providers for efficient patient care
• Software is the general term applied to the instructions that direct the computer’s hardware to perform work, distinguished from hardware by its conceptual rather than physical nature
• Software consists of instructions communicated electronically to the hardware
• System software consists of programs that control the individual computer and make the user’s application programs work well with the hardware
• System software includes:

  • Basic Input/Output System
  • Operating System
• Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is stored in the ROM chip on the motherboard, manages data flow between the computer's operating system and attached devices, and loads the Operating System (OS) into the RAM
• Operating System (OS) is the overall controller of the computer's work, managing interfaces to peripheral hardware, scheduling tasks, allocating storage, retrieving programs and data, and providing an interface between the machine and the user
• Utility software programs are designed to keep the computer system operating efficiently, adding power to system software or supporting OS and application software programs
• Categories of utility software include:

  • Security programs
  • Disk management utilities
  • Backup software
  • Screen savers
  • Archival assistance software
  • Programming environment support programs
• Security programs like anti-virus, firewall, and encryption protect the computer and its data from attacks that can destroy programs and data
• Disk management utilities help keep hard disk space clean and efficient by analyzing disk space usage, defragmenting the drive, deleting duplicate files, compressing data, partitioning disks, and cleaning up unnecessary data
• Backup software helps to duplicate disk information for data restoration in case of data loss due to component failure
• Screen savers are programs that blank the monitor screen or fill it with moving images when the user is away from the computer, hiding personal or confidential data and requiring users to log back in to turn off the screen saver
• Archive assistance software compresses information in files for archiving and stores them in a compressed form in long-term storage devices, also decompressing files when needed
• Programming environment support programs are used by developers to support their programming work or run their programs, translating human language into machine language the computer can understand
• Application software includes programs for work, data processing, gaming, communication, and multimedia on a computer, like Microsoft Office, ApacheOpen Office, or LibreOffice
• Free software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run, study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions
• Key features of nursing informatics to practice application include patient charting, clinical data integration, decision support, optimal operation of hospital and clinic, better care planning
• Electronic Health Care Record consists of computerized patient records, large data storage, management of health information using modern information techniques, electronic medical records (EMR) from different departments such as laboratory, radiology, pharmacology department, etc
• Types of data stored in EHR: patient profile, results of medical examination, medical history, history of allergies, immunization record, development of health condition and status, results of diagnostic tests, medication history, records of appointments, billing records
• Critical Care Nursing focuses specifically on life-threatening health problems of critically ill patients, ensuring optimal nursing care, performing complex assessment and monitoring, providing high-intensity medication and continuous therapy
• Critical Care Information System provides real-time resource utilization data and management of information, integrates medical facilities in critical care, electronically collects hospital and patient-specific critical care data to create a patient profile
• Advantages of Critical Care Information System include integrating and processing physiologic and diagnostic information, creating trends and analysis with graphical representation of results, providing alert, feedback, and quick evaluation of the patient condition
• Components of a CCIS include patient management, vital signs monitoring, diagnostic testing result, clinical documentation to support the process of physical assessment findings, decision support, medication management, interdisciplinary plan of care
• Community Health Information Tracking System (CHITS) is created to allow healthcare providers to collect, process, and share personal health data from rural health units, emphasizing the prevention of disease, medical intervention, and public awareness
• Primary focus of CHIS includes preventing, identifying, investigating, and eliminating communicable health problems, educating and empowering individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles, facilitating data retrieval and transformation into information
• Telehealth is the delivery of healthcare services or activities with time and distance barriers removed, using technologies such as telephones, computers, or interactive video transmissions