NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1: Nursing Informatics and Clinical Decision Support: Driving Smarter, Safer Patient Care
The Power of CDSS in Modern Healthcare
Clinical decision support systems, or CDSS, are a necessary element of the rapidly evolving healthcare industry that will lead to the enhancement of patient outcomes and safety. These processes will increase the diagnostic capability of such systems, treatment planning, and evidence-based clinical decision-making (Laraichi et al., 2024).
However, nurse informatics experts (NIs), who bridge the gap between clinicians and technology, are essential to a successful CDSS integration strategy. As stated in NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1, they help to lower clinical errors, deliver medication alerts on schedule, and guarantee that system designs satisfy the demands of both the patient and the provider.
What Nursing Informatics Brings to the Table
Nursing informatics is about enhancing care through the application of information technology and nursing science. In NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1, it is emphasized that only the informaticists of the nursing profession have this combination of both a technological and computational background.
Additionally, they possess cross-functional abilities, such as extensive IT and health expertise, which allow them to serve as intermediaries between technology teams and frontline caregivers (Nashwan et al., 2025).
They are expected to:
- Oversee the CDSS’s installation,
- Train staff members to use the tools, and
- Engineer data-driven decision-making.
- Preserving clinically relevant and user-friendly systems
Real-World Examples: Leading Hospitals in Action
The examples of advantages of incorporating nursing informatics into routine care are demonstrated by a few prominent healthcare facilities.
- Mayo Clinic is using CDSS in patients with Acute Kidney Injury, where the risk factors are predicted, and it generates evidence-based and customized recommendations.
- Cleveland Clinic manages its nursing informatics in a way that enhances Electronic Health Records (EHR), increasing the utility of that information in need of work and making it easier to transfer (Mayo Clinic, 2024).
As emphasized in the nursing health care plan, nurse informaticists are there to ensure that these tools are integrated and simple to use, complement care techniques, and improve care outcomes.
Collaboration: Where Nurses and Technology Meet
According to NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1, nurse informaticists play a crucial role in facilitating communication between technology designers and healthcare providers. According to nursing health care, they collaborate with doctors, nurses, and IT specialists to design systems that help them become clinically and technologically viable (Laraichi et al., 2024). The skills provided by them duly enable them to:
- Integrate technology into the changing landscape of patient care.
- Transfer technology to the evolving face of patient care.
Training and Change Management
Training is one aspect of an NI’s job. As stated in NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1, they provide nurses and clinicians with effective training on how to utilize their CDSSs, guaranteeing that staff may obtain real-time patient data and apply the usage with control. According to the American Nurses Association (2024), well-designed training raises staff competency levels, which makes it easier for improvements to be adopted and improves patient safety. Nursing informatics programs emphasize that when nurses are involved in the planning and implementation of the CDSS, workflows are more efficient and patient outcomes are better. Because of their own expertise, they ensure that the tools are grounded in real-life analysis and that operating expenses stay minimal.
Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions
In terms of CDSS, nurse informaticists provide numerous advantages to the healthcare organization:
- Standardized care delivery;
- Enhanced patient safety; and
- Evidence-based, real-time decision-making
According to Lewkowicz et al. (2020), the deployment of CDSS can save up to $300,000 USD annually by preventing needless vitamin D tests. According to the nursing health care plan, NIs aid in maintaining data integrity, adhering to HIPAA regulations, and putting high-security features like multifactor authentication and encryption into practice in addition to saving money (Shojaei et al., 2024).
There are also issues, like resistance to implementing new technology and worries about data protection, as Nursing Informatics in Health Care emphasizes. In order to address it,
- Constant system audits
- Clear change management plans
- On-question marks
- Stringent access controls
Their collaboration with technical teams ensures that they are always user-friendly and responsive to front-line demands.
Why Nurse Informaticists Are Essential
As emphasized in NURS FPX 4045 Assessment 1, the Nurse Informaticists’ recommendations are more beneficial for implementing CDSS in any healthcare system. Their advancement increases patient security, ensures data privacy, and improves diagnostic accuracy. As innovators, they can assist companies in:
- Automating processes
- Making data-driven, high-quality decisions
- Fostering an interdisciplinary culture of collaboration
If there’s one thing to say about NIs, it’s that they do more than just embrace new technology; they use it to enable patient care, always keeping the greatest potential outcome in mind.
Key Takeaways Table
|
References
American Nurses Association. (2024). What is nursing informatics, and why is it so important? https://www.nursingworld.org/content-hub/resources/nursing-resources/nursing-informatics/
Cleveland Clinic. (2024). Nursing informatics.
https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/nursing/nursing-informatics
Laraichi, O., Daim, T., Alzahrani, S., Hogaboam, L., Bolatan, G. I., & Moughari, M. M. (2024). Technology readiness assessment: Case of clinical decision support systems in healthcare. Technology in Society, 79, 102736.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102736
Lewkowicz, D., Wohlbrandt, A., & Boettinger, E. (2020). Economic impact of clinical decision support interventions based on electronic health records. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 871.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05688-3
Lopez, K. D., Langford, L. H., Kennedy, R., McCormick, K., Delaney, C. W., Alexander, G., Englebright, J., Carroll, W. M., & Monsen, K. A. (2023). Future advancement of health care through standardized nursing terminologies: Reflections from a Friends of the National Library of Medicine workshop honoring Virginia K. Saba. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 30(11), 1878–1884. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocad156
Mayo Clinic. (2024). Clinical decision support systems for personalized management of patients with acute kidney injury.https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/pulmonary-medicine/news/clinical-decision-support-systems-for-personalized-management-of-patients-with-acute-kidney-injury/mac-205 24049
Shojaei, P., Gjorgievska, V. E., & Chow, Y.-W. (2024). Security and privacy of technologies in health information systems: A systematic literature review. Computers, 13(2), 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13020041
Zhai, Y., Yu, Z., Zhang, Q., Qin, W., Yang, C., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Transition to a new nursing information system embedded with clinical decision support: A mixed-method study using the HOT-fit framework. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 22(1), 310. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02041-y





