Discussion Response 2

Respond in 100-150 words

system development life cycle (SDLC) involves a series of specific steps to ensure that a computer system meets the intended needs and that it is the best possible program for the task. The life cycle originally had five steps. The steps later increased to six, with some sources adding a seventh step. These steps include system planning, system analysis, system design, implementation and deployment, system testing and integration, and system maintenance. Sometimes these steps are described as planning, analysis and requirements, design, development, integration and testing, implementation, and operations and management (Ungvarsky, 2016).

It is imperative to involve nurses in each stage of the system development life cycle when purchasing and implementing a new HIT system because nurses are the end users of any Healthcare Information System (HIS). Nurses form the largest number of healthcare workers and they provide direct care to the patient. With the position of nurses in health delivery, it may lead to failure in each stage of the systems development life cycle when purchasing and implementing a new HIT system without carrying along the nursing team in the organization. In Hsiao et al., (2011) study on “factors affecting acceptance of hospital information systems: a nursing perspective” it was stated that nursing personnel are the largest group of staff in a hospital and are the center of care delivery; thus, they play an important role in the adoption and evaluation of HISs. In clinical practice, nursing personnel play not only a key role in medical care but also as managers of patient health information. (Hsiao et al., 2011, pg. 150 & 158).

Nurses’ decisions about clinical technologies should be guided by two overarching goals:  enabling safe and efficient care and measuring nurses’ impact in keeping patients safe and promoting their health and recovery from illness. Clinicians must help drive the selection of clinical technologies. Donna Reck. Chief Nurse at Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, pointed out that “staff as well as managers must realize how important their role is so that nursing has a prominent, organized voice in technology selection.” She added that “nurses should take part in site visits to hospitals using the proposed technology and should be prepared to critique a system for what it can and cannot provide.” Today’s multidisciplinary technology assessment committees not only weigh the appropriateness and efficacy of the technologies but help analyze their cost benefits (Virginia Nurses Today, 2010, pg. 8).

For this discussion we would be analyzing the stages of system development life cycle (SDLC) involved during the purchasing and implementing of the Barcode scanning system in a mental hospital facility.

System Planning: During the planning stage, the hospital first decides whether there is a need for a barcode scanning system. Feasibility studies are carried out to investigate the benefit of the potential system and estimate the total output in time and resources to complete the project. The project team identifies the problem to be solved, looks at potential alternatives, and determines whether going forward with the system design is the best course of action (Ungvarsky, 2016).  It is therefore not logical to make a decision that will affect nurses directly without involving them in the decision making and planning stages, because nurses are the end users of the barcode scanning system. Nurses are in a better position to know the most pressing needs that will make care delivery more effective and efficient

System Analysis: Once the planning is concluded and decision made to adopt the barcode scanning system, the analysis step begins. This involves gathering information from organization leaders and stakeholders which are Nurses since they are the end users of the system. During this stage, the team also assigned responsibility to other team members for various phases of the project (Ungvarsky, 2016). The organization leader’s analysis the goals and requirement of barcode scanner. These goals include, user friendliness, graphical interface, clear instruction (Laureate Education (Producer), (2012g)). If nurses are not included in setting of these goals for implementing the barcode scanning system, the goal may not meet the major purpose of its use which is to reduce the rate of medication error to minimal or zero

System Design: After analyzing the project, the organization leader hands the project to the designing team. The team will consider the goals and the requirements and designer plan which includes the hard ware and the software of the barcode scanner (Laureate Education (Producer), (2012g)). If Nurses are not involved during system analysis stage, there is a high probability of collating incorrect information which would ultimately lead to a nonfunctional design that would not meet the expectation of the end user.

Development Stage: At this stage, the specific work on building the barcode scanning system begins. Programmers design languages and software, database experts build the system that will house them, and network engineers begin putting together the hardware system that will support it all. While all the steps of the process are important, the development step is where the system is physically built (Ungvarsky, 2016). Even though Nurses are not directly involved in this stage of the process, the information gathered from nurses is paramount in the developmental stage.

Integration and Testing: It is at this point that the Nurses begin to work with the barcode scanning system in a test environment while an expert in quality management monitors how well the system meets the objectives set out during planning. This step continues until all problems or shortcomings are identified and corrected. The background policies and procedures that ensure the integrity of the data is tested and reviewed to confirm that the new system complies with all company and government requirements (Ungvarsky, 2016). Hence, Nurses play a very vital role in this stage in testing, reporting anomalies and making recommendations where necessary.

Implementation: Once the barcode scanning system is complete, it is implemented. The hardware is installed, and the coding is put in place (Ungvarsky, 2016). When nurses are not involved in the previous SDLC stages of the barcode scanning system, there is tendency of them being reluctant to its implementation.

Operations and Maintenance: This is the final stages where the barcode scanning system is monitored for any developing issues and observations are made about any improvements that could be needed. Updates and repairs are done as necessary, and Nurses usually are surveyed to see if the new system meets their needs and expectations (Ungvarsky, 2016). Without involving Nurses at this stage, relevant feedback may not be obtained.

Nurses’ effective use of hospital information systems has the potential to produce positive changes in patient safety and quality of care. The trick is getting them fully engaged in the transformation to a robust health IT environment Nurses who already are overworked and sometimes computer novices may wonder when they’ll have time to learn new skills. They may feel that their jobs are in jeopardy Several Most Wired hospitals have confronted these issues. To ensure complete acceptance, nursing staffs should be included in all aspects of the transformation project. Karen Carroll, R.N., manager of clinical informatics. Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, says this involvement should include system selection, implementation, training, post-implementation management and maintenance. “We utilized both a nurse champion and nursing representatives on the IT team from the start,” Carroll says. Nurse champions are the key, according to Chief Medical Information Officer Brian Yeaman, M.D., Norman (Okla.) Regional Health System. “Having nurses help design clinical workflow and process changes is critical,” he says. There’s a price to pay for waiting too long to get nurses involved in the process, says Karen Hughart, R.N., director of systems supports services, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. “We learned the hard way that you engage the target user early in the design phase, testing and pilots, or you pay for it” she says.  (Page, 2011, pg.28).