Group 4

Nursing Informatics in South America

I. Overview
Nursing informatics in South American countries has been based more on activities of individuals than
on a policy established by governments. Each country has varied levels of development and deployment
of technological resources; however, the use of technology has been visible tendency in health and
nursing education, practice, research, and administration. The growth of information technology in Latin
America and the Caribbean has been consistently the world’s highest for 20 years.

Computers are considered an important tool to help nurses take care of their patients and to organize
nursing service and nursing education. Internet and wireless communication are also a trend in this field.
Health institutes and universities are finding ways to introduce new resource in order to facilitate the
process of patients care and promote quality care and safety.

Patient data that are also used for nursing administration are integrated in the systems or nurses have
to collect and analyze nursing data separately. Congresses, conferences, workshops, education, and
training programs are being organized in the countries to share experiences and information in nursing
informatics searching for solutions that could enhance the delivery of patient care.

II. History
Nursing has been identified around the world as an emerging profession for over a 100
year. Nurses were considered as the primary users of technology in healthcare (Safran, Slack, and Bleich
1989) Historically nurses are used to facing challenges, adapting new tools in to the practice to improve
their performance. Technology -can represent a unique instrument to help nurses to face further
challenges and discover how to use its resources to involve and maybe to design their way taking care of
the people (Marin,1996).

Information is the key element for decision making process in the healthcare area. the more specific
information in place to support clinical decisions, the better care can be delivered to the
patient. Technology plays an important role in facilitating access to the information because for the
information to be useful and meaningful, it has to be timely. The initial motivation to develop computer
systems in the healthcare area was driven by financial and administrative concerns. The hospital sector
can be considered the area better served by information systems. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia,
Chile, and Paraguay have clinical information systems in hospitals or health institutes.
There is a clear trend in the direction of the computerization of health records, people are able to
connect to the internet that is a telecommunication resource with no parallel to fast exchange data and
information. Latin America and the Caribbean region rank third in information technology expenditure.
A study performed by the PAN America Health Organization/ World Health Organization information,
computer and social infrastructure is evolving rapidly.

III. Statistics

IV. Trends
The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges the fact that all countries at all levels of
development are faced with the problem of generating, analyzing, summarizing, reporting and
communicating health information.

While the trend in most advanced countries is in the direction of electronic record keeping, most health
institutions in Africa continue to adhere to a manual health records keeping systems. Studies conducted
on the manual record system reveals that it is not a satisfactory way of keeping medical records. It has
been found that patients’ records were often misfiled, misplaced or lost.

Other challenges with the manual records system as noted by the WHO include the failure to retrieve
the relevant medical record information; physicians’ failure to locate required information due to
misinterpretation of codes, terms and format; illegibility of handwritten requests; failure to update
records promptly; complaints from frustrated doctors; lost/missing records, and inability to access
information on specialized media.

Because one of the aims of a health care information system is to provide effective patient care, the
management of medical records is crucial in the delivery of health services. Both Hippocrates and
Florence Nightingale recognized this fact in their days. Nightingale, for example, lamented on the
absence of reliable medical information on the causes of death in the Crimean War and its impact on
proper diagnosis.

Society has come far since the days of Hippocrates and Nightingale. Today, the impact of the
information revolution has affected all segments of society. This has led to the emergence of a division
in medical record keeping, medical informatics, the science that deals with information management in
the health care sector.

V. Conclusion
Nursing profession is becoming important in the past 100 years. Nurses should be the primary users of
technology. The high-end technology in big countries like America is very helpful and hasten their work.
Their focus is about storing information using electronic record keeping, so it will give legible records, so
there won’t be a misleading information about the patient and the files are easier to find also for the
patients record not to be misplaced, lost or misfiled. The impact of informatics is highly effective in big
countries like America.
Quiz

1. one of the aims of a health care information system is to provide effective patient care, the
management of medical records is crucial in the delivery of health services. TRUE

2.The growth of information technology in Latin America and the Caribbean has been consistently the
world’s highest for 10 years. FALSE

3.Informatics plays an important role in facilitating access to the information because for the
information to be useful and meaningful, it has to be timely. FALSE

4.Information is the key element for decision making process in the healthcare area. the more specific
information in place to support clinical decisions, the better care can be delivered to the patient. TRUE

5.Patients chart are considered an important tool to help nurses take care of their patients and to
organize nursing service and nursing education. False

6.The hospital sectors acknowledges the fact that all countries at all levels of development are faced
with the problem of generating, analyzing, summarizing, reporting and communicating health
information. False

7.Health institutes and universities are not finding ways to introduce new resource in order to facilitate
the process of patients care and promote quality care and safety. False

8.Technology -can represent a unique instrument to help nurses to face further challenges and discover
how to use its resources to involve and maybe to design their way taking care of the people. True
9.It has been identified around the world as an emerging profession for over a 100 year.

A.Informatics

B.HealthCare Provider

C.Nursing

D.Health Sectors

10. It is the key element for decision making process in the healthcare area. the more specific
information in place to support clinical decisions, the better care can be delivered to the patient.

A.Internet

B.Information

C.Technology