3
Systems Development Life Cycle Response
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a standardized framework to develop and implement information technology projects (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022). It is a developmental cycle that guides the process of planning, designing, implementing, maintaining, and evaluating high-quality software systems that meet the organization’s needs. Dr. Kevin Johnson (Laureate Education, 2018) mentioned in the video file that it is essential to recognize that SDLC is a cycle and will always be ongoing. With the implementation of a new EHR, it is crucial to include the major stakeholders as well as the end-users for the success of the project. Not involving nurses in each stage of the system development will pose negative outcomes for both the end-users and patients’ care. In our organization, the nursing leaders together with nurse informaticists and staff nurses were involved in every step of the SDLC. Planning involves knowing the problem, magnitude of the project, anticipated outcome, and financial needs (McBride & Tietze, 2019). In this stage, nurses’ input on the need for a standardized EHR for the whole hospital system is chosen by the stakeholders giving importance to cost-effectiveness and usability. When our hospital announced the implementation of EPIC to replace our paper charts, the younger nurses welcomed the idea more than the more senior ones. I believe that it has something to do with implementing change to an already established routine workflow and therefore needing to learn a new system. Our nursing leader with the nurse informaticist at that time evaluated our workflow, how we charted assessments, how we take orders from physicians and our level of competency with the use of computers. The nurse’s inputs were mainly on what we chart and how we document for each patient. The selection process and design stage (configuration of the software based on our workflow) for a new software system for our organization was easier than we thought since EPIC is a user-friendly system that was easy to navigate and learn. The flowsheets were customized based on our workflow of documentation and the order of our charting. Our nursing leaders also had to plan for staffing issues that will greatly impact the unit during training and implementation of the new system. Patient privacy measures or actions were also included during the planning and design to ensure compliance with HIPAA. Our nurse informaticist worked closely with the staff nurses to bridge the technical aspects of EPIC to our clinical expertise. If the nurses were not informed and had no input on computer use and workflow, productivity goals won’t be met, and patient outcomes will be affected due to more time being spent on charting on the computer than taking care of patients. Before the implementation of EPIC, the nurses were given three days to learn the system. EPIC Super Users who were handpicked nurses were also trained as our “go-to” experts when we face issues with charting. Sandbox in EPIC was used as a practice environment. During this phase, we gave our concerns about the usability and some additions to the flowsheets that we needed to document on before the final product goes live. If the quirks of the software were not addressed during the testing phase, I would imagine that during the Go Live, the nurses and other physicians will feel lost and frustrated. During the implementation stage or the Go Live, we had the EPIC support team present as well as the Super Users. They helped with issues not previously addressed and with evaluating the staff on readiness and the need for further training. I remembered that after the training, even the more senior nurses had little issues with navigating the software and documenting. The physicians were mostly the ones affected due to the ordering process and recording their H&P’s. Having nurses as superusers at that time helped because they know how our workflow goes and are very open to helping. Maintenance and evaluation stages remain in the cycle. Upgrades were rolled out by our IS department, and the nursing informaticist continually evaluates nursing evidence-based practices that can be implemented in our workflow to improve patient care outcomes further. When systems had to be upgraded, we use downtime machines where we can still access the patient’s charts but cannot make any changes. This helps to look up the history and medication schedules. Our IS department also sent out emails to notify us ahead of time of any changes in the system. The education department with the help of our nurse informaticist created online learning modules that nurses can learn from for any updated workflow or systemwide changes in our EPIC EHR. Every six months during our IS council meetings, we also make suggestions on how we can further improve EPIC and if future upgrades were necessary. In conclusion, nurses’ input, and feedback during the SDLC process for EHR conversion is very important in the success of its implementation because we are the major workforce or end-users and are at the frontlines of patient care (Weckman & Janzen, 2009).
References
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). Managing Health Information Technology [Video file].
Baltimore, MD: Author.
McBride, S., & Tietze, Mari. (2019). Nursing informatics for the advanced practice nurse:
patient safety, quality, outcomes, and interprofessional. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge
(5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning
Weckman, H. N., & Janzen, S. K. (2009). The critical nature of early nursing involvement for
introducing new technologies. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(2), 1-11.
Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=rzh&AN=105264473&site=eds-live&scope=site
019.02.003
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
