Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century – Embracing a Digital World, 3rd Edition
Book 4: Nursing in an Integrated Digital World that Supports People, Systems, and the Planet
2022 Productivity Press: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003281047
Chapter 4
Authors: Whende M. Carroll, Joyce Sensmeier
This chapter provides an overview of how a unique nurse identifier can be used to measure and quantify the impact of nursing care on health outcomes. A unique identifier can offer visibility to demonstrate the value of nursing’s role in contributing to safe, effective health practices. The Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Policy and Advocacy Workgroup recommends using the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) identifier (ID) as the unique nurse identifier for all nurses and a groundswell of support is being realized (Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Initiative 2020). Advocacy and policy efforts are underway, including proof-of-concept pilot projects that highlight use cases of the early stages of operationalizing its use in clinical practice and nursing operations. Using the unique nurse identifier will enable measurement of quality patient and nurse outcomes for actionable insights. Nurse informaticists can lead transformational clinical and operational processes to embed the unique nurse identifier into new technologies and systems to demonstrate value-based care.