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Health Information And Communication Technologies Essay

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Informatics Applications to Support Nursing Practice Introduction The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe two health information and communication technologies (HICTs) and how they aid nurses in supporting safe, quality care, facilitating continuity of care and care coordination, and partnering with patients and families to increase participation in health care. HICT involves electronic creation, storage, exchange, and analysis of health information to advance delivery of health care. Widespread use of HICT within the healthcare industry can achieve the following goals: improve healthcare quality and safety, reduce costs and health disparities, enhance clinical research, and ensure security of patient health information (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Several examples of HICTs include: electronic medical record systems, electronic prescribing, consumer health applications, and telehealth (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], 2015). Integration of HICTs in healthcare settings is valuable for all clinicians, but most importantly nurses as they are primary caregivers. Nurses are the leading users of HICTs and are responsible for a large portion of patient safety and care coordination. The amount of care nurses provide directly affect mortality and morbidity, thus they use HICTs to support safe practice (Cipriano & Hamer, 2013). HICT is important for healthcare providers as it allows for enhanced management of patient care through secure sharing of

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