Module 6

One definite advantage of an on-line class is the asynchronous nature of it. I did like being able to complete the modules on my own time, but I also liked the fact that there were periodic deadlines. That is helpful in not waiting until the last minute to do everything. I am less of a procrastinator now than when I was an undergrad, but I still appreciated the periodic deadlines.

The thing I dislike the most is the feeling of isolation I felt in this class. I feel I had virtually no interaction with class members and very little interaction with the faculty. For example, I only had one comment on my entire blog. I did not like the blog method of communication. I prefer the discussion board method for class discussion and participation. I tend to have a social personality and the lack of interaction with the class leaves me feeling very unfulfilled. I have taken other online classes before and not felt so isolated.

I learned a lot about ethics and decision support systems. I really enjoyed learning about different decision support systems. I had never thought of ethics as being a component of informatics, and I had never heard of decision support systems before taking this class.

The thing I would do differently about this class is I would get rid of the blogs. I really see no point to having people create their own blogs. WebCT provides a very adequate venue for class discussions and participation. I feel the blogs were not utilized in the way they were perhaps intended. I would split the class into small groups (6-10 people) and have those be the discussion groups for the blog entry topics. Maybe each instructor could lead a different group. That way, there would be a lot more interaction between students and even the instructors. This interaction would decrease the sense of isolation.

If the blog assignment and usage will be carried into future semesters, I would recommend setting a due date for creating the blogs to be early in the semester, say within the first few weeks. The reason for this is because I tried to post every one's links on my blog site, but there were so many, and people kept trickling in even 6 weeks into the semester, I couldn't keep up. It would have been nice if everyone had created their blogs within the first few weeks so that we could all post each other's links on our blogs. Also, if the blogs are to stay, I would break the class into small groups and have them comment on each other's blogs, like small discussion groups. It was way too overwhelming to try to keep up with every one's blogs, so much so, that I eventually quit trying.

All in all, I feel I learned a lot in this course. I have been on a very steep technologic learning curve since starting this program. I don't feel like I am an expert, by any means, but I do feel I know a lot more than I did.

Module 5

It seems we are bordering on the edge of sci-fi with some of these issues. And it also seems the availability of health information is a double-edged sword. I can definitely see how beneficial a national system, or even international as was brought up by Diane Rehm's guests on her show, would be. It would truly improve continuity of care and make a lot of things about patient care safer and more efficient, as in the knowing of allergies and current medications being taken. However, if we are to go to a national system, we will truly have to end the whole idea and usage of insurance. I honestly cannot see how peoples' sensitive information could be safe when it is exposed to so many systems, virtually globally. Even with HIPPA laws, I think people will find it harder and harder to get insurance because their health history, family history and possibly even genetic testing will follow them where ever they go.

I understand that there are people and organizations that are very concerned with this issue and constantly trying to fight to keep information secure, but I just think all the firewalls in the world will have a tough time protecting all of that exposed information, especially if it goes global. I really don't consider myself to be paranoid, and maybe my skepticism comes from my ignorance of technological advances, but I just think we can't see all the negative ramifications of creating a national healthcare information system.

As I was reading Hebda and Czar about the issues of information ownership, it seemed silly to me that that was even an issue. To me, it seems the client should be the owner of their own information. As I read on, I really liked the idea of a smart-card that holds all of a person's health information on it and could simply be scanned at any health care facility. That way healthcare personnel can have access to the information they need, but the facility doesn't have to store it. This way, information is truly given on a need-to-know basis. For example, my children each have an immunization card that has handwritten information on it. So why can't we take this one step further and make it digital? It could even be something as easy as a thumb drive. Starting from when you are born, a health information log is started, and whenever you go to a healthcare provider, they scan your information in order to treat you as safely and thoroughly as possible, and then any changes made can be downoaded to the card or drive, or whatever.

It seemed to me the two main issues shared by our module readings and the AHRQ website were patient safety and information sharing. The patient safety issues seem to center around medications and physician orders. We use barcoding to administer patient medications at the hospital where I work, and I quite like it. We don't, however, use a computerized provider order entry, and I wish we did. I can't think of any disasters off the top of my head that involved the misinterpretation of orders, but digitizing orders seems so much safer and more consistent.

Information sharing is a huge issue where I work. I know they do HIPPA training every year and take it very seriously. We are encouraged to do things that are mentioned in our readings such as not share passwords, log out after we are done charting and never download anything. However, I can relate to one of the issues brought up by Hebda and Czar, and that is the frequent changing of passwords and that every system has a different password. I realize it is necessary for increased security, but it is logistically difficult. I counted in my head, and I use 7 different systems that all require different passwords where I work. I have to write them down on a little cheat sheet that's taped to my badge. I don't think they are easily accessible, but I'm sure it's not ideal. But there's no way that I can remember all of my passwords, especially since they are all different and require changing at different times.

I'm not sure if our hospital privacy officer is a nurse, but the readings opened my eyes to another job possibility for nurses informaticists. A hospital would be very smart to hire an ADRN nurse informaticist because they have the nursing and technology backgrounds necessary for such a job.

Module 4, Question 2

Decision support is only as good as the data quality on which it based. As Hebda and Czar mention, from data, comes the formation of knowledge. It is extremely important to have high quailty data in order to have a sound knowledge. And in order to make good decisions, it is important to have sound knowledge. As clinicians, we are all relying on the quality of the data within the CDSS's to make good decisions. And our patients are relying on this as well. I look at decision support systems as a great way to help educate patients, and it's important to me to be giving them current and correct information.

Module 4, Question 1

I remember when I was in nursing school, the further I got into the program, the more I realized how much more there was to learn and how little I really knew. The readings helped bring up that memory for me. I think this attitude is what Thompson was referring to in discussing over-confidence and how to combat it. In this regard, and in many others, the readings greatly influenced my perception of my own clinical decision making. Where I work, the nurses are extremely independent in their decision making. And since I have been at that same place since I graduated from nursing school, it is the only way I know. It is probably true that after almost 12 years of experience in one place, that I have gotten a little "cocky" in my clinical confidence and need to re-adopt my attitude from when I was in nursing school. Don't get me wrong, I think there's a lot to be said for years of experience, but we need to realize that we can't solely depend on that when it comes to our decision making.

I can also see some of Kahneman's points in my own practice. Again, since I have been in the same place, with basically the same patient population for a long time, I have actually been quite sheltered. There are a lot of heuristics that I use, and so far, (knock on wood), I have not seen any "bad outcomes" as a result of these, but I realize now that I need to be aware of my own perceptions when I make judgements, especially in circumstances that I have never been in before.

I hate to say it, but I think heuristics is a fancy way of saying "human laziness." We get content and complacent in our own little worlds and don't make the extra effort to research and think things through all the time. Sometimes, we do things because it's the way we've always done them, or it's the only way we know how. Being back in school has really helped revitalize my way of thinking, and this module is a perfect example of that. I think heuristics are always going to be present, but I think the biggest way to combat them is to even be aware of them.

I recently got into a heated discussion with a doctor about a decision he made that I did not agree with. Granted, the final call was not mine to make, but I went home and researched the situation, and was pleased to find good evidence in support of my opinion of the situation. I think this would have been a perfect example of how a doctor (and patient) would have benefited from some evidence based research, and not relied on "the way he had always done things."

Module 3

According to the Multiple Intelligences Test, my greatest strengths were musical, spatial/visual, logical/math, and intrapersonal, in descending order. My greatest strength, by far is musical. But I don't think of myself as having extraordinary musical talent, I just think of myself as an auditory learner. My husband, in fact, has often commented on my talent of picking out actors' and actresses' voices in commercials without seeing who they are. I have really benefited from instructors that have used you-tube and other movie-like clips in my classes. That way, I can listen to information. I found a clip on you-tube that also fits into my current area of practice (maternity nursing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gU_V7zfrk . Even though the song might seem silly, it actually has a lot of good, factual information in it. Pretty clever, I thought. The other thing I thought about regarding music, was my brother had a friend that was trying to create songs about anatomy and putting them on cd's. I don't know if he ever succeeded, but I thought it was a great idea. How many of us have words to songs memorized? Imagine how easy it would be to memorize the components of the digestive tract, say, if it were to a familiar tune.

My other strengths were spatial/visual and logical/math. The spatial/visual also fits into my preference for video clips. I'm not only getting auditory stimulation, but also visual. Visual images tend to stick in my mind. Due to the logical/math in me, I've also liked games and puzzles my entire life. My grandma brags about how I could put jigsaw puzzles together at age two. I always loved learning in elementary school, because everything was always a game. I taught a class this last week and I included a crossword puzzle of review terms in my handouts. I don't know if this would necessarily be included in the logical department, and I don't know if other students will appreciate it, but as a student, I know I would appreciate a list of review terms that were made into a game.

Lastly, intrapersonal came in at 30 and interpersonal came in at 29. I attribute this to my feeling, emotional nature, according to the Myers-Briggs test. I am pretty aware of how I'm feeling and I realize I can be overly-sensitive to criticism (even constructive). I tend to do better with instructors that aren't overly critical and that come across as an actual person. The clip for this module showing the college students holding up signs was really effective for me because not only did it show interesting facts, but it also had an emotional aspect to it. I also enjoy the social aspect of learning. Online classes definitely have advantages, but I find myself feeling like I'm missing something without the face to face contact with the other students.

Module 2, Question 3

I think each index/search engine has it's place. The guideline index would definitely be most useful to practitioners. It is also a good index because others have done all the research for you to come up with the current guidelines. It is also very specific. When I put in my search terms in the guideline index, I only got 2 items, and they were very specific. The other two methods were not as specific.

As a future instructor, I think the electronic indexes will be very useful. Since I won't have patients sitting right in front of me, waiting for me to make decisions on their care, I won't necessarily need the fast, specific information that is provided with the guidelines index. I will however, need access to the guidelines to teach my students the latest in about them, but I will also use the other indexes as well. The Google search was almost silly. So many items come up with Google, it's overwhelming. The other problem with the Google search, is that the first citations to come up are not ususally "scholarly" items. They seem to be aimed at the lay public. I tended to find things like support groups as opposed to legitimate research items. However, to the lay person, this is probably a good research tool to simply find out general information in order to speak somewhat intelligently to their provider. We just have to teach our patients which are reliable sources to turn to. In a previous class, someone suggested only recommending websites that end in "edu" or "org." I think that is good advice.

Module 2, Question 2

This past week, I have been learning to use EndNote. It does have some cool features. First of all, you are basically creating your own database of only the things that interest you. It's like your own mini PubMed that only contains the things you want. Secondly, it allows you to create groups that you can sort your items into and organize them that way. I could make as many and as detailed groups as I wanted.

The software also allows you to search within the database, itself. You could search by topic or author, for example. And say you wanted to send an article by a particular author to a collegue, you would just search for it, retrieve it and then send it. That's assuming the citation you found has a full text article associated with it. EndNote also allows you to find which citations have full text available, which is also a nice feature.