Using the Data,Information,Knowledge and Wisdom Continuum

Using the Data,Information,Knowledge and Wisdom Continuum

Using the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum

Stanley Okeyemi

Walden University

NURS 6051: Transforming Nursing and Healthcare through Technology

December 25^th, 2016

The purpose of this paper is to develop a research question relevant to my area of practice, and then relate how the information gathered would progress through the Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom continuum.

According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2015), the foundation of research and many tasks we perform in nursing starts with the collection of data. Data represents the basis of collective information nurses depends on to propel their actions to interventions. We can somewhat correlate this instance to the nursing process, whereby the diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating steps in this process, is preceded by an assessment. An assessment can be termed a collection of data objectively and subjectively used to generate an idea of the intervention necessary for us to make on a patient. For the purpose of this paper, the goal is to finally use this raw data, to attain knowledge and Wisdom.

Developing a Clinical Question and Data Collection

Safety and time management are two essential factors that nurses pay or need to pay attention to in delivering quality care to patients. One of the safety measures that nurses are less scrutinized for in an occurrence is patient falls. Compared to other safety measures implemented in a clinical setting that nurses are reprimanded for, such as medication errors, unprofessional conduct, abuse, neglect and a host of other negative work ethics, patient falls has acquired less attention of accountability on caregivers. Although, many falls in hospitals are underreported due to fear, ignorance, or inefficient time of nurses to undergo the post-fall procedures which could average about 30 minutes to one hour on the floor where I currently work for, but may vary on other floors and institutions. The topic I came up with, and would like to explore for this paper is fall awareness and communication on continuous care routine. The clinical question I formulated for this topic was; does Q-shift fall risk assessment, and effective communication minimizes falls among the patient population? To locate some data for this topic, the literature search was limited to keyword searches on falls, patient safety, nursing, and communication. The Data –base used was CINAHL Plus with the Full-Text database in the Walden University Library. To transform this data into information, one needs to process and arrange it into more manageable structures, while interpreting the meanings of individual data points (Laureate, 2012a). The step of acquiring data was carefully and systematically carried out to be sure about the facts generated from the articles I selected.

The Transformation of Data to Information

The goal of medical institutions shoots to ensure and improve quality care and patient safety. According to the Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert 55, any patient of any age or physical ability can be at risk for a fall due to physiological changes due to a medical condition, medications, surgery, procedures, or diagnostic testing that can leave them weakened or confused. Many research articles and reports reveal that patient falls have been an alarming rate. Lopez, Gerling, Cary, and Kanak (2010) in their work, stated that “patient falls are adverse events that are largely preventable. The magnitude of adverse events in US hospitals was described in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report of healthcare errors, which estimated that 48 000 to 98 000 patient deaths occur yearly due to preventable medical errors”. These authors recognize fall as a healthcare error that is predictable, and simple patient risk assessment tools can predict over 70%. It is estimated that 15-30% of patient falls causes fractures requiring a cast, traction or surgery, but these estimates do not include other serious injuries and, in some cases, death related to falls (Lopez, Gerling, Cary, and Kanak 2010). Sand-Jecklin and Sherman (2014), stated the Joint Commission identified miscommunication as one of the responsible factors for sentinel events, with a majority of miscommunications occurring during the handoff of a patient to another nurse. Adopting a fall awareness and communication on continuous care management routine ensures that accurate information about a patient is passed on to another nurse, thus providing an opportunity for the caregivers to render the best quality care to patients entrusted to their care.

The Progression of Information to Knowledge

According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2015), Knowledge is the fusion of information gathered to detect and formalize a relationship. With these information collected about the estimated deaths and fractures occurring from falls, and also the predictability of the event, not also forgetting my personal experiences with fall preventions and outcomes, it is now knowledgeable to me that falls cannot be eradicated, but can be contained and reduced with better communication among caregivers and completing a Q-shift fall assessment risk. In developing knowledge about an issue, one must recognize patterns, contrasts, abnormalities, and historical facts, based on the juxtaposition of separate sets of information (Laureate Education, 2012a). During my research, brainstorming played a key factor in analyzing what would be beneficial for a therapeutic outcome of patients prone to falls, while also considering some factors that might impact nurses in successfully performing this task to expectation, like for instance, in the work of Lopez, Gerling, Cary, and Kanak (2010), on fall prevention, it was stated that “throughout this study the nurses reported high levels of temporal demand, effort, and frustration in their workload. One component of workload is staffing”.

The Progression of Knowledge to Wisdom

According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2015), Wisdom is the appropriate application of knowledge to the management and solution of human problems.” With substantial evidence gathered from the data, information, and knowledge phase, progressing to wisdom, I conclude that Q-shift fall risk assessment and effective communication reduces falls among patient population due to some simple rectifiable factors in conjunction with some complex systematic ones. Lopez, Gerling, Cary, and Kanak (2010) in their work to reduce falls stated, some of the factors identified can be rectified rather simply, as in the case of standardizing hand-offs between nurses and nurse assistants. Other factors such as limitations in the physical environment, lack of capability in the MIS, ineffective bed alarms, and unique aspects of nursing workload are more systemic and require complex solutions. These factors were narrowed down and complimented, as I reviewed the article of Neiman, Rannie, Thrasher, Terry, and Kahn (2011), stating that incorporating the fall-risk assessment into an existing electronic nursing documentation system likely enhances the acceptance of and compliance with the risk assessment tool and interventions.

Summary

McGonigle and Mastrian (2015) states, an understanding of the interaction between nurses and technology makes it possible for nurses to generate knowledge, and transform that knowledge into their daily nursing practice The concept of managing and communicating data, information, knowledge, and wisdom continuum as a guide for nursing research plays a significant role in nurse intervention in informatics. According to Godlock (2016), although all inpatient falls may not be preventable, impact can be made by raising situational awareness, increasing mutual support, engaging leaders, encouraging open communication, and providing frontline staff education and involvement. The wisdom to bring into meaning the elements gathered from the inception of group data for my research topic has brought into light that Q-shift fall risk assessment and effective communication minimizes falls among patient population, hence promoting a safer nursing practice.

References

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge

            (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012a). Data, information, knowledge, and

            Wisdom continuum. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Sentinel Event Alert 55: Preventing falls and fall-related injuries in health care facilities

https://www.jointcommission.org/sea_issue_55/

Lopez, K. D., Gerling, G. J., Cary, M. P., & Kanak, M. F. (2010). Cognitive work analysis to

evaluate the problem of patient falls in an inpatient setting. Journal Of The American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA, 17(3), 313-321. doi:10.1136/jamia.2009.000422

Sand-Jecklin, K., & Sherman, J. (2014). A quantitative assessment of patient and nurse outcomes

of bedside nursing report implementation. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(19/20), 2854-2863. doi:10.1111/jocn.12575

Neiman, J., Rannie, M., Thrasher, J., Terry, K., & Kahn, M. G. (2011). Development,

implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive fall risk program. Journal For Specialists In Pediatric Nursing, 16(2), 130-139. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6155.2011.00277.x

Godlock, G. (2016). Implementation of an Evidence-Based Patient Safety Team to Prevent Falls in Inpatient Medical Units. MEDSURG Nursing, 25(1), 17-23.