THE NURSE LEADER AS KNOWLEDGE WORKER
According to the study that was done by Peter Drucker (2008), people are the company’s most valuable asset and that leader’s job is to nurture and promote creative problem-solving in all employees. Thus, in healthcare industry, nurse leaders are required to develop operative skills related to data gathering, analysis, and identifying clinical trends and patterns because they usually work in a complex health care setting which they should adapt with. Therefore, since nurse leaders have a great influence on the quality and efficiency of the care services that are given to the patients, they are required to champion electronic technology initiatives on their departments as well as develop methods that will impart excitement, education, and empowerment to other nurses (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). As a result, these will help nurses understand how to collect clinical data as well as identify forms for delivering more efficient and effective patient-care services that will assist in improving care outcomes. In this paper, we will discuss the role of a nurse leader as a knowledge worker and how knowledge can be informed by the data that is collected through developing a simple infographic.
Concept of a Knowledge Worker
Based on Peter Drucker definition, a knowledge worker is anyone who works for a living at the job of using knowledge. Usually, knowledge workers obtain, manipulate, interpret, and apply information in order to perform multidisciplinary, complex and unpredictable work. In most organisations, knowledge workers are grouped into various categories, based on the amount of time spent on individual tasks or on the type of information or skills possessed. For that reason, knowledge workers are expected to innovate frequently, routinely coming up with new and better ways of doing things since they know more about their daily work than their leaders.
Nursing Informatics
Nursing informatics can be defined as a field of nursing that integrates nursing, computer, and information science to uphold and create medical data and systems that will support nursing practice through analyzing trends, monitor any consistent errors, as well as implement new and more efficient systems towards improving patient care outcomes (Sweeney, 2017). Usually, nursing informatics experts combine their clinical nursing skills with their technical knowledge to create systems that can significantly improve patients care. Since many individuals in these roles have strong clinical nursing backgrounds, nursing informaticists can make sure that the tools and procedures being applied are user-friendly and practical for the rest of the staff.
Role of a Nurse Leader as a Knowledge Worker
Since patient care and advocacy is a priority for nurses, nurse leaders have many vital functions that go beyond bedside care (Nagle, Sermeus & Junger, 2017). Few of these roles include;
- Championing electronic technology initiatives on their areas of practice and develop methods that will help nurses understand how to collect clinical data as well as identify forms for delivering more efficient and effective patient-care services that will assist in improving care outcomes.
- Use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives.
- Supervise the integration of patient care, including the development of treatment plans, collecting and evaluating treatment results, and managing patients’ medical teams.
References
Drucker, P. F., Collins, J., Kotler, P., Kouzes, J., Rodin, J., Rangan, V. K., Hesselbein, F. (2008). The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About your Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Nagle, L., Sermeus, W., & Junger, A. (2017). Evolving role of the nursing informatics specialist. In J. Murphy, W. Goossen, & P. Weber (Eds.), Forecasting Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health (212–221). Clifton, VA: IMIA and IOS Press. Retrieved from https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_4A0FEA56B8CB.P001/REF
Sweeney, J. (2017). Healthcare informatics. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(1).