Preparing for disasters, terrorist threats, or communicable disease outbreaks is an important part of public health nursing.

 
Share an overview of a natural or human-made disaster that has occurred in your area in the last 20 years. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 New York city
   

     
Include a URL and reference to the event. This may be a news article.

 
Describe how your community was impacted.

 
Describe lessons learned and changes made to preparedness.

Responding to two classmates

1) My signature assignment topic that I have chosen is how computer hackers are able to hack into computers that healthcare professionals use to diagnose and treat patients daily. I am not sure what my title will be yet I am still working on it and thinking about it. I chose  this topic because I think this very important and when I first learned about this it was pretty disturbing to me. To think that someone would interfere with possible treatment by manipulating a computer system is somewhat scary to think about.  Everyday in healthcare, computers are used to make decisions, store patients personally information, determine results and outcomes and the list is endless. So the use of the computer and computer systems are largely used in health care regardless of what kind of healthcare setting it is.   I usually choose google scholar to look up resources. So far I have not had any trouble finding articles that are related to my signature assignment.   I will say that a lot of the articles are not related to healthcare. So its just a matter of finding a relevant article that fits my assignment. A article that has enough information for me to use and to quote from.  There are many other websites that offer peer reviewed sources. To name a few of them are DOAJ, PubMed, Scienceopen, and Academic search. Every since I started with Aspen University I have used google scholar.  One article stated that “beginning in 2016, healthcare organizations in the United States have been targeted for malware attacks, a specific type of cyberattack.” (Branch, Eller, Bias, McCawley, Meyers, 2018).  Another article stated that the United States is not prepared to deal with an attack of this kind. I am hoping that the United States and any other country have expanded their technology in finding ways tp combat this problem of computer hackers. 

2)   

I am having more of a problem narrowing down my choices for sources actually more than anything. My topic is Electronic Health Records (EHRs), which is a very broad topic as EHRs encompasses many fields such as medical charting, medication administration, medical records, imaging test, real time lab test results, and Doctor’s notes. Researching and finding articles that give me the information I am looking for has always been one of my weaker points and is what consumes most of my time when it comes to writing. So far in my research process, the wording in the articles is not so difficult to comprehend compared to the textbook. The textbook for me is hard to understand and comprehend for some reason and requires me to read most sections multiple times before understanding. However, once I comprehend the information in the textbook, I find it very helpful and is usually my main source of information. I have been using the databases provided by Aspen University and Google Scholar.

“Reduce Errors with an EMR: It’s the most efficient way to keep records and improve patient care” is the first peer reviewed journal I have located. This journal advocates for using the EHRs to improve patient care by reducing errors because EHRs allow safeguards to be put into place that prevent errors. For example, medication administration errors. If a medication that the patient is allergic to is scanned before being given, a safeguard notification will pop up warning the nurse about the allergy.

“I.V. integration helps clinicians reduce medication errors” is the second academic journal I found in which EHRs have safeguard for high alert medications that provide safeguards for unfamiliar dosages and weight based dosage for pediatric patients. Basically, this means it stops the nurse from accidentally overdosing if a dose is entered into the computer that seems suspicious.

            These are just a few examples of the advantages of EHRs and the technology capabilities that they possess. I am still looking for more resources but so far these have stuck out to me most. Many people do not like how time consuming EHRs and computer charting can be, but if the patient and nurse safety are the goals, then EHRs are far more effective than paper charting. With the right prioritization and time management, there is a way to make time for patient care and computer charting.

References

Hultman, J. (2012). Reduce Errors with an EMR: It’s the most efficient way to keep records and improve patient care. Podiatry Management, 31(3), 67–69. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c8h&AN=108172173&site=ehost-live

Rinda, J. (2012). I.V. integration helps clinicians reduce medication errors. Health Management Technology, 33(10), 12–13. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c8h&AN=104424094&site=ehost-live