- Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker
- The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker
- NURS 5051: Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology
- Knowledge Worker Concept
- Knowledge work involves data analysis and use of critical reasoning and reflection to resolve problems
- Knowledge workers apply critical thinking skills attained through theory and experiential experiences to resolve routine problems
- Nurses are knowledge workers as they:
- Deliberate their critical reasoning and evidence-based practices during care delivery
- Receive extensive training on technical and non-technical clinical skills
- Wealth of clinical experiences
- Expertise to transform outcome data into analyzable information for knowledge creation and sharing. Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker
The concept of knowledge work entails analysis of data and utilizing critical reasoning and reflection to resolve problems and disseminate the acquired knowledge to educate others (Matney et al., 2016). Knowledge workers are professionals, whose occupations necessitate the application of critical thinking skills to develop innovative solutions to challenges or problems arising from routine job-related tasks. Nurses are considered knowledge workers as they engage in a stream of consciousness involving deliberating about the effectiveness of their critical thinking and evidence-based practices in the midst of care delivery (Jost, 2016)
- Nursing Informatics
Healthcare Informatics Nursing Informatics
Healthcare informatics is the amalgamation of information, computer, healthcare, and cognitive sciences to facilitate the governance of healthcare data. Nursing informatics is a sphere of healthcare informatics that involves the integration of nursing science with numerous analytical and information disciplines to map out, describe, and analyze outcome data, process the resulting information to create knowledge, and disseminate the ultimate wisdom in nursing practice (Sweeney, 2017).
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- The Role of the Nurse Leader as a Knowledge Worker
- Knowledge workers rely on data mining to gather, process, and analyze data and transform it into knowledge used in clinical decision-making
- Nurse leaders serve a key role in data mining
- Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker
- Lead the formulation of evidence-based practices
- Change agents
- Offer leadership guidance
- Support a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork
Nurse knowledge workers utilize information systems, such as data mining tools, to gather, process, and analyze data and transform the resulting information into knowledge used in clinical decision-making (Jost, 2016). Therefore, nurse leaders should also be a knowledge worker equipped with the necessary critical thinking skills to steer the data mining process pertinent in designing evidence-based practices. In the process, the nurse leaders serve as change agents, offer leadership guidance, and promote a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork.
- The Role of the Nurse Leader as a Knowledge Worker
- In the hypothetical scenario, upon reviewing COVID-19 outcome data in the hospital’s electronic health records (data gatherer), the nurse manager identified an upward trend of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) cases among the COVID-19 positive patients. As information user, they interpreted reports from floor nurses and patients to develop insights into the clinical concern (Conrad & Sherrod, 2017). The nurse manager formed an interdisciplinary team that compared individualized patient data and evidence from empirical studies (knowledge user) and recommended the implementation of the ventilator bundle, which has been confirmed to decrease the risk of VAP among mechanically-ventilated COVID-19 positive patients (knowledge builder).
- The Role of the Nurse Leader as a Knowledge Worker
- The nurse leader had the necessary proficiencies to harness the power of informatics tools
- Quickly decoded patient findings and information to engender knowledge that informed the designing and implementation of the ventilator bundle.
- The nurse manager provided leadership necessary for successful implementation of the ventilator bundle:
- Instilled excitement
- Staff empowerment
- Facilitated training
In the above scenario, clinical data on the COVID-19 patients in the hospital is accumulated all through the COVID-19 floor to engender novel knowledge, deductions, and interventions to mitigate prospective VAP cases, and subsequently, enhance patient outcomes (Conrad & Sherrod, 2017). As the knowledge worker, nurse leader was furnished with the necessary proficiencies to harness the power of informatics tools and quickly decode patient findings and information to knowledge that informed the designing and implementation of the ventilator bundle Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker.
- References
- Conrad, S., & Sherrod, D. (2017). Nurse managers as knowledge workers. Nursing Management, 42(2), 47–48. 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000393010.34127.44%5Cnhttp://ezproxy.stir.ac.uk/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=58769231&site=eds-live
- Jost, S. G. (2016). Nurses as knowledge work agents: Measuring the impact of a clinical decision support system on nurses’ perceptions of their practice and the work environment. [University of Pennsylvania]. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=jlh&AN=123296061&site=ehost-live&scope=site
- Matney, S. A., Maddox, L. J., & Staggers, N. (2016). Nurses as knowledge workers: Is there evidence of knowledge in patient handoffs? Western Journal of Nursing Research, 36(2), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945913497111 Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker
- Sweeney, J. (2017). Healthcare informatics. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(1). https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=f877a8c6-6161-44ed-896e-6ed20c809d34%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=128848047&db=rzh Assignment: The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker