Assignment Task:
Review: Technology Needs Assessment By Tawana Barham
Conduct a health information technology needs assessment. Then, in a 4-5 page executive summary, present your findings and recommendations regarding a new or upgraded telehealth technology for your organization or practice setting.
Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.
Nurse leaders play a key role in the decision-making processes associated with the purchase of a health information technology and any subsequent technology upgrades and improvements. A thorough and accurate needs assessment establishes a foundation for evaluating the overall value to an organization of the various technologies that can be used to support nursing and improve patient care.
The needs assessment you will conduct in your first assessment enables you to take a systematic approach to developing knowledge about a new or upgraded telehealth technology that would impact nursing practice. The needs assessment also identifies assessment work that may already have been completed and any gaps that still exist and must be addressed. The goals of completing the needs assessment are to:
1. Identify gaps in practice that must be addressed to improve patient care.
2. Understand the nature and scope of needed changes and identify associated opportunities and challenges.
3. Enable a thoughtful and systematic approach to change implementation and management.
This assessment provides an opportunity for you to work through the needs assessment process and present your findings in a way that will help you gain the support of executive leaders
Note: Your needs assessment will provide the basis for the remaining assessments in this course.
Telehealth technology can be representative of many different scenarios. For example, the technology could be designed to assist nurses with providing care, such as chronic disease management, to rural patients. It could also be designed to enable physicians to access enhanced care strategies from other providers in another part of the United States, or internationally. Such care strategies might include radiology readings or assistance in an operating room with a new procedure.
For this assessment and all remaining assessments, choose any new or upgraded telehealth technology that you would like to see implemented in your organization or practice setting. Be creative and imagine what it would be like to have any telehealth resources that would benefit your community. Then, imagine that executive leaders in your organization or practice setting are considering the purchase of those resources to improve the quality of care provided to patients and enable medical and nursing staff to extend coverage for patients in the region.
Finally, as a nurse leader with responsibilities in upper management, imagine that you have been asked to determine whether this purchase will adequately address key issues in patient care and lead to improved outcomes.
To prepare for the assessment, you are encouraged to reflect on performance gaps in your organization, what outcomes are measured, and how telehealth technologies can help to improve outcomes. Also, consider how you would effectively communicate the need for a new or upgraded technology to executive leaders in a way that will help you obtain their support.