Transforming nursing and healthcare through technology
CAN YOU respond TO THIS post?
Big Data Influence on Clinical Practice
Improving patient outcomes depends not only on nurses’ critical thinking and knowledge of patient health problems in the clinical setting. The healthcare system benefits a lot when it relies on big data. In this case, the first benefit is improving communication in the clinical setting, leading to improved patient outcomes. Patient-nurse communication improves with big data. Improving interprofessional collaboration between the nurse and other healthcare professionals improves patient outcomes. For example, technology helps hand-off, reducing medical errors, especially in critical care units. Poor hand-off procedures without technology give patients more time to recuperate in the hospital. An example is when a patient’s rash complaint helps the nurse or doctor offer proper medication or lifestyle changes without necessarily going to the hospital. It also saves costs of care for the patients and the hospital, as clients don’t have to come to the hospital to be treated. Another benefit of big data is that technology improves data management, which improves diagnosis and treatment plans for patients (Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018). Patients improve their health outcomes when their data is retrieved and used properly.