ESSAY: The Inclusion of Nurses in the Systems Development Life Cycle

To prepare
Review the steps of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as presented in the Resources.
Reflect on your own healthcare organization and consider any steps your healthcare organization goes through when purchasing and implementing a new health information technology system.
Consider what a nurse might contribute to decisions made at each stage of the SDLC when planning for new health information technology.

Post a description of what you believe to be the consequences of a healthcare organization not involving nurses in each stage of the SDLC when purchasing and implementing a new health information technology system. Provide specific examples of potential issues at each stage of the SDLC and explain how the inclusion of nurses may help address these issues. Then, explain whether you had any input in the selection and planning of new health information technology systems in your nursing practice or healthcare organization and explain potential impacts of being included or not in the decision-making process. Be specific and provide examples.

ANSWER

Steps of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Like in any other organization, SDLC provides a framework under which companies shape their technological infrastructure. Many challenges are shaping the healthcare industry, making it necessary to rethink matters of health information technology. SLDC ensures that newly conceptualized projects are operationalized. The first step is planning that entails identifying the scope of a problem and coming up with solutions, the next is system analysis and requirements that involves identifying the needs of end-users (Cao & Ball, 2017). The third phase is the design which evaluates the necessary specifications and operations; next is development that depicts the beginning of production. This phase is followed by integration and testing which incorporates quality assurance programs and followed by system implementation where program codes are written and data is moved from the old to another system. Lastly, the end-users can now improve on the system in order to make it more efficient by meeting new capabilities.

Steps While Purchasing and Implementing a new HIT

Fully commissioning a new HIT can be challenging if proper strategies are not adhered to. In my organization, there are steps that have to be followed. The first step is reviewing resources that can inform a new purchase. The second step entails need’s assessment that also entails evaluating which software components that are important as well as the readiness of staff to adopt them. Thirdly is to set the baseline criteria, for instance, whether the organization will go for cloud-based, self-hosted or outsourced systems. The …

Role of the Nurse at each SDLC step

The role of a nurse at each SDLC step cannot be ignored. Nurses have to be incorporated in decision making since they are in the direct use of any new health information technology. Since they are end-users to a great extent, they have to be incorporated both at the initial phases of planning to operation (Sharma & Clarke, 2014). They are for example, involved with giving feedback on how…

Consequences of a Health Organization not involving Nurses at each stage

Being part of the decision-making team in coming up with new health information technologies, there are many consequences that may come by not involving them. One major consequence is IT incompetence that may render the very technology obsolete. It is only by involving nurses that they will be able to use any new technology coming their way. The consequence of this can be …

My Input in Selection and Planning of a new Health Information Technology

Our healthcare organization always gives all nurses an opportunity to give ideas at all phases. In coming up with the new health information technology, I was involved right from planning until acquisition and implementation. This involvement saw me undertake various training, especially operation and maintenance. Unlike in other departments where outsourcing of technical know-how is the only option, my involvement saw me contribute immensely to the organization as I can undertake system maintenance at ease. I have …