Question 2

2. How does nursing data quality relate to decision support?
I readily recognize that many barriers exist which may limit nurses’ ability to consistently implement knowledge from evidence based practice in the actual setting. Lack of technology and related support systems, lack of administration support, lack of co-worker knowledge and support, knowledge gaps among co workers as a result inconsistencies of educational background and specializations, resistance to technology and subsequent adoption into practice and inaccurate data entry. Therefore to promote data quality it is important to recognize the potential barriers and address each of them to reduce potential negative impact. Employee education specific to data entry and retrieval should be continually provided. Conducting a system check and establishing fail safes to ensure accurate and timely data input is maintained is important. Developing and maintaining data verification practices assists in ensuring data accuracy. The skill of the employees along with the actual data usage is important to consider when determining an organization’s decision support system. Off-the-shelf software may be appropriate for some organizations, however due to the various sub specialties in healthcare , homegrown software often needs to be developed completely or adapted to scalable off-the-shelf versions. Therefore depending on the skill level and needs of the organization will direct the use of particular decision support systems. Nursing data quality and decision support are interdependent on one another in order to achieve the most benefit which results in quality care. An efficient, user friendly, decision support system will complement the provision of quality care and vice versa as with the required input of quality data into the system.