Big Data Risks and Rewards

Big Data Risks and Rewards

Discussion: Big Data Risks and Rewards

When you wake in the morning, you may reach for your cell phone to reply to a few text or email messages that you missed overnight. On your drive to work, you may stop to refuel your car. Upon your arrival, you might swipe a key card at the door to gain entrance to the facility. And before finally reaching your workstation, you may stop by the cafeteria to purchase a coffee.

From the moment you wake, you are in fact a data-generation machine. Each use of your phone, every transaction you make using a debit or credit card, even your entrance to your place of work, creates data. It begs the question: How much data do you generate each day? Many studies have been conducted on this, and the numbers are staggering: Estimates suggest that nearly 1 million bytes of data are generated every second for every person on earth.

As the volume of data increases, information professionals have looked for ways to use big data—large, complex sets of data that require specialized approaches to use effectively. Big data has the potential for significant rewards—and significant risks—to healthcare. In this Discussion, you will consider these risks and rewards.

To Prepare:

· Review the Resources and reflect on the web article Big Data Means Big Potential, Challenges for Nurse Execs.

· Reflect on your own experience with complex health information access and management and consider potential challenges and risks you may have experienced or observed.

Post a description of at least one potential benefit of using big data as part of a clinical system and explain why. Then, describe at least one potential challenge or risk of using big data as part of a clinical system and explain why. Propose at least one strategy you have experienced, observed, or researched that may effectively mitigate the challenges or risks of using big data you described. Be specific and provide examples.

 

Assignment: The Impact of Standardized Nursing Terminology

Among the Resources in this module is the Rutherford (2008) article Standardized Nursing Language: What Does It Mean for Nursing Practice? In this article, the author recounts a visit to a local hospital to view the recent implementation of a new coding system.

During the visit, one of the nurses commented to her, “We document our care using standardized nursing languages but we don’t fully understand why we do” (Rutherford, 2008, para. 1).

How would you respond to a comment such as this one?

To Prepare:

· Review the concepts of informatics as presented in the Resources, particularly Rutherford, M. (2008) Standardized Nursing Language: What Does It Mean for Nursing Practice?

· Reflect on the role of a nurse leader as a knowledge worker.

· Consider how knowledge may be informed by data that is collected/accessed.

The Assignment:

In a 2- to 3-page paper, address the following:

· Explain how you would inform this nurse (and others) of the importance of standardized nursing terminologies.

· Describe the benefits and challenges of implementing standardized nursing terminologies in nursing practice. Be specific and provide examples.

· Be sure to support your paper with peer-reviewed research on standardized nursing terminologies that you consulted from the Walden Library.