Identify the baccalaureate nurse’s role in championing the use of information and technology to improve safety and patient outcomes Essay
The fourth requirement is about data quality at the point of entry. That makes it a bedside question, and it is the one an abstract answer cannot survive.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 25, 2026
Data quality is created at the keyboard, not in the system
The fourth requirement is the one worth building the deck around, because it locates the problem where nurses actually work. The quality of data in a database is decided at the moment of entry: an allergy recorded as a free-text note instead of in the allergy field will not fire an interaction alert; a weight entered in the wrong unit produces a dose calculated from it; a copied-forward assessment makes yesterday's findings look like today's; and a nurse who documents at the end of a shift produces timestamps that make an incident review unreadable. Each of those is a documentation behaviour with a downstream clinical consequence, and naming three of them concretely turns an abstract requirement into the strongest part of the presentation. Building the deck around three of those turns an abstract requirement into the strongest section in it, because each one is a behaviour a listener recognises from their own shift.
The championing question in requirement two also deserves a specific answer rather than a statement of enthusiasm. A baccalaureate nurse champions technology by being the person who reports that a form does not fit the work, who tests a change before it goes live, who teaches a colleague the workaround-free way to do something, and who sits on the committee that decides which build requests get prioritised. Those are named roles rather than attitudes. On decision-making examples, prefer ones where the technology changed a decision rather than recorded it: an early warning score that triggered a review, a decision support alert that stopped an interacting prescription, a trend line that showed deterioration before any single value was abnormal. Then keep the safety argument honest by acknowledging that the same systems produce alert fatigue and documentation burden, since a presentation that only praises technology reads as promotional.
Likely learning objectives
- Locate data quality at the point of entry rather than in the system.
- Name documentation behaviours with downstream clinical consequences.
- Describe championing as specific named roles.
- Choose examples where technology changed a decision.
Assignment instructions
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Information and technology skills are essential for all nurses to have, but especially for nurse informaticists. This assignment requires you to consider how information and technology connect to patient care outcomes and a safe care environment. 1) Explain why information and technology skills are essential for safe patient care. 2) Identify the baccalaureate nurse’s role in championing the use of information and technology to improve safety and patient outcomes. 3) Provide examples of how nurses use technology to make health care-related decisions. 4) Analyze relationship between the quality and integrity of data entered into a database and the resulting effect on the quality of patient care. Format your assignment as one of the following: 18- to 20-slide presentation w/detailed speaker notes Reference materials Resources Chapter one ?Hebda, T. L., Czar, P., & Hunter, K. (2018). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals, 6/e (6th ed.). Pearson Education.? 2. McGonigle, D., Hunter, K., Sipes, C., & Hebda, T. (2014). Why nurses need to understand nursing informatics: Everyday informatics. AORN Journal, 100(3), 324-327. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2014.06.012 3 Sensmeier, Joyce, MS, RN-BC & CPHIMS, FHIMSS. (2011). Transforming nursing practice through technology and informatics. Nursing Management, 42, 20-23. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000406572.04085.e8 4 Bowles, K. H., Dykes, P., & Demiris, G. (2015). The use of health information technology to improve care and outcomes for older adults. Research in Gerontological Nursing, 8(1), 5-10. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3928/19404921-20121222-01
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
What this assignment requires
- 01An 18-20 slide presentation with detailed speaker notes.
- 02An explanation of why information and technology skills are essential for safe patient care.
- 03The baccalaureate nurse's role in championing the use of information and technology to improve safety and outcomes.
- 04Examples of how nurses use technology to make health care related decisions.
- 05An analysis of the relationship between data quality and integrity and the resulting effect on quality of patient care.
- 06Reference materials as listed in the assignment.
Skills, role, decisions, and data integrity
Why these skills are safety skills
Connect information competence to specific safety outcomes.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Safety framing rather than efficiency.
Data quality at the point of entry
Give concrete entry failures and their downstream effects.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Specific behaviours with consequences.
Integrity over time
Cover copy-forward, timeliness and completeness.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Integrity distinguished from accuracy.
Championing as a role
Name reporting, testing, teaching and committee participation.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Roles rather than attitudes.
Technology changing decisions
Give examples where a system altered clinical action.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A changed decision, not a recorded one.
The costs
Acknowledge alert fatigue and documentation burden.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Balance that strengthens the argument.
Where the informatics evidence sits
Recommended databases
- PubMed Central
- NCBI Bookshelf
- AHRQ
- HealthIT.gov
Search sequence
- 1.Read on data quality methods in health information systems.
- 2.Search documentation practice and patient safety for the entry failures.
- 3.Look up decision support evidence for the decision examples.
- 4.Read the alert fatigue and burden literature for the balance section.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Chapter 16 Methods for Data Quality Studies - Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidence-based Approach - NCBI Bookshelf
NCBI Bookshelf, U.S. National Library of Medicine · 2017
Methods for data quality studies, for how data quality is defined and assessed.
Clinical Decision Support
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology · 2024
Clinical decision support, for examples where technology changes a decision.
The association between perceived electronic health record usability and professional burnout among US nurses
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 28(8), 1632-1641 · 2021
EHR usability and burnout, for the cost side of the argument.
Nursing Informatics: Decades of Contribution to Health Informatics
Healthcare Informatics Research · 2013
Nursing informatics' contribution, for the baccalaureate role.
Mind the Gap: A systematic review to identify usability and safety challenges and practices during electronic health record implementation
Applied Clinical Informatics · 2016
Usability and safety challenges, for documentation-related risk.
Before you submit
Common mistakes
- Answering the data quality requirement abstractly.
- Describing championing as being enthusiastic about technology.
- Giving examples where technology recorded rather than changed a decision.
- Omitting alert fatigue and documentation burden.
- Putting the argument on the slides instead of in the speaker notes.
Submission checklist
- Are at least three specific data entry failures named with consequences?
- Is championing described as named roles?
- Do the decision examples show a decision changing?
- Are the costs of these systems acknowledged?
- Are detailed speaker notes present?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read Brinevia's academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Maren Caldwell
MSN, RN, CNE
Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation
Maren is a registered nurse with over 15 years of clinical and educational experience in medical-surgical nursing. She writes on NCLEX preparation, patient care fundamentals, pharmacology and evidence-based practice.

Reviewed by
Dr. Tessa Redmond
DNP, RN, CNE
Evidence-based practice and clinical education
Tessa is a doctorally-prepared nurse educator. She reviews Brinevia content for clinical accuracy and alignment with current evidence-based guidelines.