Policies and Ethical Issues in Information Technology

     This has been an informative module for me.  One thing I learned, was that I need to become better at paraphrasing and citing information.  I enjoyed the podcast "Plagiarism".  The article we read about plagiarism helped me to realize that the main reason I don't always cite when I should, is because I am not proficient at APA formatting.  I find it difficult to figure out how to cite internet pages, lectures and power-point presentations.  The APA manual does not give examples that I find helpful.  I am getting better in the use of Endnote in helping me format my citations.

     The other thing I learned from this module, is the complexity of electronic medical records.  I have wondered why this process has taken so long and now I understand.  Chapter fourteen in our text, outlined regulations and legislation that I can barely comprehend.  HIPPA, turns out to be far more complicated than I realized.  I thought that I knew all about HIPPA, until now.  This process is very expensive but when it is achieved it will be a valuable tool for providers to improve the quality of care.

     Lastly, I learned to be a better consumer in relation to technology.  I found the laptop security tips very helpful.  I used to think I was so smart when I would borrow internet from unknown places.  Now I realize that it is not a good idea.      

Decision Support for Care Delivery

     This has been a hard unit for me to complete.  I really enjoyed the Daniel Kahneman lecture on Intuition.  The concept of the "illusion of validity" made me think long and hard about how I make decisions.  I am not sure that I should admit this, but I have always given intuition greater merit than it deserves.  I sometimes go with my "gut" feeling.  I am often looking for that "fast and easy" answer.  I am so grateful to be in school at this time when such great resources are available to guide my decision making process.  I realize that I cannot rely on these systems to override my expertise, but I can use them to make  safer and more consistent evaluations.  
     I have never had the opportunity to work with any of the systems described in this unit, but I look forward to learning more about them.

Teaching with Technology

      As an Early Intervention Nurse, I am teaching parents all the time.  The Early Intervention program I work for is located in the "Center for Person's with Disabilities" at Utah State University.  This association with USU requires our program to train students from many areas of the University.  I love the interaction I have with not just nursing students, but psychology, special education, speech pathology and education students.  My interaction with students is usually one-on-one and provides me the chance to mentor as well as teach.  I know that as a Family Nurse Practitioner, I will continue to teach on a regular basis.  I can not think of any nursing/health care provider that is not a teacher.  I can think of some that are not effective teachers, but it is required of them to teach.


Here is a link to the Wiki site Mobile Devices created for N6004
http://editthis.info/nurs_6004_mobile_devices/Main_Page

Information Retrieval

     This assignment brought back terrible memories from my evidence-based practice class.  I think I suffer from PTEBPC (Post traumatic evidence-based practice class).   I am determined to get the needed treatment and therapy to become successful at information retrieval.

     For Module 3, I used PubMed, CINAHL, National Guideline Clearinghouse, Google (Scholar) and Google to search for speech development in infants and preschoolers with otitis media.  
     I am very inefficient and spent many hours not really getting the information I was looking for.  I decided to really stick with PubMed because I have never gotten the hang of it.  I did not like the results I got from PubMed when searching from within Endnote (I did not realize until now that the search function is different).  I got better results when I searched PubMed and then imported the citations into Endnote.  I spent a good amount of time trying to find the MESH terms of my problem.  These terms were very helpful in getting good results when applied as a major topic.  The problem I had was that I could get results of about 6200 and then when I refined my search just a little, I would get only 9 articles.  I am not sure if that is good or bad.  I really liked the information from National Guideline Clearinghouse, it was easy to navigate using categories and I loved being able to compare more than one guideline side by side.  I am very surprised at the good information I obtained from Google Scholar.  Most information was old and often the links to the articles did not work, but surprisingly I found access to 3 of the articles I had found through PubMed.  My Google search was helpful because they had beautiful color photos of eardrums with varied degrees of otitis media compared to normal tympanic membranes.  
     I have learned many new things from this experience and hope to become more comfortable with this technology.  Depending on my needs, I will use all of the above indexes and search engines in the future.  

Information Systems at my Workplace

 This has nothing to do with informatics other than I posted it.  This is my cute granddaughter Emorie, fondly called "Emmy" by her family.

Database for Early Intervention 

I work for a Early Intervention program in Utah.  The state has developed a data base system to track compliance areas.  I said in my previous post that this was just recently implemented, but when I checked into the details I realized this process has been in the works since 2006.  It still feels like it is new to me.  You would think that in 4 years all the bugs would be worked out.  The thing about information systems is that they are constantly being re-evaluated and changed.  I recently have started to consider the things that the system could do for "Nursing" in Early Intervention.  I am now starting to communicate with the state office about pertinent data that could be gathered and used to improve the way we can provide services to children and families.  One example is that the State currently gathers diagnosis information for children who automatically qualify for Early Intervention.  I think we should collect diagnosis on all children to see if there are diagnosis' that should be added to our list.  It would also give a better picture of the types of children we serve.

Natalie Allen Introduction

Allen Family Christmas 2009

My name is Natalie Allen.  I have been married for 26 years to a wonderful man.  We have 5 children, 1 son-in-law and 2 grandchildren.  I have been a nurse for over 23 years and have returned to school in the distance DNP/FNP program at the University of Utah.  I am in my 3rd semester and am looking forward to this new blogging experience.  I currently work for the Early Intervention program "Up to Three" at Utah State University.  Our program has recently implemented a data entry system to track home visits and compliance requirements for the state.  It has been hard using the new program and I am always complaining about how it is not helpful.  I do believe that in the long run it will provide valuable information that will make us better at providing the services needed by children with disabilities and their famillies.